Text 20991, 81 rader
Skriven 2014-11-29 05:40:00 av Oregonian Haruspex
     Kommentar till en text av Damaeus
Ärende: Re: Cook's Bias and Delusional Deliciousness
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<1252735877438932306.051411bob_davis_retired-yahoo.com@news.eternal-september.o
rg> a4c14db5
Damaeus <no-mail@damaeus.earthlink.invalid> wrote:
> This Thanksgiving, for some reason someone wanted macaroni & cheese.
> That's not really something I associate with Thanksgiving, but this was
> a split effort among three families, so I took on the macaroni & cheese.
>
> I wanted to make it something different than just your average macaroni
> & cheese.  I didn't have a recipe, and I wanted to use smoked Swiss
> cheese, but since I couldn't find any, I decided to use a couple of
> cheeses I had not even tried before.  Having my phone with me at the
> grocery store, I checked the internet for good melting cheeses.  I
> decided to go with Gouda and smoked Havarti.  I was also planning to add
> crispy bacon, portobella mushrooms, portobella mushrooms and a white
> wine reduction.
>
> So that's what I did.  I made a roux...a bit more than I needed for
> flexibility, and I poured some of it into a double boiler for melting
> the cheese into it.  In a saute pan, I cooked chopped mushrooms in a
> little olive oil until they were well done (I didn't want slices), then
> I removed those, added a bit more olive oil and tossed some diced onions
> in right when the oil just started to smoke a little.  Once those were
> done, I removed those and added 374ml of Chardonnay and reduced it until
> it was about a quarter of a cup.  I didn't want a bunch of extra liquid
> in the cheese sauce, of course.  It turned out nice and creamy...not as
> creamy as Velveeta would have been, but it was still about what I
> expected.
>
> I had already baked three packages of Blue Ribbon brand hickory-smoked
> bacon.  I probably ate half of a package while cooking <blush>, which is
> why I baked three packages.  I wanted little bits of bacon in there, so
> I tossed it all in the food processor and gave it a few spins.  And
> since this bacon somehow ended up with some little hard bits, I figured
> that it would be good to soften them up a little with the cheese sauce.
>
> So I mixed it all together and to me, it was taste bud ecastasy.
>
> I had to actually make two dishes of it because there was one person who
> I knew didn't like mushrooms.  So I made a smaller dish just for her.
> And her granddaughter and her boyfriend got the macaroni & cheese
> without mushrooms, and they passed it to their grandfather.  Four of us
> ate the one with mushrooms.
>
> One person said with some animation and enthusiasm, that LOOKS so good!
> And, of course, the smell of bacon wafted out of the dish, which helped
> the enthusiasm.
>
> As it turns out, nobody got seconds, nobody moaned in ecstasy, and
> nobody took any home with them, the third of which is fine.  I don't
> like hauling home leftovers either.
>
> So.... I loved the stuff.  I had never made it before and I didn't have
> a recipe or anything.  I just made it up and I wondered if I'm a victim
> of cook's bias, or do you think a dish like this would really be that
> bad?  Usually, at our get-togethers, if something is good, people moan
> and go "Mmmmmmmmm" and comment on how good things are.  I didn't want to
> just come right out and ask anybody what they thought of it.  I figured
> the silence was enough.
>
> Note: This is Texas, I might add... and a small town where lots of
> people like beans & cornbread, barbecue, chili, and foods like that. And
> perhaps some silence was because one family was upset that their oven
> had broken down and they had to bring the meat over to finish it off in
> the house where we were eating.  That also means that the macaroni &
> cheese I made sat on the table untouched for about 35-40 minutes or so
> before anybody got any.
>
> What do you think? :)  Did I try to get too fancy with macaroni &
> cheese?  Maybe I should have just gotten a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese and
> stuck with that. (Yuck.)
>
> Damaeus

Meh.  You made a honest effort to please your guests.  You had no way of
knowing that they probably were accustomed to Kraft Dinner.  If you pleased
yourself that's good enough in my book.

Picky eaters can cook their own food or starve.

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