Serious Eats
Cooking with Kids: Mac and Cheese Mix-Ins
Mac, cheese, and morels. Photograph by Matthew Amster-Burton
In his book Dinner with Dad
In my house, we've had exactly the opposite experience. Periodically, spurred on by something like this Salon article, I will try a new recipe for homemade macaroni. I've made custardy, cheesy, stovetop, and oven versions. The result is always the same: Iris, my three-year-old, is fine with any macaroni. Her parents—whose foodie credentials, I assure you, are unassailable—prefer the stuff from the box. We're not into canned ravioli or frozen burger patties. I make my own panko-breaded chicken strips. But boxed macaroni is just the thing.
If you're stuck with a blue or purple box due to child or parent prejudice, do what we do: Doctor it. Actually, it turns out you, Serious Eaters, are way ahead of me. Sloppy joes? Leftover lobster? Chipotles? I love it!
Our most common Sunday lunch after a trip to the farmers' market is mac and broc. Cut a head of broccoli into florets and peeled slices of stem. Toss it right in with the boiling macaroni. If you're using elbows, throw the broccoli in at the beginning. With shells, wait about four minutes. Drain and sauce them together.
Cauliflower works well, too. Sautéed corn off the cob nestles nicely into the pasta shells. Fresh or frozen peas would be lovely.
Mac and cheese is also good with salsa. I take a couple tablespoons of homemade or commercial salsa and strain it in a sieve to thicken it while I make the macaroni, then stir it in at the end. I especially like a spicy tomatillo salsa for this purpose.
And in the photo above you can see what I made for lunch at the height of morel season.
Wouldn't it be awesome if Annie's included a packet of dried morels to throw in with the noodles? They could sell it for ten bucks. I'd buy it.
About the author: Matthew Amster-Burton lives in Seattle. His work appears frequently in the Seattle Times and Seattle magazine. He also maintains the blog Roots and Grubs. His favorite food is pad Thai.