Family Chef

We asked a handful of women to make recipes from KitchenDaily's database and tell us how it went -- what they changed, what worked, how easy/hard it was to make, and who was in the kitchen helping or hindering the dinner-making process.

When my girls were small they preferred mac and cheese from a box to any I made from scratch (more for me and my husband!). Now the 13-year-old, while still preferring the boxed variety, will at least eat the homemade kind and the 16-year-old will only eat it if it is the homemade kind.

I, however, am still in search of the perfect macaroni-and-cheese recipe. So I thought I'd try Curtis Stone's Mac and Cheese tonight. I've liked some of his other dishes, and that Aussie accent of his has a way of elevating even the most mundane food to "sin-sational," while also keeping it "dead simple." Plus, who doesn't enjoy taking a spa moment in the kitchen to watch him in those cooking videos (lip-syncing problems notwithstanding).

Curtis' take on this homey classic sounded good to me. But I felt the need to make a few tweaks based on personal preference, what was in the fridge/pantry, and ease of prep/clean-up. On that last note, I like the way Curtis uses basically just one pan to mix everything before it goes into the casserole dish. I've noticed that chefs in general, male TV chefs in particular perhaps, tend to dirty as many pans/pots/bowls as possible, you know, for the elves to clean. Hat's off to you, Curtis my mate, for your self-discipline in the kitchen!

I slightly alter his mix-in-large pan method because I am omitting the bacon, in deference to the teen vegetarian in our house. Instead, I use a medium saucepan to sauté the garlic with a small chopped onion (I don't have shallots) in 3 tablespoons of butter. Then I add 3 tablespoons of flour to make the roux, and when it is golden I add 3 cups of whole milk and skip the cream altogether. I don't think mac & cheese needs so much liquid. Some recipes I've tried have called for as many as 8 cups of milk-we just want a nice white sauce (a.k.a. béchamel), right? This is not a cream soup with noodles and cheese. I boil the milk mixture a few minutes until it thickens.

Let's see, what else: I use 4 packed cups of grated sharp cheddar only (my husband hates Gruyere, which he feels is in a category called "Smelly Cheeses"), and a pound of mezze penne. I skip the parsley and use frozen instead of "shelled fresh English peas" (now Curtis, really). I dump the boiled penne into a lavishly buttered glass lasagna dish, pour the white sauce and half of the cheese over it, mix, top with the other half of the cheese and a handful or 2 of Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing mix, in lieu of panko. I was all out of panko...and shallots...and shelled fresh English peas. But I almost always have Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing mix, to use as: more flavorful breadcrumbs, an essential part of spinach balls, tiny crunchy croutons in salad. Just not as stuffing mix. Then I bake the dish at 350 for 20-25 minutes (because I hadn't already melted the cheese in the white sauce) and 3 minutes under the broiler.

It was good, as I'm sure Curtis's version, strictly made, is too. But this is what came out of my kitchen tonight, a quiet kitchen night. Miss 16 is out with friends (but she will come home hungry), and 13 is playing her guitar, working on a song. "What was my first sentence?" she asks. I can't remember, but then I do. "Believe it or not, your first toddler sentence was, 'It's all about the cheese.'" And tonight it is.

We asked a handful of women to make recipes from KitchenDaily's database and tell us how it went -- what they changed, what worked, how easy/hard it was to make, and who was in the kitchen helping or hindering the dinner-making process.

My boyfriend, Neel, makes a great egg sandwich. Sometimes it's a simple egg fried in olive oil on a toasted roll or bread. Other times its omelet-style with spices and whatever chopped up veggie we might have leftover in the fridge. Often it's simply scrambled with salt and pepper.

It's a good thing that they're so quick and easy to make, because we eat eggs at least three times a week for dinner. Granted, I really enjoy when he cooks for me, but sometimes I just want something a little bit more interesting. We're both primarily dairy-carb-protein eaters, and seriously lacking in the fruit/veggie category, so any chance I see to eat healthier I'll take. This Spinach and Swiss Cheese Strata sounded like a straightforward answer to this quest and also included ingredients we actually had on hand.

Prepping ingredients is such a meditative time for me. There is nothing better than chopping away at an onion after a stressful day right? As long as you're careful, of course. And I grated the cheese too because I knew that Neel would sneak too much of it before it got into the dish if I let him do it.

I started out by cooking the chopped onion with a little bit of grated garlic (I won't cook without garlic) in the butter. Then I added in cubed brown rice bread instead of white bread, to make it gluten-free. With the spinach I also sprinkled on some frozen peas since they're Neel's favorite. I also added the diced tomatoes to the mix instead of saving them for a garnish, I truly can't stand raw tomatoes unless it's summertime and they're local and fresh.

I finished the recipe as instructed, even putting my skillet under the scary broiler, and it came out beautifully. Neel and I both polished off our first servings without words, and then went back for seconds. He defied the entire point of this dish by toasting up a pita to stuff the strata into, basically making it a sandwich. Oh well. It was nutritious and delicious nonetheless.

I love this cake. I was looking for something that used blueberries, because they were in season, to bring to a party, something that kids and adults would probably like. This cake was perfect -- and a big hit.

It came together so fast and was so simple to make. It stuck a little in the pan, but I think next time I'll be a little more thorough with the greasing of said pan.

The only thing I added was a quick lemon glaze -- I just whisked about 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar with the juice of 1 1/2 lemons over medium heat until it was thick, and started drizzling it on the cooled cake. Oh, and I added a few blueberries to the finished glaze so they would stay on top of the cake as a decoration -- nothing like sticky sugar to keep them from rolling off.