So, I was elated when my friend Lisa bought me the wonderful cookbook Melt
for Christmas. It’s a cookbook entirely about macaroni and cheese recipes. Cheese? Pasta? TOGETHER!?! Let me step up my pasta game. 

This recipe is so good. Of course, it’s decadently cheesy and creamy. But it also had a smoky and spicy flavor. Not spice like when your taste buds explode after eating some hot salsa. It’s a friendly spice that makes your palate tingle with a warm, lingering heat. Ryan and I were really taken off guard by how yummy and special this dish was. We had it for dinner two nights in a row. The second night, we both came home excited for more mac and cheese. When we had our first bites, they were more delicious then our brains and mouths had remembered. It was like a wonderful surprise that surpasses all expectations. This is the kind of meal that makes you say “mmmm” over and over.

This recipe calls for two kinds of cheese: cotija and Lincolnshire Poacher. I’ve found cotija easily at Whole Foods, although it may not be in every grocery store. I could not find Lincolnshire Poacher, a specific type of English aged Cheddar. I even went to the specialty cheese stand in Eastern Market, but no luck. However, what’s great about the book is it names a few alternative cheese suggestions. I showed the recipe to the cheese monger in Eastern Market and she helped me pick out a good aged-cheddar. In short, use aged cheddar if that is what is easiest for you to find. If you do find Lincolnshire Poacher, tell me where!

Finally, I won’t be blasphemous and say something stupid like “this is too cheesy.” Because that’s impossible. But this recipe does make a ton of cheese sauce. If you’re getting squeamish about the cheese level, I’d recommend following the instructions for making the sauce, then pour the sauce slowly over the noodles until you’re at a level where you feel comfortable.  The hard things with macaroni and cheese is that in  restaurant you can ignore the creamy level, but at home you’re directly responsible and so may feel guilty about how much cheese is in there.

But I say, don’t worry about it. Sometimes you gotta treat yo self. This recipe is worth it. And you’re worth it.

This recipe is adapted from Melt.

Ingredients:

1/2 pound of chorizo (I actually used a 12 oz package I bought from Whole Foods)

1 tsp olive oil

1 lb box of penne rigate (this kind of penne has ridges, so it can catch hold of the cheese)

4 ounces cotija, shredded

1 1/2 cups whole milk

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp chipotle pepper flakes

1/8 tsp ground cumin

1 pound aged cheddar

Ground black pepper

Minced scallions for topping (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut the chorizo out of their casings. Break them into bite sized pieces. Don’t get too crazy about this, you can also smash them up once you cook them.

2. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Cook the chorizo until well browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chorizo to a plate lined with paper towels, to absorb the oil.

3. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente (a little bit chewy, it doesn’t have to be fully cooked because it’s going to be baked later). Drain and set aside.

4. Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a large casserole dish. I used a  2 1/2 quart dish, but I think my 9×13″ Pyrex would have given me more wiggle room.

5. In the dish, toss together the pasta, chorizo, and cotija.

6. Now to prepare the sauce! In a small sauce pan, heat the milk over medium heat. Heat just until it starts to steam and tiny bubbles form on the edge of the pan.

7. In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir. The authors of melt recommend using a flat-edged wooden spoon. This will help you scrape the bottom of the pan and keep the roux (fancy name for the butter and flour mixture) from burning.  Heat and stir until it takes on a light brown color.

8. Slowly pour in the milk, chipotle peppers, and cumin. Stir constantly until the sauce thickens. The sauce is thick enough when you can draw your finger across the spoon and it leaves a clear path.

9. Remove from heat and add most of the aged cheddar. Leave behind some cheddar for topping. Stir until the cheddar is completely melted. Season with pepper to taste. Add some salt if you like also, but the cheeses are pretty salty on their own.

10. Pour the sauce over the pasta. Stir a bit to make sure it’s all well mixed. Top with the extra aged cheddar. Sprinkle scallions on top, if using.

11. Bake for 25 minutes.

12. Let cool a bit before serving. Then eat ravenously.

Messy level: Three spoons, maybe verging on four spoons. This one made a lot of dishes, although some of it might be my fault. I used the food processor to shred the cheeses (although I guess I could have bought already shredded cheese). I had to use the mortar and pestle to smash the cumin seeds (because why go out and buy ground cumin for just 1/8 tsp?). But, also I needed a pan for the chorizo, a pot for the pasta, two pots for the cheese sauce, and a casserole for baking. Also, there’s always the danger of pouring the hot cheese sauce that could lead to a molten cheese mess on my floor and counter. Luckily no such spilling occurred. Although there’s a ton of dishes, I only give it 3 spoons because there’s lot of time in between steps to do some cleaning so your kitchen doesn’t have to look like a disaster if you don’t want it to.

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I love all kind of books, not just food books. I like biographies, historical fiction, and fantasy books aimed at adolescents (like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games). But, food writing can be such great fun. Food writing transports me to new places, gives me inspiration for future posts, and pushes me to try something new at restaurants. Food stories make me feel hungry, excited, and eager to jump in the kitchen.

So, for fellow readers out there, I want to share with you 5 food-related books that have had an impact on me. Also, I want to actually, physically, share a book with one of you, through the first-ever cooking is messy giveaway! I’m giving away one copy of Jacques Pepin’s book Essential Pepin. This book is huge with tons of recipes and clear instructions. My favorite part is that it comes with a DVD where Jacques Pepin shows you a variety of techniques, like flipping an omelet and killing a lobster. He’s awesome, adorable, has a great French accent, and is fun to watch. I love this book, and I’m giving it away only because I have two copies. If you want a peak inside, two recipes I’ve made from the book are french onion soup and steak in a spicy soy sauce.

Anyway, to enter for the book all you have to do is write a comment and share with me the title of a book you love. It can be any kind of book, not just a cookbook or food memoir. Unfortunately, this giveaway is open to just to those in the U.S. I will mail the cookbook via US Postal service.  The winner will be selected on January 29, randomly using random.org. I will contact the winner via email and the winner will have 48 hours to respond before another winner is chosen in their place. If only one person enters, then yay, you win!

Full disclosure: some links in this post will be affiliate links. That means if you were to make a purchase, I would get a small percentage of the sales price. I’m recommending these books though because I love them!

And now, here’s my list of books I love…

Mariel’s 5 Books to Read:

 A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. This is an excellent memoir about Mayle and his wife’s move to a small home in Provence. I read this when I was on my gap-year between high school and college and I felt transported. I hadn’t traveled much yet, I couldn’t legally drink wine, and I wasn’t much of an adventurous eater – but I wanted to be and do all of those things. I fell in love with the idea of immersing yourself in a new culture through food. The book is not just about food, but the way Mayle describes his meals and wine makes France came alive in decadent and absorbing detail.

  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. I’m crazy about this book and I recommend it to everyone. Kingsolver and her family spend a year striving to live locally and eat with the seasons. Her husband and oldest daughter also contribute chapters to the book. What I love about the book is that it really got me thinking about how I could incorporate local and seasonal food into my diet. I can’t commit myself to being 100% sustainable, but this book helped me think about what I could do and why it is important.  Also I love the recipes! Zucchini chocolate chip cookies! Eggs over chard! And the mozzarella I made  was inspired by her recipe. Most importantly, if you’re not interested in eating locally and seasonally don’t worry – this book has a great narrative and can be pretty funny (there’s a great story about how the family tries to force their turkeys to mate).

  Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. I’ll be honest, if you’re not interested in where your food comes from, then this is not the book for you. Foer became a father and asked himself if eating meat was the best choice for his family. He goes on a quest to see what’s going on with our food production. I enjoyed that he talked to all different types of people from large meat producers to renegade activists who try to free baby poultry. Also, it was just fascinating learning about all the different types of food industry people and to compare their very different and strong-held beliefs. The book didn’t turn  me into a vegan, but it stuck with me and it has changed some of my grocery shopping habits.

The Art of Eating In by Cathy Erway. In New York, where there are tons of amazing restaurants and Erway decided to go a year without them. I read this when I first moved to New York and was a poor grad student so I liked the idea that I could create delicious meals at home. I also loved how it wasn’t just about home cooking. She explored the non-restaurant food scene which is more elaborate, secretive, and cool than I would have thought. Super clubs? Cook-off competitions? Who knew?! It makes the food scene feel exciting and complex. She also has a great blog, noteatingoutinny.com.

  Heat by Bill Buford. Buford thrusts himself in the restaurant world, taking on every job he’s allowed to at Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo. The work is challenging, overwhelming, and seemingly exhilarating. Buford paints a “work hard, play hard” picture for what life is like at Babbo. What’s awesome is the Buford gets so engrossed in the Italian cooking and culture at Babbo that he briefly moves to Tuscany and becomes a butcher’s apprentice. The story is crazy, fast-paced, and a delight.

Don’t forgot, share a book title in the comments and you could win the giveaway.

All book cover pictures in the list are from goodreads.com

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The blue things on the side of the book are the post-its for all the things I want to make!

A few months ago my aunt suggested that I try out Christina Tosi’s cookbook Milk. It took me awhile to get around to it, but I’m so glad I did, and today’s recipe comes from the book. Let me tell you, I was absolutely enthralled by the book. I found it both intimidating and exciting. I really couldn’t wait to dive in and make a half-dozen recipes.

But let me back up. Momofuku Milk Bar is basically a bakery in New York City. But their cookies, and cakes, and pies, aren’t run of the mill. The use unexpected ingredients to make delightful treats. They use breakfast cereal, salty snacks, and of course sugar, to make amazing baked goods.

At first I was intimidated, and I still am a little bit. Baking is about precision and Tosi takes it pretty seriously. She strongly advocates for measuring ingredients in grams and for using specific ingredients. After the introduction, there is a whole section on ingredients and another section on equipment. This was where I got intimidated because she uses ingredients like glucose, freeze dried corn, and both brown and clear vanilla extract. Tosi recommends buying what you can’t find in stores on Amazon. Whew. For some reason, no matter how amazing a recipe looks, I’m averse to buying an ingredient if I’m not sure I’ll ever use it again. Why can’t I use what I already have?

But what is clear from all these instructions is that Tosi loves Milk Bar and loves what she does. And so most of the time when I get a celebrity or restaurant cookbook it doesn’t feel like these are the real recipes, but instead are instructions altered for public consumption. But, here it feels like these are the true recipes and she’s sharing it with us, her readers, and letting us know that it might be scary but we can make amazing baked goods. And so, why not push myself? If the purpose of my blog and my cooking adventures is to try something new, then I should suck it up and figure out where in the world I can buy malt powder.

What really got me excited about the book is how the recipes are exciting and vivacious. There’s no plain sugar cookie in this book. Every recipe has great personality. Throughout the book there’s a great mix of sweet, salty, crunchy and gooey. I was so inspired by the idea of using rainbow sprinkles, or cornflakes, or crushed pretzel bits. I rented this book from the library, but I’m definitely going to buy a copy on my own because there’s too much I want to try. My only true gripe is there are not enough pictures of the food. I want more drool worthy images!

Look at all the gooey yummy cream cheese!

Anyway, I decided to start out with the bagel bomb recipe. This recipe would push me out of my comfort zone because I hardly ever make bread, but it doesn’t require any hard to find ingredients. To describe this recipe, it’s like a bagel the shape of a dinner roll, baked, and filled with oozy gooey cream cheese. Amazing right? I made them on Saturday for breakfast and Ryan and I had to hold back so we didn’t devour them too fast and burn ourselves on the very hot cream cheese.

What is great about this recipe is that there is so much room for innovation with this recipe. As is, the recipe is for an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese.  But, you could easily knead chocolate chips in the dough and use plain cream cheese. You could also knead in raisins and cinnamon, or dried cranberries. Or you could fill it with salmon cream cheese! Oh the possibilities!

One last note before we get started…  I’m going to give you the ingredient list using cups and spoons, not grams. I know it’s less authentic, I’m sorry! I didn’t use grams because my kitchen scale isn’t sophisticated enough, and I only want to share with you what I actually did. Also, I changed up Tosi’s cream cheese recipe because she used bacon in it and I didn’t feel it was necessary. And finally, “everything bagel topping” calls for black sesame seeds but I didn’t use those. I already had white sesame seeds and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy more sesame seeds. It still tasted good. However, if you make this and decide on using both types of sesame seeds, I’ll be super proud of you.

Ingredients:

Bagels –

3 1/2 cup flour

1 tbsp salt

1/2 packet or 1 1/8 tsp of active dry yeast

1 3/4 cup water at room temperature

grape seed oil (although I used vegetable)

Cream Cheese –

7 ounces cream cheese (buy the kind that’s in a square package, ounce measurements will be on the outside)

3-4 scallion greens thinly sliced (I used the food processor)

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Everything Bagel Topping –

3/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp white sesame seeds

2 tsp black sesame seeds

2 tsp poppy seeds

1 tbsp dried onion

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/4 tsp garlic powder.

Other

1 egg

1/2 tsp water

Directions:

1. Start with the cream cheese because it takes the longest. Chop up the scallions into small pieces. Put the cream cheese in a bowl and beat until lighter and smooth. You can beat it a.) by hand (ouch! my arm would be tired) b.) electric hand mixer c.) Tosi’s recommendation, stand mixer with paddle attachment on medium.

In case you don’t know what yeast looks like… at the store it comes in packets and you can find it in the baking aisle

2. Add the scallions, sugar, and salt to the cream cheese and beat until well mixed.

3. On a parchment lined baking sheet, put 8 lumps of cream cheese. Freeze until hard, about 1-3 hours. I left mine in 1.5 hours.

4. Now move on to the dough; that takes the next longest. Tosi recommends a stand mixer, and that’s the directions I’ll use, but I’ve made bread dough before completely by hand, so if you don’t have a stand mixer, I am confident you can still do this recipe. ANYWAY. Put the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Hold the dough hook in your hand and mix. Basically pretend the dough hook is a spoon.

5. Slowly add the water. Continue mixing, by hand, using the dough hook. Tosi says it should be a “shaggy mass,” which to me meant the dough was a little shredded looking and not smooth.

6. Attach the dough hook to the machine. Mix on the lowest speed for 7 minutes. At about 3.5 minutes in you can stop and check the progress if you feel so inclined. Tosi says it should “look like a wet ball.” Mine didn’t look wet, but it was sticky and when I poked it the dough slowly bounced back into place (which she said it should). If yours looks really wet, then add a little flour.

7. Grease a large bowl with oil. To do this, I poured a little oil in a bowl then used a paper towel to coat all the sides. Put your dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit for 45 minutes.

8. Mix all the ingredients for the everything bagel topping in a small bowl. Set aside.

9. Heat oven to 350°.

10. Lightly flour your work surface. Put the dough on your surface. Punch down the dough to flatten it. Using a dough cutter (or a ruler, or something that shape) divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Using your hands and gently stretch the dough pieces to be about 3 inches wide.

11. Put a frozen cream cheese lump into the center of each piece of dough.

12. Bring the edges of the dough up and around the cream cheese. Pinch the dough shut, then roll the ball gently in your hand to seal it up.

13. Put the bagel balls on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Give 3-4 inches of space between bagels.

14. Whisk the egg and 1/2 tsp of water. Brush each bagel with a generous coating of the egg mixture.

15. Generously sprinkle the everything bagel topping over the bagel. Cover it as much as you can!

16. Bake for about 25 minutes. You want it to be a light golden brown and the cream cheese should be exploding and oozing out of some the bagels. Looks great right? I want to run home and make this right now. Thank you Milk Bar!

Messy Level:  This recipe is more time consuming than it is messy. I’ll call it a 2 spoon recipe. You need to use a few bowls, but nothing flies all around or gets sticky or crazy. Yes, the cream cheese oozes, but then you just dip in the bagel. This recipe cleans itself. YUM.

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I feel like I should name my cooking guy. In part because, I feel guilty that I cut him in half. And I cut him in half because I think this recipe is mostly pretty good for beginner cooks – but not completely novice friendly. 2/3 of this recipe is super easy, it’s just the dressing that I think is the step up. It’s not hard to make the dressing, but it requires ingredients that a beginner cook might not want to buy (sherry vinegar). But, this recipe is really yummy and so if you don’t want to make the dressing, just do the quinoa and veggies and top it with some store bought dressing if you like.

Also, before we get to the instructions, I wanted to  let it be known that I think this recipe is for girls. I know that’s a huge blanket statement and probably a little bit unfair, but here’s my reasoning.  This recipe is all about the vegetables. And it has some frou-frou ingredients. Now, that’s not to say that boys don’t like vegetables but based on the men in my life (Ryan, my father, and my brother Eric) vegetables aren’t their first choice. I mean they’ll eat them, but their first choice is never going to be a salad.  Recently, my mom and I made a seafood stew heavy with vegetables.  At the end of the meal the seafood was gone, but the veggies were still lining Papa’s plate. And also, from what my friends tell me, the same is true of their respective husbands and boyfriends. And things like quinoa, shallots, and sherry are a little frou-frou. Now I’m sure some of you are saying, that you totally eat quinoa regularly and it’s completely a staple. I agree, quinoa can be a staple but the average single guy probably doesn’t make quinoa as part of their repertoire.

For that reason I was a little hesitant about posting this recipe. And also because Ryan wasn’t a huge fan, and that made me nervous. Ryan is usually 50% of my taste-testing base. So if Ryan doesn’t like it, and I do, how do I know if I should post it? But, my coworker Cara inadvertently helped convince me that I should post it. I was eating it for lunch in our tiny shared office and she walked in and told me it smelled good. I told her that it was good, and tasted even better two days later. I also told her what was in it and that Ryan didn’t really like it. And she said, unprompted from me, that it sounded good and “like a girly recipe.” Also a few weeks later she said I inspired her and that she had made her own beet-quinoa-salad.

Also, to clarify, it wasn’t that Ryan didn’t like it because the recipe was bad. I mean, we’ve had recipes that have gone awry, and we look at each other like, “let’s throw this away immediately and make a PB&J.” This wasn’t that time. Ryan wasn’t a fan because the flavors weren’t something that his palate enjoyed. So, that’s a whole different beast. I have friends who don’t like tomatoes, or cilantro, or onions and so a recipe isn’t inherently bad because it has those things, it’s just not to their liking. So read the recipe below, and see how you feel.

Anyway, I thought this recipe was delicious and was even more delicious as leftovers because the flavors mellowed and blended. And so I know it’s bad form to start with some weird negatives and then try to convince you that’s it good. But it’s too late I did it. This recipe is good, and easy, and you should try it.

Pretty little radishes and beets

And I was really excited when I found this recipe because I had never found anything interesting to do with radishes. Ryan and I went to the farmer’s market and saw the most beautiful bunch of magenta radishes, and so we just had to buy them. But all I’ve ever done with radishes is eat them raw with dip or chop them up for salads. Occasionally I’ve diced them really fine and mixed them into meatloaf, but that’s the most exotic thing. I did a little Google searching and really didn’t come up with a whole lot.

But then, I got an email from the library and Deb Perelman’s The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook was available for pick up! I love her blog and she is my go-to for sweets and baked goods. I was really excited to get her book and there was so much I wanted to try. And then, when I found this recipe I knew it would be perfect for my lovely radishes. Perelman used radishes, beats, and turnips, but I just used the first two. You could probably improvise and use any root vegetables that are your favorite (carrots, parsnips, potatoes, etc). I really liked this dish because you can prepare it, heat it, and forget about it. You don’t really have to attend to it much throughout the cooking. It’s also a great stand-alone dish or it can be eaten as a side with some meat. I thought it was filling, but not too heavy, and with a great complex and yummy flavor. Hope you enjoy it too.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

Salt

3 small shallots

1 – 1 1/2 pounds of beets and radishes

Lemon juice

Black Pepper

For the dressing:

2 tbsp sherry vinegar

1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

salt, to taste

3 tbsp olive oil

Black Pepper

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 400°

2. Rinse quinoa and cook it according to package instructions. Cooking quinoa usually means this: Use double the amount of water as quinoa, so in this case 1/2 cup quinoa and one cup water. Put both in a pot and bring to boil. Then turn down heat to low, cover, and simmer until the water is absorbed. This takes about 10-15 minutes. You’re not supposed to lift the lid while it’s cooking, but if you’re a new cook and curious, open the lid about 2 minutes before you think it should be one. Take a fork or spoon and push aside some quinoa to see how much water is under the grains. If it’s a lot of water you need more time. If it’s no water, it’s probably good to go.

3. Scrub and rinse veggies. Chop them in half or in quarters if the veggies are especially large

4. Peel shallots and separate cloves if there is more than one inside the skin. Place the shallots on aluminum foil, sprinkle them with olive oil, and then fold the aluminum foil into a little packet.

5. Coat a baking sheet or roasting pan with oil. Arrange the veggies in one layer. Sprinkle with olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

6. Put the roasting pan and the aluminum foil shallot packet in the oven.

7. Roast the veggies for 30 minutes. Stir about halfway through cook time. Veggies are done when they are tender (which is when you can easily poke them with a fork).

For the dressing:

1. Remove the shallots from the oven when you remove the root veggies.

2. Take the shallots and put them in a food processor or blender.

3. Blend with the sherry, balsamic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. Taste. Add more olive oil if it’s too tart and tangy from the vinegar. Add more vinegar if you like the flavor.

Assembly:

1. Put some quinoa on the plate.

2. Put the root vegetables on top of the quinoa.

3. Pour the dressing over the quinoa and vegetables. Leave it like that for presentation, but when you eat it I recommend mixing it all up because it tastes GREAT.

Messy Level:  Low. As I said before, it’s pretty much prep, cook, and serve. You don’t need too many utensils and there’s not a lot of opportunity for spilling. Although, beet juice does dye everything.

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