A Football Team's Mac & Cheese

Isn't he adorables?

My cat puked up his lunch seven times in the past four days.  I say lunch, har-har, but he puked up breakfast and dinner too in a triangular path of puky destruction from my tiny apartment in the beautiful Central West End to the tents those poor reindeer eating bastards in the Russian tundra inhabit. 

As he now lays here in m arms, snuggled in all his fatty softness, wishing his tummy did not hurt so much and thanking the good cat lord he has such an awesome cat mother, we both cant help but wonder…whats for dinner?

I almost dismissed Jamie Oliver because Gweneth Paltrow loves him.  Enough said on that.  But he is doing some good stuff with the lard lovers the nation over and my mom got me his awesome cookbook for Easter. I bought the supplies for this side dish feast about a week ago and the cauliflower was not hanging on like a soldier in the crisper.  It was more sagging and turning brown like Amy Winehouse.  I thought I better make this macaroni and cheese or I'm just throwing my money away.  

I changed the recipe a bit to make it less for that skinny girl you know that can eat whatever she wants and maintains a certain amount of dignity in Macy's dressing room and more for someone watching their expanding girth.  I used whole wheat macaroni, light sour cream and fat free cheese.  I don't know.  I'm sure it would have tasted better the other way but I'm trying to avoid food guilt right now...and I still have that freezer full of cookies to avoid.

 

Cut up some cauliflower...1/2 a head.  And then good freaking luck deciding what the do with the rest of the cauliflower considering how disgusting of a vegetable it is.

Cut up some herbs.  The recipe called for parsley.  I used thyme and chives.  

Big shout out to Charlene (my moms) for the greens!

Bring your water to a boil.  Throw in your noodles and cauliflower.

Mix all your cheeses and sour cream up.  Throw in your chopped herbs. I love this bowl of cheese.  And I love this part in the recipe process when I haven't screwed anything up yet...

 Here's where it gets a little bizarre.  Oliver wants you to melt the cheese in a heatproof bowl over your boiling noodles/cauliflower.  Fine.  Sure...if you can get that bowl to not boil over and drown out your pilot light, you're my motherflippin hero.  I changed burners three motherlovin' times.  

What the what?!  

Drain your noodles, add your cheese, mix.  If it doesn't mix correctly, save some of that noodle drainage and add the starchy water to the mix.  

(I decided in my persistantly self destructive decision making process that I didn't need to do that...and that was a mistake...)

  Holy crap.  How much was this supposed to make?  

 I'm going to have to feed some to my cat just to get rid of it...and then he'll puke again!!!!!  

 If you don't have a football team living in your basement, you might want to go ahead and freeze some of that macaroni.  Take the rest, pop it into a baking dish.  

Stand by.  Drool.  Wonder why the broiler doesn't work faster.  Clean up some cat puke.  Take a call from your grandmother.  Do whatever you need to to keep your face off the toaster oven.

Mac & Cheese.  Good Lord, Yes!