I enjoy some nuked Stouffer’s mac and cheese, but from scratch is a whole `nother level. Five minutes might be enough time to get the water boiling. Cooking the pasta, grating the cheese, making the sauce, combining everything and transferring to a baking dish, letting it get happy in the oven, and taking it out to set for a while is all worth it.
Seems we don’t have much patience these days. What gets me are frozen waffles. Yes, they can be good but it only takes minutes to whip up your own. You are a slave to the waffle light though. ;)
You can buy good cheddar cheese powder, and then it’s exactly the same as boxed macaroni and cheese, but good quality and a lot cheaper.
Or buy some macaroni and some cheese. You still have to boil the macaroni and add the cheese so it’s no different.
I do always have a couple of cans of soup, though, for quickness when I need it, even though it’s really easy to make vegetable soup. And you can add a few of your own spices, so it isn’t so bland.
@Kyle of Lochalsh – Best mac and cheese ever. Better the next day, when you cut it into squares and fry it up in some butter. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe-1939524
kids love the cheap stuff because it’s filling and tastes like cheese. But from scratch (grandma’s, not some fancy schmancy TV mix) is worth some extra cost and time.
However your Mac & Cheese is made, it is not finished until it is baked in the oven until the cheese is that dark brown, just short of burnt color. Yum, now excuse me while I go make some.
stouffer’s m&c shows oven cooking time of 50 minutes. so we are looking at approximately 1 hr prep/cooking timefrom scratch. but the difference between working for one hour in the kitchen and sitting back having a drink or just relaxing….
I grew up in a family of musicians and around musicians, and then I veered decisively toward the visual and stayed here. Had I stuck with the musical, I’d like to think I’d be a songwriter. That way I would have one of the same problems, and maybe the same major problem. At least I assume songwriters try to do the same balancing act I do between words and their other element. Music in their case, images in mine.
Balance is good. Too much, and you miss out on the good and the bad. You might miss out on a drum solo like the one that begins Pink Floyd’s “Time.” Or whatever the hell it is that Elvis is doing in the middle of “Are You Lonesome Tonight.” Or you might not be spared, well, just about every other drum solo. ”
I also raced bicycles for a while, and maybe that’s an even better analogy. The peloton goes fastest, in theory, when everyone sticks together and drafts off each other, but it’s not much of a race until somebody takes off. Today’s big breakaway is “I am clenching my pituitary gland.” Perhaps we’ll just let it go up the road; I don’t think we want to chase that one with any more of a visual than we’ve already got in place.
GreasyOldTam over 5 years ago
I once saw an aerosol can of pancake mix in a store. That chain has since gone out of business.
GreasyOldTam over 5 years ago
Mac & cheese from scratch? Who does that?
batmanwithprep over 5 years ago
I enjoy some nuked Stouffer’s mac and cheese, but from scratch is a whole `nother level. Five minutes might be enough time to get the water boiling. Cooking the pasta, grating the cheese, making the sauce, combining everything and transferring to a baking dish, letting it get happy in the oven, and taking it out to set for a while is all worth it.
jbrobo Premium Member over 5 years ago
Seems we don’t have much patience these days. What gets me are frozen waffles. Yes, they can be good but it only takes minutes to whip up your own. You are a slave to the waffle light though. ;)
Ignatz Premium Member over 5 years ago
You can buy good cheddar cheese powder, and then it’s exactly the same as boxed macaroni and cheese, but good quality and a lot cheaper.
Or buy some macaroni and some cheese. You still have to boil the macaroni and add the cheese so it’s no different.
I do always have a couple of cans of soup, though, for quickness when I need it, even though it’s really easy to make vegetable soup. And you can add a few of your own spices, so it isn’t so bland.
kenharkins over 5 years ago
He probably means Mac and cheese from a box with powdered cheese. Real Mac and cheese, from scratch, is baked in the oven and can take over an hour.
RussHeim over 5 years ago
@Kyle of Lochalsh – Best mac and cheese ever. Better the next day, when you cut it into squares and fry it up in some butter. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe-1939524
Old Girl over 5 years ago
kids love the cheap stuff because it’s filling and tastes like cheese. But from scratch (grandma’s, not some fancy schmancy TV mix) is worth some extra cost and time.
sandpiper over 5 years ago
Frazz is right. At later periods of one’s life, minutes achieve much greater importance than in early years.
JanBic Premium Member over 5 years ago
However your Mac & Cheese is made, it is not finished until it is baked in the oven until the cheese is that dark brown, just short of burnt color. Yum, now excuse me while I go make some.
kunddog over 5 years ago
stouffer’s m&c shows oven cooking time of 50 minutes. so we are looking at approximately 1 hr prep/cooking timefrom scratch. but the difference between working for one hour in the kitchen and sitting back having a drink or just relaxing….
halvincobbes Premium Member over 5 years ago
Clean-up is faster though
poopsypoo Premium Member over 5 years ago
Ok, the Kraft M/C is pretty good when I don’t have time to make it, I do that. Really gokd!
mysterysciencefreezer over 5 years ago
What kind of bootleg mac & cheese are you making that only takes five minutes more to make than microwave?
JP Steve Premium Member over 5 years ago
Do I get the feeling that Frazz thinks “scratch” means “making the stuff that comes out of a KD box?”
vikipa over 5 years ago
I do! Mom’s recipe
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 5 years ago
Blog PostsFrazz18 hrs ·
I grew up in a family of musicians and around musicians, and then I veered decisively toward the visual and stayed here. Had I stuck with the musical, I’d like to think I’d be a songwriter. That way I would have one of the same problems, and maybe the same major problem. At least I assume songwriters try to do the same balancing act I do between words and their other element. Music in their case, images in mine.
Balance is good. Too much, and you miss out on the good and the bad. You might miss out on a drum solo like the one that begins Pink Floyd’s “Time.” Or whatever the hell it is that Elvis is doing in the middle of “Are You Lonesome Tonight.” Or you might not be spared, well, just about every other drum solo. ”
I also raced bicycles for a while, and maybe that’s an even better analogy. The peloton goes fastest, in theory, when everyone sticks together and drafts off each other, but it’s not much of a race until somebody takes off. Today’s big breakaway is “I am clenching my pituitary gland.” Perhaps we’ll just let it go up the road; I don’t think we want to chase that one with any more of a visual than we’ve already got in place.