Each year the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board asks 30 different food bloggers to each pick a different type of cheese and use it to create a unique macaroni and cheese dish. They call it 30 Days, 30 Ways, and for the third year in a row they’ve asked me to participate.
Two years ago I created a macaroni and cheese pie that featured a crust made entirely out of bacon. Last year I used Swiss cheese to make some pretty amazing Reuben mac & cheese. This year the Milk Marketing Board asked everyone to come up with a unique take on a classic dish, and I think I’ve done just that with this mac & cheese spaghetti.
Alright, I know what you’re thinking so I’m just going to cut straight to the chase. This looks just like regular spaghetti doesn’t it? Well, what you see here aren’t spaghetti noodles at all. With the help of a couple food grade chemicals, a syringe and some plastic tubing I actually made the “noodles” out of mac & cheese sauce. It’s sort of the same process that I used back in September when I made s’mores spaghetti. Then, just for good measure, I topped the noodles with some mozzarella stuffed meatballs.
The process is fairly time-consuming since you’re basically creating each noodle one by one, so this probably isn’t a recipe you’d be using to make dinner for your entire family, but it’s definitely a fun experiment nonetheless. Wanna try making it yourself yourself? Just head on over to 30 Days, 30 Ways for the full recipe and more detailed cooking instructions!
Ever since I went on a Wisconsin cheese tour last summer I’ve made it a point to try a larger variety of the many amazing cheeses that my home state offers. Recently I was at the grocery store and saw that Carr Valley Cheese Company produces something that they refer to as “bread cheese.”
Seeing this cheese really got me thinking. What if I were to make a grilled cheese sandwich that used this cheese in place of bread? A grilled cheese sandwich that was 100% cheese! I had no idea if it would even work, but right on the packaging Carr Valley actually recommends sautéing this cheese in a skillet. Plus, the cheese is already partially baked in an oven — hence the dark brown spots on it — so I figured it would be worth a shot.
I started off by heating up some oil in a pan and cutting the block of bread cheese in half. I added a couple slices of American cheese to the middle of my sandwich and sautéd it for a couple minutes on each side. It turned out way better than I even expected. The bread cheese softened up a bit, but completely kept its shape, while the American cheese melted perfectly in the middle. Long story short, the sandwich was delicious!
Seriously, if I didn’t have a heart attack after eating this 100% cheese grilled cheese sandwich I’m just going to have to assume that I’m invincible. I still made an extra trip to the gym the next day though just in case….
I used to be hooked on Hellmann’s mayonnaise. Back in college I went through the stuff like it was water. In fact, I ate so much of it that when referring to water I probably could have said “I go through this stuff like it’s mayonnaise!” and it would have been a fitting comparison.
Seriously though, I used to buy Hellmann’s mayonnaise by the gallon from Sam’s Club. I put it on every single burger and sandwich I ate and dipped my fries and chicken wings in it. At 2:30am I’d come home from a long night of drinking with my friends, heat up a microwave corn dog and dunk it straight into the gigantic jar of mayo. I even came up with my own precise mixture of mayonnaise and ketchup that I referred to as “metchup.” Since going through a gallon of mayonnaise every couple months isn’t exactly the most healthy thing in the world I’ve since cut back, but Hellmann’s will always hold a special place in my heart.
Where was I going with this story again? Oh yeah, they recently launched a limited-edition Southwestern ranch flavored mayonnaise and sent a bottle of it my way. Taste wise it definitely packs a little more of a kick than their regular mayonnaise. Hellmann’s actually suggests mixing one bottle of their new mayo with a cup of salsa and three tablespoons of chopped cilantro if you’re looking to make a super fast southwestern salsa dip, but even on its own it already tastes pretty good. I just hope this one small bottle doesn’t send me spiraling back into my Hellmann’s mayonnaise addiction….
A while back I made a grilled cheese curd sandwich where I combined some white Cheddar cheese curds with a couple slices of sharp Cheddar deli cheese. It was absolutely delicious and I’ve been making similar sandwiches ever since. Recently I decided to switch things up a bit, so I swapped out the sharp Cheddar for some French fries, kept the cheese curds and added a bowl of gravy for dipping purposes. This is how the poutine grilled cheese was born!
Poutine, for those of you who are unaware, is a Canadian dish consisting of French fries that are topped with cheese curds and gravy. If you’ve never had the pleasure of trying it you’re missing out because it’s completely amazing. I’ve even experimented with it a couple times right here on DudeFoods by making a poutine burger and deep fried poutine.
With my sandwich I wanted to make sure that I’d get a little bit of everything in each bite so I made my grilled cheese with two layers of cheese curds and two layers of fries. This also allowed the melted cheese to fill in the gaps between the fries, which sort of held everything together. The only real issue I had was when I flipped my sandwich for the first time before the cheese was fully melted and a couple cheese curds and fries fell out. Aside from that though it was smooth sailing!
Out of all of the random poutine variations I’ve created so far this grilled cheese is by far my favorite. The melted cheese curds create a great consistency that regular cheese can’t even touch, and then when you add in the fries and gravy it just turns into an all around great sandwich.
I was pretty hungry one recent morning so I figured I’d make myself a sandwich. I started digging through my refrigerator trying to decide what I should add to it when I decided to just take every single piece of meat I could find, cook some eggs and make one monster breakfast creation.
As it turns out, I had exactly seven different types of meat — bacon, turkey bacon, ham, turkey, breakfast sausage, turkey breakfast sausage and Canadian bacon — and so the seven layer breakfast sandwich was born!
Using egg rings I fried up seven perfectly round eggs and separated each one with a piece of toast — which I also cut into circles using the egg rings — and a different type of meat. I even added a couple tomato slices and some spinach. You know… to keep it healthy! In the end it was a bit reminiscent of the sandwich I made for National Clean Out Your Fridge Day.
My sandwich actually ended up tipping over right as I was placing my sixth egg onto it, but luckily it didn’t sustain any damage and I was able to complete the seventh and final layer, take a couple pictures and then enjoy the fruits of my labor! Then I proceeded to lay on the couch for the entire rest of the day playing Xbox and watching Netflix because I was so full. All in all it was a pretty decent Saturday!
Each year the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board asks 30 different food bloggers to each pick a different type of cheese and use it to create a unique macaroni and cheese dish. They call it 30 Days, 30 Ways, and for the third year in a row they’ve asked me to participate.
