Summer foods and comfort foods

On Saturday, I had originally planned on having the Barefoot Contessa tequila lime chicken with pasta salad. However, that was based on warm, sunny weather. What we instead got was 49 degrees and rain. So we regrouped and subbed homemade mac 'n' cheese for the pasta salad. This is why I will be eating pasta salad all week for lunch.

For the forgotten pasta salad, fill a large pot with water and boil - add a pound of pasta of your choice and a handful of salt (I use farfalle, the bowties). Meanwhile, chop a variety of veggies into bite sized pieces. I typically use seedless cucumber, green onions, bell pepper, and grape tomatoes. Place in a large serving bowl, and add any type of Italian or vinaigrette style dressing. I had lots of almost empty bottles in the fridge - balsamic, Robusto Italian, and red wine vinegar dressing. So I tossed those in (probably totaling less than a 1/2 c) plus some more extra virgin olive oil and some straight-up balsamic and mixed thoroughly. When the pasta is al dente and drained, pour over the veggies and mix thoroughly with the dressing. I usually add a big handful of cheese - parmesan, feta, whatever strikes me at the time. Then chill and serve.

The tequila lime chicken is a fabulous recipe, found in Barefoot Contessa Family Style. Basically, you mix lime juice, orange juice, salt, pepper, chili powder, tequila, garlic and other yummy things together to form a marinade for chicken. You must let the chicken sit as long as possible - at least 6 hours. Then grill. Very delicious. Sorry, no pics.

And finally, the star of the comfort food show, homemade mac 'n' cheese. I basically stuck to an Alton Brown recipe, with a few modification. For this recipe, you make a roux and prepare a white sauce. Alton calls for some bay leaves to steep in the white sauce - I tossed in a smashed garlic clove as well. In addition, I added some freshly grated nutmeg* to the white sauce since that's what all the crazy chefs do. Finally, for the cheese, I mixed Gruyere** and Cheddar and it gave it a really nice, nutty flavor. This recipe was not too greasy, as I've found with other homemade mac 'n' cheese recipes, and we were able to use it on Monday for fried mac 'n' cheese (more later).


*And yes, we did look at each other and say "hmmm"
** Bless the $3 cheese bin at Whole Foods