President Pardons "Mac" & "Cheese"

Source: Today

President Obama pardoned two turkeys yesterday: Mac & Cheese.

How awesome is that?!

Had to share the news with everyone, of course.  Myself and friends of You Don't Know Mac are very happy about this story.  Thanks for the share, Dad!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Enjoy a good, cheesy side dish if you can :)

Recipe: Mac & Cheese "In A Mug"

I recently found a recipe on Pinterest for making single serve Mac & Cheese in a mug in the microwave. 

Since I have a massive amount of dry pasta sitting in my cupboard, and hardly any time to make a full bechamel sauce these days, I figured I'd give this microwave option a try.  Can't have the blue box all the time...

I had just had a party where I served cheese and wine and crackers and there was a bit of cheese left over, so I figured this might be the perfect opportunity to try the recipe.

Not to mention, I was really excited to not spend a ton of time cooking since I had just spent the entire morning preparing for guests to arrive, and then spent a fair amount of the evening cleaning up afterwards.

First, the recipe calls for 1/3 cup of dry elbow macaroni to be mixed with 1/4 cup of water in a large mug (or in my case, bowl) and then put in the microwave for 6 minutes, stirring at 4, 2, and 1 minute left.

I noticed that I needed to use a lot more water than the recipe called for.  My noodles actually started to cook and harden after 2 minutes.  I would probably try 1/2 cup water for every 1/3 cup pasta next time.  Reminder to self: will need to experiment with ratios...

Then, add 1/3 cup cheese (the recipe calls for shredded Cheddar Jack, but I just used the leftover sharp cheddar cubes I already had).

I placed the noodles and cheese back into the microwave for another 30 seconds.  Then, after a simple stir and a splash of milk, it turned out pretty great, other than my noodles that were a little hard, but I'm guessing that's from the moment when they almost cooked without water. 

In the future, I would probably want a little bit more in my serving, but it's not too hard to mess with the proportions.  Not a bad idea for a lazy night after work when I need a quick bite.

1/3 cup pasta

Adding 1/4 cup water

Time to add 1/3 cup cheese

Give it a stir...

Add some milk and done!

Enjoy, readers! :)  Happy Thanksgiving!

San Francisco is all about the Mac this Saturday

Attention San Francisco Bay Area residents: a Mac and Cheese festival is happening THIS Saturday.

This Saturday from 11am to 5pm, the Soma Streatfood Park will be hosting the Great SF Mac and Cheese Throwdown!

Source: Soma Streatfood Park

I already have so many things going on this weekend, but I'm dying to find time to attend this event.  The cost is $5 for general admission and one tasting or $20 for general admission, 5 tasting tickets and one beer/soft drink.

Source: Soma Streatfood Park

According to the description, the following restaurants and food trucks will be represented:

Bacon Bacon
Adam's Grub Truck
Country Grill
Oui Chef
Dusty Buns
Smokin Warehouse
Me So Hungry Too
The Grilled Cheese Guy
Korean BOB CHA
Carribean Spices
Firetrail Pizza
Lil Burma

We'll see if I can make it over there this weekend.  You can be certain that if I do, there will be a post written about it.  If you are now intrigued and super hungry, you can visit the festival at this address on Saturday: 428 11th Street, San Francisco.  You can find more details about the event by visiting their official website.

Many thanks to my friend, Marissa, for passing this along to me.

Woody loves Mac and Cheese!

So I stumbled across this really funny photo of a toy Woody doll (a really weird looking one at that) taking an iPhone photo of what looks to be some kind of pasta dish.  I'm going to go ahead and pretend it's mac and cheese so I can post it here and have it be related.

The photographer has done a bunch of funny photos with Woody and other toys, too.  You can check them out here.

Review: Picán

Picán
2295 Broadway, Oakland
picanrestaurant.com

Got my mac as a side dish to some delicious fried chicken

Just yesterday, I visited Picán in downtown Oakland with some co-workers for lunch.  We were celebrating finishing up a project and our supervisor thought it'd be nice to have a little reunion.

I was told the fried chicken was great, as well as the mac and cheese, so I thought I was going to have to choose between the two.  But it turns out, mac and cheese is really only served as a side dish (or so I saw), so I didn't have to choose. My fried chicken came with it anyway.

Picán makes their small side dish (and yes, it is pretty small, but again, it's a side, not a full meal like some places serve it as) with smoked Gouda.  There wasn't really any fancy about the topping, but it felt like it had a big of a baked cheese texture which was pretty tasty.  The sauce was very creamy and very rich.  The flavor was a bit one dimensional since it was just Gouda, but since Gouda is a pretty strong flavored cheese it's pretty great on it's own.

Definitely worth ordering if you find yourself there for lunch (or dinner).  Try to find something that includes it as a side dish or substitute.  Also, just so you know, they have a GREAT cocktail and bourbon list.  I'm looking forward to one day going back to try some more of that, too!