07 Nov, 2010
Will they eat it: a disaster involving cauliflower and macaroni and cheese
Posted by andrea tomkins in: Recipes and Food
Let’s cut to the chase. I LOVED this recipe. The girls definitely did not. Gah.
And like an 11-year old who’s just had his water pistol confiscated, a certain husband said: “How could you do this to one of my favourite dishes?” He looked very sad indeed.
“Why did you put cauliflower in the macaroni mummy?” came the question (asked carefully lest I explode and mar the dining room floor).
“Well, I thought you’d all like it this way…!”
Lame, I know. But I thought that cheese would be the great equalizer here.
Here’s the thing I hate about cooking: I research, shop for, spend time and energy making a particular dish and when the family doesn’t eat it I sometimes feel like (a) yelling (b) pouring myself a giant glass of wine and bringing my plate into the other room and (c) eating ALONE IN FRONT OF THE TELEVISION. Ingrates.
I want my family to be healthy, to know what a good meal is, and to show the girls that home cooking is good. Is that so terrible?
I now understand how some parents make their kids sit at the table until their meal is finished because DANGNABBIT, I WORKED HARD TO MAKE THAT SO YOU ARE GOING TO WORK HARD AND CHOKE IT DOWN. (Not that I would ever do that of course.) :)
As I mentioned, this recipe is good. Very good! But then again I love my veggies. I accidentally made too much and gave half of it to my neighbours. They have little kids – a toddler and 9 month old – and apparently it was all gobbled up. So there. Not so bad!
I used this recipe from Epicurious: Multigrain macaroni and cheese with cauliflower.
My recipe notes:
- I didn’t measure out the macaroni and just dumped in a 375g box. (This proved to be too much macaroni, but on the flipside it made more, which you could probably freeze if you weren’t giving it away to a neighbor.) If there is ever a next time I will make sure to weigh it out first.
- I dispensed with the crumb topping. It’s just not my thing.
- I really recommend you use sharp cheese. It gives this dish a really nice zing.
- A note about sour cream. Use the real stuff. None of this fat-reduced krrrrep. Read the label. ISour cream should not contain corn starch or things you don’t recognize. My fave brand right now is regular Western. Soooo good. Life is too short, so use superior sour cream.
- I served it with Caesar salad, and for the girls, raw red pepper rings.
If you make this let me know! I’m dying to know if other families liked it.
