Macaroni And Cheese – Fervent Foodie

Ten at Park Lanes– Charlotte, NC {restaurant review}

April 15, 2012 5 Comments

Last week, I rolled into Ten at Park Lanes to sample their new barbecue loaded menu. In addition to the new menu, Ten (formerly George Pappas’ Park Lanes) now has a revamped indoor lounge and three separate outdoor patios, including a 24-tap outdoor beer garden and cornhole boards. While the vibe in the Charlotte bowling alley is purposely retro, the menu is anything but, with a focus on scratch-made comfort food.

While we waited for the tasting to begin, we sampled a few of the 12 bottles of moonshine Ten keeps on tap, including cinnamon moonshine, apple pie moonshine, and my personal favorite: blueberry infused moonshine lemonade:

It’s all about options at Ten, including the choice of four different barbecue sauces.

Ramblings, Restaurants

It wasn’t THAT good, actually.

July 6, 2011 11 Comments

As a foodie, I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that my world revolves around food. I spend countless hours each week reading about it, researching it, cooking it, exploring it, talking to strangers about it, sharing it… you get the point. From the 5:30am pre-body pump peanut butter toast to the hot fudge brownie bowls I’d like to cap every night off with, food is the thread that links the pieces and parts of my days together. It’s what brings passion to my eyes during conversation. It’s what brings a smile to my face at the end of a trying week. It’s what intrigues me, and challenges me, and nourishes my body and mind.

Bottom line: food brings me joy.

Of course, with all this love and warm fuzzies there is a dark flip side: the food flop. Nothing is more disheartening than experiencing a food flop. Perhaps it’s a new dish that’s lacking in taste or worse yet a new dish that straight up makes you ralph. Either way, a food flop is like a sharp nail on a chalkboard. It brings a party to a screeching hault in a matter of seconds.

It’s no secret that trying out new restaurants is one of my favorite pastimes. I love the excitement of experiencing something new and the opportunity to have ALL of my senses blown away by a fabulous dining experience. When I try a new restaurant and that restaurant doesn’t rock my socks off, whelp, it’s downright depressing. It feels like a waste—not only a waste of money, but more importantly a waste of time that could have been used to try out a different much more fabulous establishment.

Does anyone else feel this way? Maybe I’m a foodie extremist.

Speaking of trying new places, after my Ladies who Lunch post last week I headed to lunch with a lady (Jamie) at King’s Kitchen uptown. I was thoroughly excited for the opportunity to lunch with a new friend AND to try out a new restaurant that I’d passed so many times but never stepped foot inside.

While perusing the menu, I was pretty pumped when I saw “macaroni and cheese” as a vegetable. That HAD to be a good sign.

Another plus were the free biscuits we were brought:

Then the meal came—grilled chicken with macaroni, broccoli, and collard greens:

And that’s where the plusses stopped.

The chicken was dry – so dry that it was difficult (and awkward) to cut through even with a knife.

And the mac and cheese?

Whelp, it was oily and lacking flavor… As were the collard greens… and the broccoli.

Even with this disappointment, at the end of the lunch I put my hand on my belly and said almost robotically “that was so good!” As soon as the words left my lips, I thought to myself “ummm Mary, no that was NOT good.” But what didn’t come to me until later that day was that it was OK to admit the food wasn’t good. It’s not always rainbows and chocolate ganache. Sometimes it’s dry meat and oily side dishes.

Despite the food flop, Jamie and I had a great time getting to know each other. Some might think it’s crazy that I invite random people I’ve never met to lunch. But if you want to be a Lady who Lunches, sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do 🙂

Recipes

Shrimp & Mac & Cheese

February 8, 2011 15 Comments

WOW guys. WOW.

Drooling yet??

For the big game this past weekend, I was looking for a something a little different to take to the family party… Something a little healthified but that still packed a little somethin somethin. During my search, I stumbled upon the the Mac and Cheese Light recipe from the September 2010 Cooking Lite, and it looked like the perfect fit! You can never have too much cheese on super bowl Sunday, I always say.

What really drew me to this particular recipe was that it started off with the “secret weapon” – a puree consisting of one whole LARGE onion and 9 cloves of garlic.

Hello lover.

Clearly this was destiny.

First up, I put a big ole pot of water on the stove to boil, then tossed a large Vidalia onion and 9 cloves roughly chopped garlic into a bowl with 1/2 cup water.

I covered this guy with plastic wrap and nuked in the microwaved for 10 minutes. Prepare to smell like onions and garlic for the remainder of the day. Don’t worry. I won’t judge you.

After 10 minutes, you dump this onion garlic goodness out into a blender and pulse until smooth. It should look like grits, ya’ll:

By now the water should be boiling, so drop in 8 Ounces Barilla Plus Elbow Macaroni and cook until al dente.

Meanwhile season up you onion garlic puree with:

1 tsp dried mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne
Salt and pepper to taste (I used A LOT)

Once the pasta is done, drain and set aside. Then heat your onion garlic puree up in a pot (large enough to hold the sauce and the pasta), and once hot and bubbly slowly whisk in 2 cups shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese.

It should be gloriously thick.

Once the cheese is all melted in, take it off the heat and whisk in 2/3 cup fat free plain greek yogurt, then add in the cooked pasta. Once everything is combined, pour the mac and cheese into a casserole dish greased with cooking spray.

Sprinkle the top with

1/2 cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Sprinkling of dried parsley

Baked at 425 for 15 minutes:

Cheesy deliciousness:

Just to balance things out, I also made a big arse salad for the game:

No joke. Big. Arse.

Of course I finangled one serving of the mac and cheese to take home with me after the game, and I decided to spice it up a bit for dinner tonight.

I LIBERALLY seasoned up 4 jumbo shrimp with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper and sautéed them up on a pan:

I also roasted up some broccoli that I had liberally seasoned with S&P … and I also microwaved the mac and cheese. Don’t judge.

VOILA!

That is a seriously grown up healthified mac and cheese masterpiece!!!

I havent had roasted broccoli in months!! I practically lived off of roasted veggies last summer, and I had somehow forgotten how friggin delicious they are!

The mac and cheese by itself was a little too mild for my tastes – so, at the super bowl party I topped it off with some Frank’s Red hot. But for tonight’s dinner this spicy cayenne shrimp added plenty of kick:

Can’t get over how delicious!

Get in my beeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stats on 1 serving mac and cheese (no shrimp): 275 calories, 30g carbs, 10g fat, 17g protein, 3g fiber

Stats on 1 serving mac and cheese WITH shrimp: 322 calories, 30g carbs, 11g fat, 26g protein, 3g fiber

Mac & Cheese Ingredients List (serves 8 )

1 large Vidalia onion
9 cloves roughly chopped garlic
1/2 cup water
8 Ounces Barilla Plus Elbow Macaroni
1 tsp dried mustard
1/4 tsp cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups reduced fat cheddar
2/3 cup fat free Greek yogurt
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Sprinkling of dried parsley