On Saturday, November 29, 2014 12:27:29 AM UTC-5, Damaeus wrote:
> This Thanksgiving, for some reason someone wanted macaroni & cheese.
> That's not really something I associate with Thanksgiving, but this was
> a split effort among three families, so I took on the macaroni & cheese.
>
> I wanted to make it something different than just your average macaroni
> & cheese. I didn't have a recipe, and I wanted to use smoked Swiss
> cheese, but since I couldn't find any, I decided to use a couple of
> cheeses I had not even tried before. Having my phone with me at the
> grocery store, I checked the internet for good melting cheeses. I
> decided to go with Gouda and smoked Havarti. I was also planning to add
> crispy bacon, portobella mushrooms, portobella mushrooms and a white
> wine reduction.
>
> So that's what I did. I made a roux...a bit more than I needed for
> flexibility, and I poured some of it into a double boiler for melting
> the cheese into it. In a saute pan, I cooked chopped mushrooms in a
> little olive oil until they were well done (I didn't want slices), then
> I removed those, added a bit more olive oil and tossed some diced onions
> in right when the oil just started to smoke a little. Once those were
> done, I removed those and added 374ml of Chardonnay and reduced it until
> it was about a quarter of a cup. I didn't want a bunch of extra liquid
> in the cheese sauce, of course. It turned out nice and creamy...not as
> creamy as Velveeta would have been, but it was still about what I
> expected.
>
> I had already baked three packages of Blue Ribbon brand hickory-smoked
> bacon. I probably ate half of a package while cooking <blush>, which is
> why I baked three packages. I wanted little bits of bacon in there, so
> I tossed it all in the food processor and gave it a few spins. And
> since this bacon somehow ended up with some little hard bits, I figured
> that it would be good to soften them up a little with the cheese sauce.
>
> So I mixed it all together and to me, it was taste bud ecastasy.
>
> I had to actually make two dishes of it because there was one person who
> I knew didn't like mushrooms. So I made a smaller dish just for her.
> And her granddaughter and her boyfriend got the macaroni & cheese
> without mushrooms, and they passed it to their grandfather. Four of us
> ate the one with mushrooms.
>
> One person said with some animation and enthusiasm, that LOOKS so good!
> And, of course, the smell of bacon wafted out of the dish, which helped
> the enthusiasm.
>
> As it turns out, nobody got seconds, nobody moaned in ecstasy, and
> nobody took any home with them, the third of which is fine. I don't
> like hauling home leftovers either.
>
> So.... I loved the stuff. I had never made it before and I didn't have
> a recipe or anything. I just made it up and I wondered if I'm a victim
> of cook's bias, or do you think a dish like this would really be that
> bad? Usually, at our get-togethers, if something is good, people moan
> and go "Mmmmmmmmm" and comment on how good things are. I didn't want to
> just come right out and ask anybody what they thought of it. I figured
> the silence was enough.
>
> Note: This is Texas, I might add... and a small town where lots of
> people like beans & cornbread, barbecue, chili, and foods like that. And
> perhaps some silence was because one family was upset that their oven
> had broken down and they had to bring the meat over to finish it off in
> the house where we were eating. That also means that the macaroni &
> cheese I made sat on the table untouched for about 35-40 minutes or so
> before anybody got any.
>
> What do you think? Did I try to get too fancy with macaroni &
> cheese? Maybe I should have just gotten a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese and
> stuck with that. (Yuck.)
>
> Damaeus

I think you fussed too much, accommodating a mushroom hater etc. Was it even noted, appreciated, eaten? Next time, somewhere between Kraft and a standard recipe will suffice.