Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For the past 5 or 6 Thanksgivings I have volunteered for a free potluck dinner given at a community center in Center City for older people. My contribution - as always - my specially extra cheesy macaroni and cheese. I've been improving the recipe over the years and this year I got rave reviews.
The secret to Clark's Mac-n-Cheese:
1. Use elbow macaroni. For some unknown reason people feel comforted by the tried and true version of their childhood. Personally I like spirals and rotelle past. Tradition wins out.
2. Make it very cheesy. Clark mixes 3 or 4 different kinds of cheeses - the predominant flavor of the sauce must be sharp cheddar. Parmesan adds a nice accent to the flavor.
3. Bake it with bread crumbs. I use Panko breadcrumbs. The tips should be slightly burned!
What a wonderful way to spend the day! I am sure your dish was a huge hit!
Thank you for sharing the recipe. I love love love mac 'n cheese and yes, I use elbow macaroni. But I have never tried spirals and rotelle. I will have to try it both ways.
I have never used the bread crumbs. Another suggestion for me to try out.
My handyman/painter/carpenter friend Rod asked if he can throw a dinner party in my dining room next week. I relented.
Are you going to help with the menu/prep?
Relenting to use of the room is one thing . . . please tell me Rod will clean up before and afterwards, lol. I love entertaining but oh my . . . it does take a lot of planning and energy afterwards for clean up.
Don't tell anyone but I still have some of the china and crystal sitting out from Thanksgiving. I try to put a few pieces away at a time . . . but it takes a lot of juggling to pack all the stuff back up.
I really enjoy playing hostess . . . I just need a staff to do all the before and after clean up!!!!!
If I recall are you the single gent in a restored Victorian that shares living with two other gents?
If so, I told my Mom about it and she thought it a fabulous trend, single older folks with no family/kids pooling resources to age in place gracefully with good folks looking out for each other.
If not, then now you know I'm a natural blonde........
This Wednesday morning there's 13" of snow on the ground, still snowing hard and 25 degrees outside. I'm sitting here thankful I don't have to get out in this to go to work. My coffee is very tasty!
We got several inches of sleet/snow/rain/more sleet and soon more snow. I took my car out to test how it handles under these conditions on my side street w/no traffic, with quick stops etc... and it scored That AWD really works. Then off to run some errands - it never ceases to amaze me that every year people drive on that first snow like they have never driven on snow before - this is MN.
I am also so glad I don't have to drive to work - lots of spin outs & something like 170 accidents this a.m. in the metro. Even the news truck lost control of his truck on the interstate and played bumper cars.
We are expecting the killer blast by Monday. Jim, you can keep that snow. Stay warm.
LMAO Umbria, same here the first snow drive you look around and think are they all Florida tourists?
For the past 5 or 6 Thanksgivings I have volunteered for a free potluck dinner given at a community center in Center City for older people. My contribution - as always - my specially extra cheesy macaroni and cheese. I've been improving the recipe over the years and this year I got rave reviews.
If I recall are you the single gent in a restored Victorian that shares living with two other gents?
Three other gents: there's Professor Robert (50's, teaches at Drexel University, living here for 9 years after divorcing his crazy wife, very dapper, went to Harvard), Chef Joe (59 ... same as me, executive chef, part Italian part Portuguese, part Chinese - just learned he was adopted, has a son and a daughter in their 30's), Handyman Rod (45, lives here part-time between work projects, besides being a carpenter/painter/also light electrician and plumbing he loves decorating and doing window treatments) ... and finally there is Officer Clark (me).
Three other gents: there's Professor Robert (50's, teaches at Drexel University, living here for 9 years after divorcing his crazy wife, very dapper, went to Harvard), Chef Joe (59 ... same as me, executive chef, part Italian part Portuguese, part Chinese - just learned he was adopted, has a son and a daughter in their 30's), Handyman Rod (45, lives here part-time between work projects, besides being a carpenter/painter/also light electrician and plumbing he loves decorating and doing window treatments) ... and finally there is Officer Clark (me).
Sounds like an interesting bunch - you've got it all covered.
Went up to The Burgs yesterday for a bit of needed shopping and on the way home heard a report from Appalachian Electric Power about their plans for possible outages on Sunday due to ice storm. I made a mental check list of things to get done in advance while we have one more day of warm weather here.
The main chore is to fill the garden cart a few times in order to get more firewood up to the 8 ft racks on the front porch since they are both about half empty already. I'll also get a couple of loads of laundry done, bring in the Coleman stove and a couple of canisters to run it and make sure that the Kindle is fully charged up.
About 11:30 pm the power went out here and for much of Floyd, Roanoke and Franklin counties - guess it was a sneak preview of what we might have in a couple of days. Power came back on about 5:45 this morning.
So odd to have temps here be much warmer than back in my old stompin' grounds of Oakland for a few days.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
