Dinner: What White People Eat
I made mac and cheeze (its mispelled because it’s vegan!) tonight. So that it’s not completely unhealthy, I added some roasted brussel sprouts to it (Thanks for the heads up about them being in season, Herschell!).
I love brussel sprouts, but I hear that it’s not a favorite vegetable for a lot of people. I think the best way to eat it and maybe make it more tasty for others is to just halve them, toss them with olive oil, kosher salt, and a pinch of cayenne pepper, put them cut-side down in a baking pan, and then roast them for 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven, or until they’re tender inside. The roasting brings out a nice sweetness to it, and the charred parts are especially good.
For the mac and cheeze, I used VeganYumYum’s recipe with a few additions of my own. I added about a teaspoon of dijon mustard to the sauce as well as a pinch of paprika. I thought that gave it a lot more depth. After I mixed the sauce and cooked pasta together, I put it in a baking pan, topped it off with panko, and then stuck it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes for the top to get all crunchy.
Funny story about my first experience with mac and cheese after the jump.
Growing up in Chinese family and watching American television, I was always fascinated by what Americans ate. One thing that I was dying to try as a child was mac and cheese. I saw commercials of it every afternoon in between my cartoons.
On one supermarket trip, I finally convinced my mom to buy me a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese (yes, in the blue box). Considering I was about 6 or 7 at the time, I wasn’t allowed to make it by myself, so my mother made it. Naturally, as any Asian would do when faced with dried pasta and a package of seasoning, dumped the seasoning into a pot of boiling water and then threw the noodles in after to cook until they were tender.
Of course, after one bite of the soggy, soupy, cheesy mess, I wasn’t so infatuated with mac and cheese anymore. It wasn’t till I went to college that I realized what it was actually supposed to taste like.
