Gruyere and Gouda

My lovely mother recently gifted me with some 10 yr old cooking magazines that were collecting dust in her basement. This post describes my first journey through one of the Cuisine recipes:

Tonight I made a super yummy (and not so healthy) gourmet version of the staple mac ‘n cheese. Didn’t realize that I’d be contrasting it so nicely with our Kraft 87 cent mac ‘n cheese that we enjoyed last night! This one had, as the subject says, some real good cheeses. I should have thought more about the price of this meal, but now that I know, I won’t be cooking it again for just any old meal.

Husband helped grate the cheese while I sauteed the shallots in butter and then added some flour, chicken stock and heavy whipping cream… yum. Then of course, the macaroni and the cheeeese.  I did totally forget to buy the fresh chives… I always seem to forget one main ingredient. I’m still new at this though!

Topped it off with some home-made sourdough bread crumbs (with butter and salt of course!).  It’s quite fun to actually make bread crumbs from scratch, as lame as it really is when you think about it. Not like I’m making the bread, but I did shove it into my food processor! Now that’s hard work! 

We only allowed ourselves one small bowl each (out of a 6 serving dish), and our stomachs now feel like we have a growing child in them, but we’re much more motivated to hit the gym in the morning, so maybe this meal was a good thing?

I’d like to think so… in moderation.

moving onto better (yummier) topics

I realize my last post was a rather complaint oriented post… this one will hopefully not be! I’ve been feeling better the past few days now and am just about back to health!  Now onto other topics-Recently I’ve discovered that I really really enjoy cooking. I didn’t have hardly any experience cooking until I got married last summer, and I’ll admit, I was more scared and overwhelmed than excited about it.  Slowly but surely I’ve tried simple recipes, some more complicated (and frustrating/messy), and now I’m feeling like I might actually become a good cook sooner than later! Last week I made a white chicken chili (thanks to a lovely older lady from my church sharing a recipe with me!) and it was yum-o! (Sorry but yes, I do like a little Rachael Ray now and then) Only bad part was that it was probably a recipe for 6-8 servings and there are only… two of us. So, after 4 days of eating the same thing, I started getting sick of it. Then, to solve the problem, I made my first pan of meatloaf! Thanks to my mother-in-law for her very simple recipe!  Husband surely liked it too. Now, I’m starting to dabble with the idea of purchasing some international foods cookbooks, like Indian and Italian foods. Husband has already given up on indian food because of two bad experiences, but I am determined to help him realize that he does indeed like it! My sister, who is big into cooking, recommended some cookbooks to me and I’ve found some more. Do any of you (other than my sister!) have any suggestions? Websites are nice too…