I’ve mentioned before that I don’t particularly like using recipes when I cook. I actually find cooking to be a lot more enjoyable when I can wing it and make adjustments as I go, rather than stopping every other moment to check a recipe for measurements and cook times. My free-wheeling approach is founded on basic culinary principles that can be applied to create endless dishes. And no, understanding culinary methods isn’t tedious, it’s freaking liberating.

Case in point: macaroni and cheese. I don’t know about you but I haven’t used a recipe to make real, homemade macaroni and cheese in years. I realize that there are a few methods for making mac and cheese, and this might not be the way your mom makes it, but this way is simple and consistent and it’s my favorite.

The main piece of culinary knowledge you will need for this macaroni and cheese method is how to make and use a roux. A roux is a thickener composed of one part flour to one part fat (in this case, melted butter). With the roux, you make a béchamel, which is just a fancy French word for milk sauce (made by dumping milk in a roux and whisking while heating). Apart from that, all you need to be able to do is boil some pasta.

Here’s the break-down: yes it’s verbose, but if you read it you can stop reading mac and cheese recipes forever.

–Melt some butter in a pan over medium heat, add an equal amount of flour, whisk.

When I say “some” butter I mean between two tablespoons and a quarter cup, depending on how much mac and cheese you are making. If you want enough sauce to cover a whole box of elbows, better go with a quarter cup. I also usually sauté some aromatics, like onions and garlic in the butter before adding the flour, which I recommend, but it’s not necessary if you’re not into it.

–Add milk, whisk.

Ta da! That’s Béchamel! I never measure this either, but what you’re looking for is the right consistency. Keep in mind that roux-thickened sauces don’t reach their full thickness until they start to bubble, so be patient. Start by adding about a cup of milk, then add more as it starts to thicken, and stop when it looks nice and…saucy. You want it thicker than your standard gravy, but not by much. You’ll probably use between two and four cups of milk total, but stop when you reach the right consistency. As a side note, my grandma usually makes bechamel with half milk and half chicken stock. It cuts a few calories and actually tastes great.

–Remove the pan from the heat, and add the cheese.

Shred your cheese before-hand so it melts easily. You need to get the pan away from the heat before you add the cheese because, if you heat cheese too much, it will separate and give the sauce a gross, grainy texture – this I know from experience. The residual heat from the pan and the béchamel will be enough to melt the cheese. Add the cheese a handful at a time and whisk until smooth. As for the type of cheese, I like stronger flavors because they are going to be diluted by the pasta. This last time I used two types of gouda: a young, melty cheese and a sharp, nutty, older cheese. Another traditional combination is sharp cheddar, gruyere, and parmesan. You could also do blue, swiss, sharp provolone, monterey jack (probably not all at once) or whatever cheese happens to be your favorite. If you’re going to be spartan about it go with sharp cheddar. If you wanted to make it naughty, with a nod to the boxed childhood favorite, you could even add american cheese or “processed cheese-food” to the sharp cheddar. Whatever you want, I won’t tell.

-Season the sauce.

Now’s the time to contemplate spices and add-ins. You’ll need salt and pepper, obviously, but you should select your spices and accoutrements to compliment your cheese and satisfy your whims. A quarter teaspoon of dry mustard does amazing things for cheddar, and swiss (with bacon and spinach maybe!) goes really well with a tiny dash of nutmeg. White pepper adds a little something to just about everything and fresh herbs are always welcome. Want southwest mac and cheese? Add some roasted chiles and cumin. Honestly, it’s hard to go wrong with pasta and cheese.

-Cook your pasta, drain, and add the sauce.

I prefer small pastas for mac and cheese – pastas that can be loaded on a fork without any twisting or trouble. Though if you were going for alfredo, fettuccine would be a natural choice. Definitely salt your pasta water liberally. When the pasta is done cooking, add the sauce to the drained pasta, stir it all up and taste it again. The sauce gets diluted by all that pasta, so you may need to add more seasoning. You could stop here if you just want a stove top-style mac and cheese and it would be wonderful. But if you’re ok with dirtying another dish…

-Arrange the mess in a baking dish.

‘Nuff said.

-Add crunchies and bake.

In my mind, no casserole is complete without a top layer of something crunchy. The traditional topping would be butter-tossed breadcrumbs with a little bit of left-over cheese. For this batch I used breadcrumbs tossed with butter and fried onions. I’ve also used crushed croutons and crumbled bacon. Really, as long as it’s crunchy and you think it will taste good I say give it a go. Bake at around 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, or until it’s brown and bubbly.

Now that you truly understand the process of making macaroni and cheese, all you need to know about the version in the picture is this: gouda, shells, panko and fried onions.

For more ideas for flavor combinations, check out this clever infographic from the Washington Post.

It’s beet season! Honestly, as a root vegetable, beets are almost always in season, but supposedly they are at their best from June to October, so get on it.

My dad and I procured some lovely beets from our local small town farmer’s market recently and decided to pickle them. It was a good decision. In my opinion sweet vegetables, like sweet potatoes and acorn squash and (duh) beets, are made to be eaten with goat cheese. Something about the earthy sweetness of the vegetables with the creamy, salty tang of goat cheese is just so right.  So, I whipped some goat cheese up with herbs and cream until it was spreadable and made a “napoleon” (a French layered dish…usually a dessert) with thin-sliced fresh onions and some of the pickled beets.

This combination packs a tangy punch, but I happen to like that kind of thing. After I dropped what was on the fork in the picture below on the left, I found out Murdock likes that kind of thing too.

Here’s the recipe I used to pickle the beets:

(adapted from this recipe)

Ingredients:

4-5 medium beets

olive oil

1 onion, sliced

1 cup tarragon vinegar

2 tsp salt

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup water

Directions:

Coat beets in olive oil and roast at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife can be inserted with a bit of resistance. (It won’t feel like a baked potato when it’s done, it will be quite a bit firmer.) Allow beets to rest until they are cool enough to handle.

Remove skins from beets and slice. Arrange in clean glass jars (I ended up with two full jars) alternating layers with sliced onion.

Combine vinegar, water, salt and sugar in a small pot and bring to a boil. Pour over beets and put the lids on while the liquid is still warm. Allow jars to cool for a few minutes on the counter, then move to the fridge for 3-7 days before eating. The longer they sit, the stronger they get. They will last at least 3 weeks in the fridge.

Now here is a “recipe” for the goat cheese:

Ingredients:

one of those little logs of goat cheese (4 oz or 6 oz…can’t remember/doesn’t matter)

1/4-1/2 cup of cream or half and half, depending on how spready you want it

1-2 tablespoons of fresh herbs, minced (i used chives, dill, and basil)

salt and pepper

Directions:

Mix until smooth, then eat.

In my opinion, this would make a lovely appetizer or, if you deconstructed it and threw it on top of some greens, a very fine salad. Serve it with toasted, crusty bread and hello lunch.

So, summer – happened. Oh, and spring. I got swept up in working and planning and going on trips and not blogging. But I did manage to get a few photos, so here’s a quick rundown to bring everyone up to speed.

I went to the Air Force museum in Dayton Ohio with family, where my grandpa’s Vietnam-era helicopter has finally been retired and put on display.

I saw a few of the movies I’d previously expressed interest in: namely The Hunger Games and Snow White and the Huntsman. Both were decent, and the latter quite visually striking, but neither were mind-blowing. I decided after seeing the Dark Shadows preview a few times that I won’t see it, and I haven’t had time to see Moonrise Kingdom, as it wasn’t released at any theaters near my house. Boo.

I also saw The Dark Knight Rises. I went in with almost no expectations and came away incredibly satisfied. That whole trilogy came full-circle in the most fabulous way, metaphorically too! It may have had a few predictable turns, but I do not care.

Then, my sister and her husband (and their miniature Chihuahua, Bandit) moved from Utah to the DC area, which has made my life a lot more fun. During our adventures together I acquired a pair of Madewell shoes (the very shoes pictured above!) for thirty dollars which, as most Madewell fans know, is un-heard of and worthy of mention. Bandit also established his dominance over my 60 pound wimp-dog Murdock and peed on Cody’s foot. We are all friends now.

We also went to Arlington for some Peruvian chicken at El Pollo Rico, on what was probably the most face-meltingly hot day of the year. But the chicken was delicious and worth the sweat.

In further culinary adventures, I took a step toward beginning to understand the art of making delicious, fluffy hummus with my friend Caitlin. We made an afternoon of hummus experimentation with her puppies there to supervise (that’s Desi below on the right). I will never go back to store-bought hummus again.

And I ate a lot of tomatoes, as I am wont to do in the summer. I also discovered that mozzarella di bufala really has a rich, distinctive buffalo-ey flavor that works very well in caprese. I recommend it.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I feel the need to reiterate: I don’t like baking. Baking requires measuring and like, recipes. Bread baking in particular can be very intimidating with it’s rising, punching, timing, and kneading. Most of the time, bread baking is lame.

I don’t eat bread indiscriminately either, the way I eat – say, french fries. I’m picky about bread. I don’t like bread that’s cottony or flavorless or tough or dry, or powdery or overly dense, or tooth-sticky. Bread should be crispy and airy and pleasantly chewy.

Bread should be like this:

Before I moved away from Utah, my good friend Tricia gave me a bread baking book as a going away present, and that book has changed the way I feel about baking bread at home. It’s called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, written by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

You may have heard of their bread method referred to as “bucket bread”  because, well, they recommend making the dough in a bucket.

The dough-making process requires about 5 minutes of actual work, followed by 2 hours of sitting around while the dough expands at room temperature. Then you have the laborious task of placing the dough in the fridge, where it will stay for anywhere between 2 hours and 2 weeks. If, during that generous window of time, you decide you want a loaf of homemade bread, you whip out your bucket, hack off a chunk of dough, shape it, let it rest, and bake it.

In the book, they recommend using a pizza stone and pizza peel to bake the bread and transfer it to and from the oven. If you have those things, use them. I have found that a cookie sheet lined with parchment works well, as long as you remove the loaf and toss it straight on the wire rack once it’s set up enough to stay in one piece.

Here’s my adaptation of the book’s master recipe:

1. Between 4 hours and 2 weeks before I know I’ll be wanting some bread, I grab my ventilated bucket (2 for 17 bucks on amazon.com, search for “bread bucket” or “cambro bucket”. Punch some air holes with a screw driver. Or you could use a very big bowl with some perforated plastic wrap) and mix together these ingredients, making sure there are no dry spots in the dough. Sometimes I make a batch and a half, which seems to fit perfectly in my 8-quart bucket. This dough will be extremely wet. Don’t worry, it’s not supposed to be knead-able.

3 cups lukewarm water

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast

5 1/2 cups of bread flour (or 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour)

2. Allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 2 hours to rise. It will more than double in volume.

3. Transfer the bucket to the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to 2 weeks.

4. When I’m ready to bake some bread, I grab the bucket, throw some flour on the counter, and pull out about a 1 pound ball of dough. Then I quickly shape the dough into a loaf, stretching the top of the dough around and to the bottom and tucking in the edges, until it forms a smooth oval on top (other shapes are perfectly acceptable). It’s important to work quickly here so you don’t knock all of the air bubbles out of the bread. Place the dough on a piece of floured parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

5. Let the formed loaf rest for about an hour in a warm place (like on top of a preheating oven!) and preheat your oven to 425 degrees. This will most likely take longer than the oven says it will – give it at least a half hour to heat up.

6. When your loaf is rested and risen, spray the top with water, or brush some on with a pastry brush. Make a few 3/4 inch deep gashes in the bread with a bread knife so it keeps its shape when it bakes.

7. This is a really important step, because it makes a massive difference in the final product: place a metal tray of hot water in the oven. This creates steam and helps your bread form a crisp crust. I use an 8×8 square pan, but you can use anything metal that will hold a few cups of water.

8. Place your loaf in the oven on the cookie sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes. Then remove the loaf from the cookie sheet and bake for another 20 minutes directly on the rack. The total baking time will vary by the size of the loaf. You’ll know it’s done if: it’s deeply golden on the outside, possibly even brown in spots, it’s got a hollow sound when you thump it with your fingernail, and when you smell it, it smells like perfect bread, not tangy-yeasty dough. If you take it out and it’s not quite done, throw it back in the oven for a few more minutes. No big deal.

You’ll get really good at baking bread the more you do it, but this recipe makes such stellar bread that I promise your first loaf will be amazing. You’ll be hooked. And you’ll want the book, which has a billion more awesome recipes, from challah to rye to freaking cinnamon buns.

One last tip: first-timers should start with a small loaf – a chunk of dough about the size of a large orange.

Any questions?

I like movies. Here are a few I’m looking forward to.

The Hunger Games: March 23rd
I know everyone is excited for this movie, but I’m not ashamed to admit I’m on the bandwagon. Suzanne Collins, who authored the book, was involved in the scriptwriting – which bodes well for the story. I’ve never seen Jennifer Lawrence act, but I hear she has chops (nominated for an Oscar!) and she seems smart based on the interviews I’ve watched. I know that’s nerdy. Anyway, I’m hopeful that she can be a convincing Katniss. The rest of the cast (apart from Liam Hemsworth…who dated Miley Cyrus…which makes me question his intelligence) is fantastic, so this movie has a great chance of living up to the hype. I’ll enter with a dose of skepticism. It is, after all, a book adaptation. But I suspect it will deliver.

Dark Shadows: May 11
I was shocked when I found out how soon this movie is coming out. There’s still no trailer! (UPDATE: JUST FOUND ONE) The movie is based on an old TV show about vampires that my mom used to watch when she was little. The stills from the set look highly stylized, as we’ve come to expect from Tim Burton. Johnny Depp is in the lead, with Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloe Moretz, and Helena Bonham Carter. Serious potential here, though the trailer makes it look about ten times sillier than I imagined.

Moonrise Kingdom: May 25
Wes Anderson always makes visually interesting movies (Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, Fantastic Mr. Fox). I love the 70’s vibe of the costumes and film and set styling in this movie. Not to mention the angsty tweenage romance and stellar casting (Ed Norton, Bill Murray, Francis McDormand, SWINTON). I’ll see it the day it comes out.

Snow White and the Huntsman: June 1
So, I’m not convinced that K. Stew can act, but I’m a sucker for fairy tales and Charlize Theron looks downright amazing as the evil queen in this trailer. Also, Chris Hemsworth (who played the adorably obtuse superhero Thor last year) is the huntsman, and the prince is played by the guy who was that cute priest in Pirates of the Caribbean 4…you know the one that fell in love with the mermaid? Watch the trailer. If you’re not the least bit interested afterward we are different people.
Update: I just saw a movie still with dwarves…currently downgrading my excitement to level 6.

That costume.

Les Miserables: December 7 or 14?
This should have been made into a movie musical forever ago. Hugh Jackman is playing Jean Valjean, Anne Hathaway as Fantine, Russel Crowe as Javert (can he sing??) and here’s my favorite: Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the Thénardiers. Directed by the guy responsible for The King’s Speech. YES.

The Great Gatsby: December 25
I have to admit that the main draw for me here is Baz Luhrman’s directing and what I hope will be a roaring 20’s spectacle. The fact that the story is classic and Gatsby will be played by my 7th grade crush, Leonardo DiCaprio, is just the cherry on top. Oh, and Carey Mulligan as Daisy is perfect.

Do you get excited about movies? Which upcoming projects are you anxious to see?

I spent last Saturday night hanging out with my dad. We shared a bag of pork rinds (second pork rind encounter of my life) and he convinced me to watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That movie has one of the most meandering plot lines ever. But even through the din of crunching pork fat and my emphatic internal commentary, I managed to learn something. Paul Newman was a legitimate babe.

I’m not a huge fan of baking and the meticulous measuring required for successful recipe execution. The fact that I’m not that fond of sweets in general just makes the whole process seem arduous and the reward insufficient. There are, however, a few things that are worth the trouble. This cookie recipe is one of them.

It’s adapted from Alton Brown’s “the chewy” cookie recipe. I had an intense need for delicious cookies a few months ago and no all-purpose flour on hand, so I started digging around the internet for a cookie that used bread flour instead. This recipe is odd as far as cookie recipes go – the butter is melted in advance, you use one egg and one yolk, and the dough is so wet it needs to be refrigerated for about an hour before it’s scoop-able. Also, Alton measures in weight and I don’t have a scale, so I’ve converted the measurements to the best of my knowledge.

The result is a cookie that’s crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, buttery, chocolate-y, and generally ideal.

Here’s what you need:

2 1/4 cups of bread flour

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking soda

2 sticks butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 Tbsp milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Here’s how to do it:

Whisk flour, salt, and soda together in a bowl and set aside.

Mix together butter and sugars until blended. Add egg and yolk, vanilla, and milk.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture until incorporated.

Add chocolate chips and mix until reasonably distributed.

Chill dough at least one hour

Scoop cookies onto a baking sheet and bake at 375 for about 7-10 minutes, or until they are lightly brown around the edge and slightly underdone in the middle.

That’s me on the left with my big brother and little sister, circa 1991 or something like that. Can you believe my mom made those costumes? Halloween was so freaking amazing back then. This year I’ve been way too lazy and Scrooge-y to even bother to come up with a costume.

Today’s festivities at our house will be low-key. We are having some family over, eating food (themed, of course), and handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. We will also be strapping Murdock into a banana costume for a laugh. I swear he loves it as much as we do.

Have a Happy Halloween!

Our little basil plant finally started to feel the effects of the fall weather, so on Sunday I decided to make one last batch of pesto.

I don’t really like to use a concrete recipe when I make pesto, (or anything for that matter) because it’s difficult to judge how much basil you will end up with once you’re finished picking the leaves from the stems and blanching it. I started out with a small colander full of basil, and after I blanched it and squeezed out the water, I was left with a bit less than a cup of basil.

To blanch the basil (and yes, you need to, unless you like your pesto brown) just give it a rinse, plunge it in a pot of boiling water, let it sit for about ten seconds, and use a spider or a slotted spoon to transfer it to a bowl of icy water. Then wring it out in a colander. BONUS: the pot and bowl you use for blanching don’t really get dirty, so rinse them out and put them away. Unless you like doing dishes. I’m not gross, you’re gross.

Anyway, once you have your basil blanched and ready it’s time to gather the other components.

You’ll need:

-as much basil as you can get, picked from stems and blanched – Like I said, my small colander of fresh basil ended up being about 3/4 cup after blanching and wringing.

-some parmesan cheese – I used about a cup and a half grated with a microplane (which means it’s pretty fluffy). More is fine, less is also fine.

-some pecorino romano cheese – About half as much pecorino as parmesan.

-some olive oil – I used about 1/2 cup total. You’re looking for a consistency though, not a measurement. I used extra virgin and vegetable oil, because I thought the extra virgin alone might be too fruity. You can use regular olive oil, all extra virgin, or a mix of extra virgin and something more neutral. You do want it to taste like olive oil though.

-a few garlic cloves – I used 3 to start and added another one after tasting the finished product. That’s 4 total. Watch out for garlic that has sprouted or looks green in the center, because it will taste bitter. If it’s all you have, remove the green parts and you’ll be fine.

-some toasted nuts – I used about 1/3 cup. Traditionally, pesto uses pine nuts. I think pine nuts taste pretty “pine-y”, so I used a mix of pine nuts and almonds. Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa) uses pine nuts and walnuts. Just steer clear of hazelnuts. That would probably be weird. Toast in a 400 degree oven for about 5 minutes, you just want them golden and smelly-good.

-kosher salt – To taste.

Start by putting your blanched basil, toasted nuts, garlic (I rough-chopped mine, but it’s not necessary) into the bowl of your food processor with some oil. The oil will help the ingredients stick together in the bottom of the bowl where the blades can do their job. Then give it a few pulses and see how it looks.

The pesto on the left is dry and there are bits of garlic and almonds flinging around. I scraped down the sides and added more oil and things settled down. Once the mixture is the right consistency, add your cheese. The cheese may dry it out a bit more, so add more oil if necessary.

This is the consistency you’re looking for. Spreadable without being super runny. Though, in honesty, if it ends up too runny it will still taste awesome. Pesto is forgiving. Then all you have left to do is taste it and salt it and taste it again until it’s just the way you like it.

Look how pretty and green it is! Seriously, if you’re used to eating pesto from a jar, this will blow your mind. I love pesto in and on everything. I put it in scrambled eggs, on toast, on pasta, in lasagna, on sandwiches and in salads. It’s pretty much a wonder-condiment.  It also freezes really well, so I could put some away to enjoy a bit later in the season. But I won’t.

I can feel some of you clenching over the fact that this isn’t exactly a recipe, but pesto (among other dishes) is more about proportions and personal tastes than measurement, especially when the basil, i.e. the core ingredient, is so variable. The important thing is to TASTE it! Your taste buds won’t lie to you. When you’re happy with the taste, you’re done.

In which Courtney discovers that she is, in fact, getting “too old for this $***”

Some of it anyway.

Last weekend Cody and I went with my parents and sisters to Maryland’s legendary Renaissance Festival. It was the first sunny weekend in what felt like months and the weather was perfect early-fall bliss. It was also the weekend of the Annapolis boat show. Long story short, literally every other person in Maryland got the same idea at the same time: LETS TAKE A DAY TRIP!  TO ANNAPOLIS!

After four hours of driving, and a reminder of what happens when massive crowds and portable toilets mix, none of us were in the mood for much merriment.

This isn’t a critique of the Renaissance Festival, which delivered all it promised. We saw a sword swallowing performance and  a joust, ate fried foods, and discovered that LARPers make for excellent people-watching. I even got to eat chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick.

It should have been a perfectly nice day. There were just too many people. I’m only 25, but this admission makes me feel 65. Am I just out of practice? Or are my fellow 25 year olds turning into home-bodys too?