Sunday, November 16, 2008

But you know what was NOT so successful today???

My dinner!   :-(

DSCI0706 I've been wanting to try this forever: Annie's Organic Shells and Cheddar Cheese.  Macaroni and cheese was my favorite as a kid, but I haven't really enjoyed it in years, since I've become a much health-conscious eater (in my reckless youth, I was a diehard fan of the Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Hands down my favorite! I was never one for Kraft), I've shied away from it. And then I found this at Wegmans, and had to try it.

Um, so it looked perfectly fine while I was making it- it looked like a healthy version of a childhood favorite, and I was all excited, thinking that finally, my prayers for a tasty healthy mac and cheese were answered, and I added steamed broccoli and carrots for an extra nutritional boost (something I definitely never did as a kid!), and it looked awesome, and two bites into it, I realize, where is the cheese sauce? I know I made it. I know I stirred it into the pasta. It was all there together five seconds ago. But I could hardly see it, and I couldn't taste it at all! I was so confused. I'm no Julia Child, but I DO know how to make shells and cheese.

Could the problem have been the fact that I used skim milk? It called for "lowfat milk", but I only had skim milk, and I figured it wouldn't matter. It said you could opt to add butter, and I opted not to. Could it be that I put it in the microwave for another minute or two so it could stay warm while I did the dishes quickly? Would that seriously cause a cheese sauce to mysteriously vanish into thin air? I was thoroughly confused.

So what went wrong? I'm looking at the leftovers sitting all pretty here in Tupperware. They look fine. And very orange. Did they steal all the sauce somehow? Selfish bastards!  :-)

Anyway, that was confusing, and disappointing. They didn't taste cheesy at all. They tasted like plain noodles, carrots, and broccoli. Oh, and the bit of black pepper I threw in. I was sad.  :-(   Here's hoping the leftovers taste better tomorrow!

Does anyone else have this problem or have an idea as to where I took a wrong turn? I recall having a similar issue when I made the Organic Whole Wheat Shells and White Cheddar, but I don't remember it being that extreme. But I did the same thing with that box, too- used skim milk and no butter. Grrr.

Something else that was not that great? Baby Mama. I had rented it. Not horrible, but I didn't laugh as much as I thought I would. I think the mac and cheese mishap brought me down a bit. Ordinarily I'm a big fan of the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler team. It was funny enough, though.

Okay, I'm going to read in bed now (and make myself some popcorn; I need a tasty snack to make up for my sad mac and cheese). Goodnight!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sorry to hear about your disappointing annie's mac n cheese sauce experience! i used skim milk tho and thought it was extra cheesy - maybe you had a defective one ;)

John Foraker said...

Hi there, I am very sorry you had this experience with one of our products! We take pride in making happy Annie customers. Please contact me at jforaker@annies.com and I will forard to our consumer relations team to make this right for you.

Hope that you will give ANnie's another try :)

Sincerely, John Foraker, CEO