Team Ree!

If you haven't watched last night's episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay with The Pioneer Woman, fret not - there are no spoilers in this post.  (Tomorrow, however, all bets are off. Okay?)

Before I spoil anything, though, I'm going to talk about the Ree-centric preparation I made for the wonderful television event.  (Okay, one show note: didn't Ree look gorgeous?  The woman is simply beautiful.)  But now onto the food...

On Sunday I made PW's Macaroni and Cheese.  Macaroni and cheese happens to be one of my very favorite foods, but I had never actually made it from scratch before (although my mom would and I've enjoyed hers many times).

However, because cooking anything from scratch isn't occupying enough, I also had a 6 month old nearby in a high chair, who I attempted to entertain with exaggerated stirring techniques.  It was like Cirque de Mac n Cheese.

The mac n cheese starts with your basic white sauce (butter, flour) and then you build your cheese sauce with milk, some mustard powder, egg, and... cheese.  Lots and lots of freshly grated cheese.  Yummmsa.

You then season the cheese sauce.  PW warns strongly against underseasoning so I bit the bullet and went for it.  Salt, pepper, seasoned salt, and a dash of cayenne to add some kick.  Mix in the macaroni, pour into a baking dish, top with some more cheese (CHEESE!!) - and I added some panko, mmm - and then bake.

When it came out, it was bubbling cheesy heaven.  But then I ate some and I feared that I overseasoned it - specifically that I added too much pepper.  I'm not much of a pepper person and really only use dashes of it in my cooking.  But I ate my portion and figured it was still good enough to eat, not ruined enough to trash.

And then a funny thing happened (on the way to the forum leftovers): it got even better.  I think this is one of those "better the next day" recipes.  It was great that first day but the flavors felt more balanced the next day and when Kate tried it on Tuesday, she confirmed that it wasn't overseasoned.  (Or maybe my mouth was having a particuarly sensitive day on Sunday, who knows.)

So I had been eating that mac n cheese for days, training like a cooking athlete... or something.  For the show night, I decided we needed a P-Dub dinner and snack for the show.  The details on that tomorrow!

Right now I'm re-watching the Throwdown episode and eating more of the mac n cheese.  Mmmm.  This was like the Superbowl of cooking, wasn't it?  Or maybe I'm just a fanatic.

Team Ree!!

(fanatic)

This post is another in a series where I attempt to make every recipe in The Pioneer Woman's cookbook.  You can click on "Pioneer Woman" in my tags to read the other attempts. 

Comments

[Hubby]

And much squeeing was to be had.

I haven't checked, but I wouldn't be surprised if this episode of Throwdown was locked from being deleted off the TiVo. LOL

[Kirsten]

I made homemade mac & cheese last night, but it had nothing to do with P-Dub and everything to do with Mister's cravings. I did it pretty much the same way PW did, minus the egg and whole milk, but I used skim milk (it's all I buy unless I need cream) and since I didn't have enough of that, a can of evaporated milk. I also topped it with Italian breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese from a can.

Mister LOVED it, and I think I'll go downstairs and get myself some of the leftovers for dinner.

Seriously, once you get addicted to homemade mac & cheese, you can't go back to the blue box.

Also, check out this thread. It will make you want to have mac & cheese all the time. :-)