Emphasis on extra block since the recipe probably already called for 1 or more to begin with.
I remember back when I was a kid, a friend in my group always made the BEST mac n cheese (the kraft boxed stuff). Nobody else’s could compare. Someone finally asked him what his secret was, and it turns out he was simply adding an entire stick of butter instead of what the box called for
A shitton of butter is pretty much every restaurant’s trick as well…actually I think the real trick is not mentioning just how much butter you added.
Yup. And boil the pasta in salt water. Boxed mac CAN taste delicious!
Who doesn’t boil pasta in salt water?
The trick I’ve learned from one of my aunts is to add a little bit (half a teaspoon for one of those paper boxes of mac, not much more) of mustard to it, somehow makes the cheese taste sharper as long as you don’t overdo it and make the mustard flavor too obvious. I’ve also found adding a fairly significant amount of black pepper does good things to it, along with a little extra cheese melted in.
I also put a bunch of spinach and a bit of salsa in mine, but that admittedly dramatically changes the flavor instead of just enhancing it, I just happen to like the result after some experimenting
Mustard is an emulsefier, so a tiny bit will increase the creamieness, especially if you’re adding a little cheese.
Add some sour creme and cream cheese, cut the butter, it’ll be delicious.
I grew up in the midwest and moved to west coast. I realized that I needed to learn to expand my taste in a variety of foods when a group of us wanted to get food after work and suggestions were getting shot down by other people because “some_guy won’t eat that.” It was eye-opening.
I eat all kinds of things now that I wouldn’t have when I was younger. But I remember the first time I ate at a vegan restaurant I felt like I’d been served a plate of sticks and leaves. Great place that I now enjoy years since.
Good for you for being open minded to new experience. That’s what I’ve never understood about picky eaters. You will eat food your entire life. It is one of the main things you will continue to do for your entire existence. Confining yourself through your adulthood to bland or junk food purely because that was what you grew up with seems like such a waste.
*Insert caveats about privilege/access/ignorance/income (I’m speaking from the perspective of people who have the option but refuse it; those are the people I know, but it’s not a universal experience)
As a former picky eater, part of it in my case was certainly that my rural family did not know how to make vegetables. They would be boiled with some salt or sugar, no exceptions. So I thought meat good, veggies bad.
Then I dated a vegetarian and learned not only about the different ways things can be prepared (roasted, steamed, fried, baked, grilled, etc) but also other veggies like asparagus, bean sprouts, bamboo, different types of mushrooms (I know they’re fungus, but just play along with me), mock meats, straight up different types of food like Thai and Indian, and it was such an awakening. I do think picky eating is learned somewhat.
I’d say I’m fairly picky, not as bad as some, and not entirely limited to junk food as I’ve found one or two vegetables that I like in certain ways. I do make it a point to try new foods from time to time, and occasionally it does work out and I’ll have that thing more, but most times, I just end up not liking what I’ve tried. It’s not always just a matter of being too afraid to try new foods, sometimes one really does just not some popular flavor or ingredient or texture, and if some of the things one dislikes are very popular and common, that’s going to limit what one likes a bit
Flip side for me: I’m from Michigan, not the Detroit area but a mid size city (Lansing) and we have a huge variety of food, albeit not a lot of choice inside some of those varieties.
I had the profoundly weird experience when visiting San Francisco of being with some people who were excited to try the new food they had never heard of called “pierogi” that a place had opened up to sell nearby.
It was perfectly good and I was delighted to be able to tell them that they in fact did want onions in their food, but it was real weird watching them get excited to try what I consider grandparent food. (It’s a food your grandparents give you, or you make a bunch of and freeze)I think there’s a thing where certain ethnic groups “big migration wave” came too early for them to reach big populations super far west.
I had the opposite thing happen to me. I was raised in the PNW, I vaguely knew that we had more teryaki restaurants in the Sea-TAC metro area than the rest of the nation combined, but when I went to Indiana for a summer I discovered that the people there had largely never even heard of teryaki before.
Now, I didn’t travel up to Indianapolis. I probably could have found a Japanese steakhouse that had $30 teryaki chicken and gyoza, but the rural areas… only the people who had served in the military had ever eaten other culture’s food beyond Mexican (but solely the TeX-Mex variety) and family style Chinese.
This was 2010ish, 30 minutes or so from a college campus. I hope things have changed.
There was a strip mall in Indianapolis a couple miles from my house that had the best cheap Russian restaurant, Ethiopian restaurant, and a Thai restaurant run by my friends uncle. Just down the street from that there is a make your own spring roll option at a Vietnamese salad bar.
Really there’s tons of great ethnic food all over the place but if you are in a tiny town in the Midwest you’ll Just have fewer options.
I was on the Kentucky border. I have no doubt that Indianapolis has culture.
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What do you mean you don’t want mini-marshmallows in your salad? What’s wrong with you?
Don’t forget the jell-o
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The Midwest ascribes to the definition of “salad” that’s more heavy on the “mixed ingredients and cold” sense than the “leafy greens” sense.
Everyone quietly accepts potato salad, chicken salad, and fruit salad, but the Midwest dives into various dessert salads that involve jello, marshmallows, whipped cream, fruit and a lot of other options.They’re invariably chosen for potlucks or gatherings where everyone brings a dish, since they’re a dessert where it’s easy to prepare a stupendous quantity quickly, and it keeps at room temperature with good quality for quite a while.
It is and it isn’t. We really stretch the definition of salad here.
Reminds me of this guy: “What’s up, welcome back to ‘how until they put an entire block of cream cheese in the crock pot recipe’”
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2II7SiRmab/
catbox mirror: https://files.catbox.moe/xxwke4.mp4, source https://www.instagram.com/middle_child_sam/
Looked funny until Instagram asked me to login to keep watching. No thanks.
Just for you, catbox: https://files.catbox.moe/xxwke4.mp4
It’s not healthy, but you can’t deny that its not the best food around.
I will take Mexican, Korean, Japanese, Mediterranean, Creole, Italian and even British cuisine any day of the week over the bland salted dairy bombs of the Midwest.
Chinese and Vietnamese food as well. Southern BBQ too. Tbh just about anything that isn’t Vegemite.
Careful now. Our Scandinavian friends can introduce you to plenty of fresh (or decidedly not fresh) culinary horrors that are not Vegemite.
The trick is to have a whole stick of butter with your vegemite.
Extra salt, sugar, fat
I feel like tons of food in Louisiana would be incredibly unhealthy.
In this case, they’re using that for the city Los Angeles, not the state Louisiana.
If your comment was a joke, ignore me
your feelings are correct
I wouldn’t be able to leave the toilet with that kind of food.
Couldn’t those be the same claim
When I cook it seems like I’m using too much butter, but at the same time I’m a healthy weight and my food tastes good, so I think on the balance I’m probably okay.
And the fitness levels match
And if you ask for iced tea, you have to specify unsweetened
Moreso in the south, in my experience.
