Miriam's Foodie Fridays 1

Welcome to Miriam's Foodie Fridays! Since good food is better shared, Miriam's Foodie Fridays will be open to anyone on the blogosphere who'd like to participate!

How can you participate in Miriam's Foodie Fridays? It's simple!

1. Snag the badge- grab the code here.
   
2. On Friday, post to your blog a new recipe that you've made over the past week. Make sure to cite your source, if applicable.
   
3. If you got some food porn, include that too. Everyone loves a tasty macro shot.
   
4. Tell us how the new recipe was: was it delish? Was it a bust? Would you make it again? Dish!
   
5. Leave a comment on the latest Foodie Fridays blog post here with a link to your post.
6. Ta da! That's it :)

On a ridiculously cold night here in Boston, I wanted to warm up our bellies with a deliciously oh-so bad for you version of macaroni and cheese that's so bad for you it's almost sinful. I bring you...

Fancy Macaroni, from Ree over at The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

I'm actually not going to repost the recipe here, so you'll have to click over to get all the details. And quite frankly, her recipe and the step-by-step picture guide is probably the most hilariously written recipe blog post I've ever read. It's totally worth the CTRL + click over.

A brief summary of the ingredients:

• 2 cups of whole milk (I used ultra pasteurized skim that tastes like 2%)
• half and half (This is where I made up for not having whole milk by using heavy cream... since I didn't have half and half)
• 2 cups of various cheeses (I ended up using vlaskas gouda, aged guyere, sharp cheddar, parmegiano reggiano, fontina, and chevre)
• caramelized onions
• bacon, sweet glorious bacon...
• ...and its decadent drippings

This is a labor intensive recipe - lots of prep, but totally worth the payoff. It is damn hard not to snack on all the various ingredients as you prep them for the final dish. It was amazing. We have a ton left too. With all the various types of cheeses, you have a very complex mix of flavors with each bite. Some bites were creamier, with that almost chalky finish of the chevre. Other bites were more pungent, the sweet onion playing off the fruitiness of the guyere and the sharpness of the cheddar. Ari thought that the complexity of all the cheeses actually made the bacon taste sweet. Yes, it's got a little bit of that "heart attack on a plate" going for it, but it is worth every extra notch up on my cholesterol scale.

Bonus recipe!

Grilled Tomato Salad, by yours truly

Take a couple of ripe tomatoes and slice in half. Throw on the grill cut side down until they're done. In my case, it's the middle of winter, so I put them on a griddle/skillet/pan thingie I have, put it on high heat, and just let them cook. Create a bed of salad greens in a bowl. Whip up a little balsamic vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar and olive oil (1:1 ratio) and drizzle over salad greens. Place the grilled tomato half cut side up on bed of greens, and drizzle just a smidge of olive oil right on top of the tomato. Feel free to garnish with fresh chopped basil.

What recipe do you have to add to The Collective Cookbook for Miriam's Foodie Friday? Leave a comment on the most recent Foodie Friday post here with your link to your recipe post!