Every Day Is Friday

I've been relatively lucky so far with this blog.  Not too many of the meals that I've had (or picked up and am sitting on for review) have ceased to exist.  I know we've lost the Four Cheese Hot Pocket and menu items have changed at homeroom recently (fresh review of new mac coming soon!) but the losses are much shorter than the new additions.  It's sad that things get dropped, but sometimes sales don't dictate keeping something around or that the costs to produce it have become too high.  But today, this is a blog first.  The return of a long lost friend.

T.G.I. Friday's has gone through some rough times of late and locally (SF Bay Area) has shuttered a good number of their restaurants.  One thing that they had on their menu for a number of years starting in the late 2000's, was a fried mac & cheese appetizer.  There would be six breaded wedges of mac and cheese that would come out on a long plate that was drizzled with some kind of cheese sauce and a little bit of parsley (for color!).  Sadly they disappeared off the menu probably two years ago.  It was better for our midlines that they weren't there, but the blog lost a potential review and I lost a tasty appetizer. 

At the store not to long ago, I did my check of the frozen food aisles and what did I see, with a *New* burst on it's box, but T.G.I.'s frozen appetizers had gained an old friend back, the mac wedges.

Brand:
T.G.I. Friday's Mac &Cheese Wedges - Three Cheese

Back from the dead. This calls for a celebration, the party starts at 8!

A Pyramid Made Out Of Cheese

People like booze.  It's a pretty well known fact that a bar in a restaurant can bring in a sizeable chunk of the profits for the establishment on any given night.  Restaurants have begun to create a hybridization, teaming food and beverages together where both are created in the same place.  This has begun to happen on a mostly regional level over the last few decades and breweries have led the charge with alehouses and brewpubs.  Not only do they serve classic bar food, but often they've got some pretty fancy foods (that use when possible the beers made by them) that are served with their in house crafted beverages.  They leave the major booze making to their factories, but these smaller establishments do produce for in-house consumption. 

A mostly western region brewery, Pyramid has opened up a number of alehouses that run along the west coast of the US.  Being in the Bay Area, I've got access to a pair of these, with one in Walnut Creek and the other in Berkeley (which does do tours because of the amount of beer produced there).

Some of the early ideas for this blog were discused out during a dinner with coworkers at the Walnut Creek Pyramid alehouse during a spring evening in 2010.  While the mac I had then isn't the same as the one they have on their menu currently, it was about time that I got back there and gave them an official review and another recent group office lunch gave me that opportunity. 

Brand:
Pyramid's Bacon Mac & Cheese (as served at the Walnut Creek, CA location )

Snapped as I was leaving.  I wasn't able to take any other pictures of the establishment because I was trying to avoid including those in the restaurant just trying to enjoy their meals and not become internet famous thanks to this hip and stylish blog.



Not Just Country Gravy

A few years back I went out to Ohio to visit some friends.  While there we discovered a chain of restaurants that seemed to be in every town. This restaurant was a mix of a number of other restaurants, Cracker Barrel, IHOP and Denny's all put together into a single place.  Bob Evans is a restaurant chain that focuses on the down home cooking and big meals.  We ate breakfast when we were there (they had some wicked biscuits and gravy among other tasty things!) and while this was before I was pondering bringing this blog to light, I didn't think about the possibility of mac and cheese.

During the summer (yes this review has been in 'limbo' for a few months) I was at our local Safeway, I was in the meats department grabbing some hamburger and other things for dinners when lo and behold, I saw a bunch of Bob Evans side dishes .  There were a number of potato options and our favorite staple  mac n' cheese.  It came home with the plan on it being a side dish for one of the meats I had just bought.


Brand:
Bob Evans Everyday Classics Macaroni & Cheese / Bob Evans Tasteful Sides Macaroni & Cheese

Picture of a farm seals proves farm fresh goodness.

The new packaging as of Nov 2012.  Also, these are still kept in the meats section for whatever reason...

Mac Street, U.S.A.

The focus on almost every post that I have made here on Mac N' Steve has been about macaroni and cheese meals as the entree.  I seem to be experiencing this because I am often eating these as a lunch at work and because most of these meals are heavy enough (either weight, or calorically) that they don't need something else to go along with it.

I've neglected to mention that our beloved mac n' cheese is often served as a side dish on our nightly dinner tables.  The many grocery stores that have hot foods available for purchase (like rotisserie chickens) also tend to have a small open case refrigeration unit nearby loaded with side dishes that would go well with those hot foods.  A while back I swung by one of our local grocery stores for a chicken and I walked through that strategically placed fridge full of sides.  I discovered (and rediscovered in a few instances) a whole new part of the store that had meals that I had somehow completely neglected for the blog.  Just heat sides. 

While these are often made in the microwave like the countless frozen meals are.  These aren't sold frozen, have a much shorter shelf life (we're talking 30 days, vs. the a year or more frozen options have) and are much larger than the typical one person sized dishes. 

I had the chicken, I wonder how this mac will take it's role as a rhythm instrument rather than the lead on the dinner plate. 

Brand:
Reser's Fine Foods: Main St. Bistro Contemporary Comfort Classics Baked Sides : Baked Macaroni & Cheese

Longest. Name. Ever.

Whole Cheese

A mainstay of the American grocery store is still the deli department.  A place where you can get meats, cheeses and all kinds of prepared sides by the pound.  Major grocery stores and boutique ones alike all have a variety of goods.  Some even have hot case items.  Normally the hot case items at a standard grocery store includes all kinds of fried staples like corn dogs, chicken strips and potato wedges, but those higher end stores grace our pallets us with expanded selections that in some cases may include mac n' cheese.  I've known for a long while that Whole Foods has a hot case mac, it's time it got reviewed.


Brand:
Whole Foods Market Hot Case Macaroni & Cheese

The only grocery store where you can go in with a whole paycheck and come out having purchased two loaves of bread, some cheese and a few bananas.

Comfortably Baked

I've noticed a new trend with frozen meals.  A baked experience, when something actually comes out of the microwave.  I know that some things like Hot Pockets use those special crisping sleeves to cook up the outside and give them that oven baked crust/outside.  That whole process is pretty cool and the susceptor basically takes the energy created by the microwave and redistributes it as conduction or infrared radiation.  Science!  Anyways, seeing this made me wonder what they were going to do to the container to "bake" it.  I knew I was going to eat one anyways (it's a hard life blogging about mac n' cheese), but now there was curiosity of how it was going to cook bugging me and I quickly added it to my eat this one right away list.

The Review

Brand:

Marie Callenders Comfort Bakes Mac & Cheese

'Murica!

Living in the SF Bay Area, I've come to discover that we live in a foodie mecca.  Some of the best restaurants in the country are here or so I'm told (being a picky ass I tend not to be too adventurous with my food).  There are also lots of specialty places that have made niches out of excelling at one kind of food.  A few years back I read about a place in San Francisco that serves nothing but different kinds of grilled cheese.  As a person who loves cheese, I told myself I needed to get there.  Sadly I hadn't ever made that trip.  While SF is not far away, I tend to only go into town when there is something planned, like a Giants game or concert and just a grilled cheese sandwich hasn't carried enough weight for a trip.

During the 2012 baseball season, a coworker decided that it would be fun if we could get a group of us together for a game when his boss came in from out of town.  Since this coworkers boss lives out of state, we had to hope that the timing would be perfect.  One trip it just so happened that the Rockies were in town (and this bosses favorite team) and a group was formed for the game.  While walking to the park, the boss and I ended up going down 2nd street to get to AT&T (rather than my normal MUNI trip) and we walked right by a place called The American.  The grilled cheese place that I had read about!  I made a mental note at how close it was to the park and said that before or after some game that I would attend separately on a weekend, that a trip would be made.

A few months later after attending a different Giants game, I told the wife lets forget taking MUNI back to BART just walk up 2nd to the station.  Lo and behold, that walk took us right on by The American and we couldn't help but stop in.  To my complete surprise (I swear on my 16 year block of cheddar) they had a grilled cheese with mac n' cheese inside.  Oh how the gods have smiled upon me!

The Review:

Brand:
The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen's Mac Sandwich

Ten hut! Present arms!

I Went In For A Cheeseburger, I Came Out With Mac

So I just hit five years of employment at my current job.  I decided that eating a just add water cup of mac n' cheese, or the standard backup turkey sandwich just wasn't going to cut it for this anniversary.  Leaving a bit late for a standard lunch hour, I decided that Fuddruckers across the street from the office would do.  A nice burger and some sweet potato fries (a current vice) were my lunch plans.  What I didn't know was that as I stared at the menu trying to decide on the kind of burger that I have, that I would discover they also served mac n' cheese.  Karma.


The Review

Brand:
Fuddrucker's Macaroni & Cheese

Now if this sign said worlds greatest mac n' cheese my mind may explode.

Mom Said Always To Eat Your Veggies

Parents face an uphill battle when it comes to getting heathly foods into their kids.  With so many fast food joints and stuff thats pre-made, it's almost too easy to not make anything yourself anymore.  As I've been scouring the shelves and frozen food aisles I've started to see a trend at some of the more upscale stores. They have begun to carry lines that are not only aimed at kids, but have found brands that have devoted some major time including hidden fruits and veggies into the dish to help combat the Mc Donalds those kids had for lunch (but ketchup is a fruit!).  I've had some other kids meals, but this is the first that has gotten all ninja with veggies and hidden them in the dish.  I wonder if I'll even notice...


The Review

Brand:
Mom Made Meals Cheesy Mac

Homestyle To Go

Kraft is THE predominant mac n' cheese maker in the country.  They've got a massive line of macaroni and cheese products that just eats up the shelf space in your local grocer.  They've added a Homestyle line that gets cooked in the oven and I've been meaning to try since it debuted a few years back.  In the last few months Kraft has introduced a just add water version of their Homestyle line.  I know these won't be the same, but having heard good things about the standard line I was very excited to see these hit the shelves. 

The Review

Brand:
Kraft Homestyle Hearty Four Cheese

Bad Day? Just Add Cheese!

I sure wouldn't have thought that the preparation of a frozen meal would become an issue to me, but it has.  Looking on the back of these boxes for my preparation instructions I often see directions for the microwave and the oven.  What is the best way to make it I keep asking myself.  Am I hindering the blog because I didn't make it the 'right' way?  From past experience, cooking frozen meals (doesn't matter the kind) in the oven almost always gives me a better dish than what the microwave puts out.  My problem is that though I have a toaster oven at work, it's not easy to make sure that I don't burn the meal, or that the heat is that accurate for the duration that the packaging requires for cooking.  For some reason I felt that with the Blake's meal I should give the ol' toaster oven a try. 


The Review

Brand:
Blake's Farmhouse Mac & Cheese

Why is it that all the best hearty meals come from a farm?  Mac n' cheese, biscuits and gravy, chicken fried steak, pot pies?

What's In A Name... Or How I Almost Got Food Poisoning

I've been noticing that there have been a good number of alternates to the classic mac n' cheese.  Homemade recipes and preparers of fine pre-packaged foods have snuck meats and other things into my mac meals.  I've already had a few and each one, be it Hamburger Helper, or Shells & Broccoli has added a little something to the dish (whether good or bad is part of what I'm trying to figure out on this here blg).  But I've begun questioning what should make sure that I'm reviewing for the blog.

What happens when it's a mac n' cheese, but doesn't say that it is by name?  I mean a mac n' cheese is a pretty simply defined meal... or so I thought.  Pasta and cheese/cheese sauce is the blueprint and when that extra veggie, chicken or other item makes it in you just roll with it.  In one of my recent Target trips (I seem to go there quite a bit, especially because one is across the street from work) I saw that they had a new just add water bowl and picking it up I discovered that the description on the front of the box was mac n' cheese (with bacon!), but the name was all 'fancy'.

I figured that this meal would be a good test.  If it stuck true to the mac, I'd have to scour my grocer's aisles even more than I already do and if it was anything but it, then I'd wait for the comment from a reader or friend to say you totally need to try this for the blog before I worried about another one. 

The Review

Brand:
Archer Farms Bacon Carbonara

Your fancy name doesn't dissuade me! I know what you really are underneath that fancy name... well at least I hope I know what you are.

What Happens To Vegas Mac, Stays in Vegas.

Las Vegas is a unique town.  With it's history steeped in organized crime and gambling, they've over the last few decades made themselves a vacation destination for people across the world (because why else would you want to come to the middle of the desert, where it's still 95 at 10PM in the summer).  Most people now focus on the strip hotels with their musical acts and amazing shows, but there are a huge number of other hotels that are "off strip", including a whole run of hotels that are centered around downtown Vegas and Fremont Street. 

Vegas is also known for it's cuisine. While some restaurants are serving up Michelin rated gourmet meals and others are giving it's customers everything a $7.99 steak buffet will afford them.  That also means that it should be a haven for mac n' cheese (both good and bad).  While I'm sure that if I looked, every hotel would have at least one mac n' cheese at one of their many restaurants, but having come out for a convention (yes a gaming convention) I only had the time to check the hotels near the one I stayed at.  Since our convention was at The Plaza on Fremont St. most of my time was spent near those hotels. 

The Plaza has a chophouse (a fancy steak house) on site called Oscar's and after spending two days with friends talking about wanting steak, having a sick spouse stuck in the hotel room upstairs, I did what any good husband would do.  Go and get take out to bring back to the room.  When looking over the menu for something for me to eat as I'm not a big steak fan, I noticed they had sides one of which was mac n' cheese.  I knew what was going to find it's way back to my hotel room.


The Review


Brand:
Shmuley’s Extraordinary Mac & Cheese at Oscar's Steakhouse located in The Plaza

Booze and ladies and steak!  It's what's for dinner!

The First Rule Of Cheese Club....

I just got in a shipment of regional store brands from a Mid-West friend the other day (Thanks Adam!).  One of them came from the chain Aldi (big in some areas of the country, but none out here on the West Coast).  Their store brand is lovingly named Cheese Club. 

That got me going on Facebook asking who would want to be a member of Cheese Club.  It's an awesome club, where we drink punch, eat cheese and well, be awesome.  Never a slouch, my good friend Nic did what any great artist does.  He created a bad ass logo for our bad ass club.  Now all we need is a clubhouse.  Who's got a tree they're willing to let us build a fort in?



BEST CLUB LOGO EVER?

 If you're interested in Nic's art, check out his stuff for sale HERE or drop him a line, I know he does commissions as well!

Mac N' Helper

While I enjoy the strait ol' mac n' cheese as much as the next person, I'm also eating more of it ( and more often) than the average person.  While different cheeses do change things up, most don't come with anything else in them. So when a meal includes some kind of extra veggie or protein, I'm pretty excited to give it a shot because I know it will be different (good or bad).  I've found and reviewed so many just add water or heat and serve options that I also decided I should break it up some more and start slowly dipping my foot into the stovetop pool.  First up is the first meal that I've reviewed with it's own (not licensed) mascot, Hamburger Helper and it's mascot the "Helping Hand"!

Hamburger Helper is a product of General Mills and has been in production since the early 70's.  Another meal of the baby boomer break out era, where simple fast meals (with minimal additional work by the chef) really began to take hold.  Hamburger Helper is known for the simple additional ingredients you provide of water and hamburger and the need for only one pan to prepare it all in.  They've since created additional brands of helper for Tuna, Chicken and Asian and discontinued other helper brands including Pork and Fruit. 

I've got my chef's hat on, lets see how my first step into stovetops comes out.

Brand:
Hamburger Helper Classic Cheeseburger Macaroni

Cheese Sprouts

The deli at our grocery stores have really become a one stop shop.  From fresh rotisserie chicken, meat loaf, and fried chicken to a wide variety of deli salads (potato, macaroni) and the standard lunch meats they are ready to feed your hunger.  Some stores have gone a step farther and are now selling single serve and family style meals that just need to be reheated that had been prepared in the store.  While visiting our local Sprouts to check out some items that are less common at the major markets we walked through the deli section and found out that someone there must realize that I must live close by and and stocked the ready made meals section with mac n' cheese!  Well they got some sales out of us as Sharen grabbed a meal and I grabbed a mac for dinner that night.  The only question left was how would it come out.

The Review

Brand:

Sprouts Farmers Market Macaroni and Cheese



Cheesy Cupcakes

As I've mentioned in the past, my mac n' cheese has given me some notority in the office.  Not too long ago a coworker mentioned that his sister had made something that I may enjoy.  Because I was coming or going as he was mentioning it to me, I didn't catch what exactly it was, other than it was mac n' cheese based.  A few days later as I was getting a drink out of the fridge I saw a tray filled with what looked like cupcakes.  Mac n' cheese CUPCAKES.  Now that's the combination of two things I can get behind.  I was asked later that morning by EM if I had seen what he left in the fridge and he said to make sure that I got some before the rest of the office ate them all.  I made sure that I had them for lunch. 

The Review

Brand:

EM's Sister's Mac n' Cheese Cups.

One day some inventive chef decided to combine cupcakes and mac n' cheese.  I salute you chef!

Zappin' Cheese

I appreciate companies that try (even Amy's Kitchen) and put out multiple kinds of mac n' cheese.  One would think that 'A' kind is more than enough, but you know that one is really never enough.  Variety is the spice of life and Michelina's sure likes to dabble with the best spice (cheese).  They've done Wheels and they've done a combination of cheeses.  Now they take on the 'classic' of classics, the Kraft style stove top. 

The Review

Brand:
Michelina's Zap 'ems Gourmet: Homestyle Macaroni & Cheese

If homestyle means a frozen version of the Kraft blue box then we're onto something.

Michelina's new packaging, or another new variety?  Picture taken at a local Target.  I didn't notice this until after I put the pictures of both packages together, that this one is different.  I'll head back and do a ingredient/calorie check to see how different it is and will do an additional review if there are changes beyond the noodles. 

**additional note** Since I took this pic just over a month ago, I've only found this in Target locations, twice. I broke down and bought one.  A review will be forthcoming. 

The Long And Winding Road

As we become more (hopefully) in tune with the needs of other cultures and beliefs we begin to see a change in how our foods are prepared (and marketed).  I don't think many people are phased when they see that a meal is now Kosher or vegetarian and though it's slowly being adopted, more meals are now also coming Halal.  For a meal to be Halal the animals who's products are included, need to be ritualistically slaughtered and other foods need to be natural and not processed, so whole grains, fruits, veggies and fish among others.  A Halal meal isn't going to taste any different than a non-Halal meal and because of the guidelines, you're actually getting a better quality ingredients in the dish.  Lets see if that adds that extra kick to our mac n' cheese.


The Review

Brand:
Saffron Road Macaroni & Cheese

Stamped Halal, like a prime grade of beef.  I like it!

Sweet Mac-atoes

Americans love food.  Americans love eating out.  What is the best way to capitalize on our mid-lines?  The buffet!  There is nothing quite like a buffet restaurant.  Warming trays of food, as varied as can be protected by sneeze guards going on for 50 feet... before you even see the dessert island.  While here on the west coast, buffet restaurants aren't as popular as they used to be, entrepreneurs have made a shift towards a "healthier" buffet based around salads.  What could go wrong with a salad buffet?  Leafy greens and cheese and croutons and bacon bits and more cheese and some ranch dressing. Oh look, 800 calories!  But we're not here to talk about how I make salads...

While the focus of these restaurants is the salad line, they offer breads, soups and some pasta dishes, including our specialty, macaroni and cheese.  Every time I'm at the local salad buffet, I see kids eating up the mac n' cheese.  Hopefully I find it as tasty as they do.

The Review

Restaurant:

Sweet Tomatoes (also known as souplantation in some parts of the coutry)



I wouldn't know if the tomatoes are actually sweet.  I don't really like tomatoes.  I guess that means you'll have to take it on good measure that their tomatoes are sweet, or take it up with their lawyers.

The Return Of The Cheeze

I'm an equal opportunity mac n' cheese eater.  I'd hope that has come across by now and even if I've had one bad variety of mac by a company, that if the same company makes another variety it'll get the same unbiased shot as it's relative(s) did when it was prepared.   I've marched from one tray to the next for all the Amy's Kitchen varieties that I've come across thus far and each tray has left me far from impressed.

I didn't create this blog to review bad mac n' cheese.  It was created with the mindset that because there are so many varieties that there have to be some great ones out there and maybe I can do some funny writing on this journey of discovery.   I REALLY want to eat good mac n' cheese.  Bad mac's may lead to funnier reviews, but they don't lead to full stomachs.

Today's review is for the fourth (and final as far as I can tell) variety.  Did Amy fare any better this trip through the microwave?

The Review

Brand:
Amy's Kitchen Macaroni & Soy Cheeze

O.K. Amy's, we've not had the best relationship so far, but I'm not letting that dissuade me from giving you ANOTHER chance.  Don't let me down!

Mac For The Friendly Skies

The airport is one of the best business rackets in our society. Don't allow people to bring in foods or beverages and then not allow them to leave. A trapped consumer now gets to pay a huge premium for the same goods that are half the price outside of the airport. America, gotta love it!

I recently went to Vegas for a convention and as we sat and waited for our flight home, we got hungry and wanted dinner. I noticed there was a food court as we headed towards our gate so I went back to score some overpriced fast food. One of the restaurants had a huge picture of Mac n' cheese on their big light up menu... I knew what I was having for dinner!


The Review

Brand:
Villa Pizza's Mac & Cheese

I had never heard of Villa before, but if you know Sbarro's, then you're in the same ball park.

Sporting A Bowtie

It took almost two months, but I finally started to run out of prepared mac n' cheese options at my standard grocery stores.  Lucky's, Safeway and Target (all of our local Target's now have reasonably large grocery store sections in them) are no longer giving me fresh lunch fodder for the blog.  I've begun to cast my net wider, in hopes of finding new macs before i'm stuck on a strictly stovetop and recipe routine.  Fortunately I live in the Bay Area and we've got a number of regional chains and a huge population that enjoy high quality foods that not only keep these smaller chains alive, but allow high end grocery stores like Whole Foods thrive. 

While Whole Foods is expensive, many of the items they carry justify the higher prices.  Hopefully some of these more expensive macs are worth it.  With a focus on organic and healthier items many of the brands seen at Whole Foods are ones you're not going to find at your local grocery stores and because of that, I'm heading down a path fraught with danger for someone who isn't normally very adventurous when it comes to food.

My lunch today was made by a company named Blake's.  Blake sounds nice enough, let's hope his mac n' cheese is too.


The Review

Brand:
Blake's Mac & Cheese with Chicken

Well Blake, if that's actually your name... let us see how your mac n' cheese is

Portable Green

Vegetables are good for you.  We all know this.  We also know that mac n' cheese doesn't pretend to that it's good for you.  Cheese and pasta?  Fat and carbs?  Good in moderation, but not something you should be eating all the time (well except me, I've made it a job of sorts).  I've had a pair of kids meals that come with veggies thanks to Kid Cuisine and Elmo as well as Helen's Kitchen which gave me broccoli and non-meat nuggets but I have yet to experience any that have come with veggies IN the mac n' cheese when all you need to do is add water.  Velveeta has conjured up a broccoli version for those health conscious mac n' cheesers.  Lets see if it's done any better than our other w/ veggies options.

The Review

Brand:
Velveeta Rotini & Cheese: Broccoli



Green means healthy!



The C in KFC Stands For Cheese Right?

Fast food restaurants haven't seemed to really pick up on America's meal.  Maybe it's because it's very hard to fresh prepare quickly or maybe the cost to have ones that just need to be heated are just too high and the profit margins too low.  America's biggest chicken chain KFC however knows that fried chicken really benefits from a mac n' cheese side dish (and mac n' cheese with a breaded chicken is quite tasty) and as such they've provided an option for hungry Americans for years.

The Review


Product:
KFC's Macaroni and Cheese

Staring at this mac n' cheese for too long will lead to blindness.  The orange of it is just so damn (unnaturally) bright!

Noodles With A Tan

I started this blog off with some simple just add water cup o' macs.  I've had 5 varieties sitting in my desk for almost two months just waiting for a chance to shine.  Running low on available frozen options at work (I've got 8 more sitting in the home freezer plus who knows how many more just waiting for me) I dug into my desk and pulled up one at random.  How did lunch go today?  Read on!


The Review

Brand:
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Whole Grain Original Flavor

Silly Kraft cup!  You're not Annie's Homegrown mac n' cheese.  There are no bunnies here!

The Wheels In The Sky Keep On Turning

I don't have too many rules that I've set in place for Mac N' Steve.  Try all the kinds I can find (even the scary ones I would never eat normally) and don't review the kinds that the only difference is the pasta shape.  We're in for the whole experience and a elbow vs a straight noodle really isn't going to change the dynamic of the meal.  Today's meal was my first conundrum that I wasn't sure what I should do.  I decided to allow it because in the end, it was different calorie wise compared to the standard mac they produce (while the weight stayed the same).  If this is the biggest problem I have in writing this blog (other than the whole eating macaroni n' cheese all the time) I think I'm doing O.K..



The Review

Brand:
Michelina's Zap'ems Gourmet: Wheels & Cheese (bought June 2012 and reviewed)
OR
Michelina's Authentico Wheels & Cheese (new branding found 7/29/12)

Zap 'ems, I hardly knew ye.  Less than a month old and you're already changing your clothes.  Was it me?  Wast it something I said about your four cheese brother?  I can do better! I can buy more (well if there are more flavors that is).

TGI-Mac & Cheese

Not too long ago I experienced my first restaurant brand mac n' cheese (thanks to the power of the freezer aisle, I've got more coming).  That mac isn't currently (and probably never was) served in restaurants, but the whole point of meals like those is to make you feel like you're enjoying those restaurants meals while at home.  TGI Friday's is another chain that has gotten into the business of marketing themselves out and letting a food manufacturer bring inspired by meals to our tables.


The Review

Brand:
T.G.I. Friday's Grilled Chicken Mac & Cheese

Flair not included.

A Mac Made For Steve

I've mentioned a few times that my coworkers have been instrumental with not only my creation of this blog, but helping me pick lunches, going to restaurants to try them with me and now taking time out of their own day to MAKE me mac n' cheese.

I've got a number of foodie coworkers, but one often makes some pretty amazing things and brings in the leftovers for lunch.  While she's feasting on her meals, I'm often in the kitchen too, making meals pulled from the freezer for this blog.  We've had a number of conversations about my love of comfort foods and our mutual love of crunchy snacks (we'll share that bag of chips or pretzels to help each other out) and once she found out that I was going whole hog into creating a mac n' cheese blog she said that she was worried about what I could be doing to my stomach and offered to bring in for me a healthier home made mac.

You read that right.  A foodie is going to make me a special lunch, for no reason other than because she's just that kind of person.  I really do work with a GREAT group of people and I can't thank my coworker enough for her kindness in doing this for me.

Some may say, "Steve are you actually going to review your coworker's mac that they brought in for you?"  And to that I can only reply with a resounding YES! She made this for me (and for the blog) so it's only fair that I give it the same treatment that I give all my other macs. I won't pull punches, but looking at it, I don't think i'll have to either.

My FIRST mac made exclusively for the blog and I.  I was so excited by the fact I got a special homemade brought into the office just for me, that I didn't take any other pictures because I was too busy eating it all up. 

The Review

Name:
DT's Healthier mac n' cheese, just for Steve

Baked Mac Must Mean Healthy Mac, Right?

We Americans really love appetizers.  Restaurants offer up these huge appetizers meals before we're served the huge meals that we've actually ordered (not to mention we order appetizers in droves) and they are mainstays of dinner events and parties because of their ease of serving and quick preparation.  Swaths of restaurants have the standard fare including mozzarella sticks, potato skins, buffalo wings, chips & dip a number of other small finger foods sitting on their menus, but as culture pushes towards healthier foods newer options like fried mac n' cheese disappear.  I've already reviewed Target's attempt to bring fried mac n' cheese to the masses, but what happens when a food maker has their eyes on our midsections and offer us a 'baked' solution to a normally fried meal.

The Review

Brand:
Hot Pockets Snackers Baked Mac & Cheese Bites


See! Baked! Totally healthy! Eat the whole bag!



Banquets, Feasts And Buffets... Oh My!

With almost anything in today's capitalist driven society you've got tiers of products.  Ones that cost more (that tends to be of better quality and/or is some kinds of status symbol) and those that cost less (sometimes of lesser quality and can come with stigmas because of what it is).  Food is no different (except when it comes to perishables) with store brands and name brands.  There are also tiers of name brands.  Some brands are considered good, while others aren't due to their cheaper costs and perceived lower quality.   Banquet is one of those brands known for their price (cheap) and not for their quality.  Societal stigma on mac n' cheese?  Not in this blog!


Brand:
Banquet Macaroni & Cheese Meal

Hamburgular Stole My Mac

When at the store this last week buying fruit for the office, I did my now regular jaunt through the pasta and frozen aisles looking to see what I still need to buy and if there is anything new to the shelves.  I stumbled into a pair of mac n' cheeses I hadn't seen on the shelves before and they were both macs with meat.  I was pretty excited to try them because everyone seems to just do the standard fare mac n' cheese and there seems to be no experimentation with add-ins.

Another when I first planned on this blog two years ago moment, when trying the numerous macs I had bought, I would toss chicken strips into the toaster oven and crisp them up before adding them to the mac.  It was quite tasty and seeing a few add-in variety mac's has raised my hopes up that I'll find one worth having regularly.

The Review

Brand:
Michelina's Cheeseburger Mac

A homeroom That Should Be In Every School

This blog has really opened my eyes.  I've been simply stunned by the amount of mac n' cheese out there.  Frozen kinds up the wazoo, enough just add water varieties to make the state call for water rationing and so many stove top kinds that I could fill a grocery aisle.  Restaurant mac n' cheeses are something that we're sorely lacking in comparison.

When I first started the blog, I put out a call to friends on Facebook for places that I should try (if they knew of any) and between FB comments and coworkers, I had 8 people telling me that I needed to venture off to a place in Oakland called homeroom within the day I mentioned it.  If there was that much positive feedback I knew I had to get out there, and soon. 

This last weekend I finally got a group of friends and some of their family together (9 of us!) and we all went to homeroom for lunch.

Restaurant:
homeroom

Mac + Cheese?  I think we've got a winner here.

Get In Mah Belly!

I have been fielding a number of questions and comments regarding my health and the any effects on it thanks to the large number of mac n' cheese meals that I've been eating these last two months.  I felt it best that I try to dispel some of the concern and let everyone know health wise what I'm doing to prevent myself from ending up the next tragic Yahoo! News story about fat gluttonous Americans who can't stop eating the cheese (but the blog's traffic would be amazing for a week and I'd get a few bucks for the family if I had ads turned on for the blog). 

I'd like some cheezy poofs and some mac n' cheese mom! (Image lifted from SouthPark Wiki)

Amy, What Has Happened To Your Kitchen?

Like a glutton for punishment, or one who's enjoying a very good meal, I keep coming back for more.  I'm not getting tired of mac n' cheeses by any means but I would hope that a company who've gone to the effort to create so many kinds has a real reason to keep making all the flavors.  Hopefully Amy's picks it up today.



The Review

Brand:
Amy's Kitchen Rice Mac & Cheese

So we meet again Amy's... How many combinations of mac do you have because we're at three and counting and I don't think it's ever going to stop.

The Most Expensive Mac N' Cheese I've Ever Had

Last week we went to the Alameda County Fair and I tried to get some fried mac n' cheese (on a stick!).  I was unsuccessful. Yesterday after dinner, we decided that it was probably the last good time to try again before the fair closed on Sunday. 
The weather was great, a few friends were at the fair already and though I had forgotten, it was also fireworks night.  My friend who was already at the fair, had taken a pic of some mac n' cheese on a stick  and had messaged it to me. Her success left me feeling pretty confident that I was going to get to experience what should be heavenly fair food.  Once we got into the fair, we went back to the booth that had so ungraciously scorned me last week, only to find out that they were once again (or still?) out of mac n' cheese.

Hello good sir, can I have some fried mac n' cheese?  NO CHEESE FOR YOU!

After hunting down my friend and telling her of the sorrow I was one again subject to, she said that she had found a different booth that was also selling mac n' cheese and the picture she sent me was from that booth.  We worked our way over to this second booth to lay waste to the bounty they had in store.


The Review

Richie Rich, Your Dinner Is Served

Welcome to another adventure in generic mac n' cheese!  Store brands are often called generics because they do not mass advertise their meals on TV, radio or in print (outside of the stores shelf signage or store weekly fliers).  That is in part why they cost less than the branded versions they sit next to on the shelf.  That distinct lack of advertising saves a bundle and those savings are passed on to us, the lucky consumer.  I've visited Safeway's in-house diet brand already, so I thought it might be good to try their in-house regular mac.

The Review


Brand: 
Safeway Select Triple-Rich Macaroni & Cheese

I tried a number of times to have some kind of witty rich themed joke for the title.  That was the best I could manage.

The TV Told Me To Buy It

Marketing is a huge part of all of our daily lives.  So much so that we almost don't even notice it anymore.  Advertising sneaks into almost everything.  That logo on the shirt you're wearing?  It's an ad.  That hat? An ad.  The shows you watch on TV?  When not broken up by ads, you find all kinds of product placements through out them.  Look the detective is using his smart phone while pointing out that they've just used a specific search engine to get that key piece of evidence.  Don't blink or you'll miss the explanation as to why they are using the special voice controlled GPS to get them to the suspects house in their amazing new car.  It's everywhere.

Some of the most powerful sales tactics are when mascots are used, especially when they are characters that kids relate to from that TV show or favorite cartoons.  Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny and a slew of other characters  have found their way onto everything.  It should come as no surprise that they've found our beloved mac n' cheese as well.


The Review

Brand:
Earth's Best Elmo Mac 'n Cheese with Carrots & Broccoli

Hi! I'm Elmo!  Can you believe that you're hearing my voice as you're reading this?  I'm so cool that not only am I a marketing tool but this is MY mac n' cheese!  I stay up late when not filming Sesame Street and make this for all of you! Consider any red fuzz an unexpected special bonus!

Doctorate Degree Not Required For Cooking

I've already mentioned that restaurants have invaded the frozen foods aisle with their inspired dishes. But todays meal is a rarity.  The restaurant that 'inspired' this meal is now mostly no more (I was under the impression that the entire chain had folded last year, however only 31 of their stores did).  Marie Callenders was quite well known in California and I ate there a number of times when I was little (and hated it if stories I remember are correct).  Marie Callendars is one of those restaurant chains that does pies (for desert and pickup year round) and homestyle dinners much like Bakers Square and Coco's. 

The last times I remember eating at a Marie Callenders was with a roommate who discovered their frozen meals when I was still at SJSU around 02-03 and was floored to discover that they had restaurants out there serving their food as well.  I took him to the Milpitas, CA location and we ate there I think twice that week, it was that enjoyed (I didn't go back, but he did for a while longer).  I also ate at one in San Ramon sometime in 07 or 08 with the wife.  I wasn't sad when the chain died and the restaurant eating public wasn't either as Marie Callendars were losing money like gangbusters.  How the chain shut down some of the stores was shocking, as they shut down mid servicewith people in the dining room eating dinner and employees and customers alike were all kicked out and the doors locked. 

Marie Callenders was one of the earlier chains that licensed their name to shelf stable (thanks for that awesome name wikipedia!) and frozen foods.  This portion of their business has been by far the more successful part and though the restaurant has become a regional one the frozen meals are nationally distributed.

The Review

Brand:
Marie Callender's Smoky Cheddar Mac & Uncured Bacon

Mac + cheese + BACON?!?  We may have a winner here.

I'm Looking At The Mac In The Mirror

Living in the SF Bay Area, I'm privy to all kinds of amazing things when it comes to mac n' cheese. From restaurants that serve nothing but to other places that have carved spots for it on their menus.  Out in the East Bay, Alameda County has it's yearly county fair (this year was it's 100th anniversary!). Since this is practically in my backyard and after hearing from a little birdy that they had some special fair food that was right up my alley, I was compelled to swing by on Sunday in hopes of getting some.  Alas, my destination at the fair was was "out of cheese".  I'll see if they've got cheese once more before the fair closes up shop in a week.  Hopefully i'll be lucky enough to try this out.

I decided that I was still going to have a mac n' cheese day, which after planning on a meal that was going to be horribly unhealthy, I changed gears and had the 'healthiest' kind I had in the freezer based purely on front of the box marketing.

The Review

Brand:
Lean Cuisine Macaroni & Cheese

Something Something, Boston Accent

A mainstay in freezer aisles now are meals bearing the name or are inspired by some of America's favorite chain restaurants.  The Cheesecake Factory, PF Chang's and Marie Calendars (RIP sit down restaurants), among others all have selections in your local grocer.  While the meals aren't made in some kitchen owned by the restaurant directly, food processors (companies who make our 'prepared' foods that line our grocery shelves) enter into licenses with these restaurants to carry meals sporting their logos. 


The Review

Brand:
Boston Market Macaroni & Cheese

They Don't Just Make Cakes Anymore

It's been interesting seeing who's gotten into the mac n' cheese business.  So far, most of the pre-made or quick make options I've found have been made by companies that are known for cheese/dairy (Kraft) or for making meals, either in restaunts or as pre-cooked vareties.  I've only found a few special cases so far bucking that trend.  Nissin sneaking in with their ramen noodle mac and now Betty Crocker.  Betty Crocker at least here in the US is known for baked desserts.  They are one of the big brands that do cake/cupcake mixes and frostings. They don't really step too deep into other foods as far as I have ever seen... until now.

The Review

Brand:
Betty Crocker Bowl Appetit! Three-Cheese Rotini

This is the first wittily named brand I've had on this journey.  I approve food manufacturers.  Keep it up!

Nothing Comes Closer To Home...

Having so many vareties of mac n' cheese stored here at work (15 currently as of this post) has lead to some very fun conversations and reactions from my coworkers as I heat and reconstitute make my lunches that I'm reviewing for the blog.  From "Have you tried brand X", to "What in the hell is that?!?" I'm getting a wide range of comments daily.  I've even been letting coworkers choose that days pain, poison tasty lunch every few days, just to mix it up and I'm not tired of this stuff in the slightest!

Since I have had a pair of tasty homemade mac n' cheeses recently I thought that I should try the frozen kind that I've been told by a number of my coworkers (and others) that I should be having.  "It's 'THE' frozen mac n' cheese to have" they say, "You can't go wrong with it".  Today I put the vaunted must eat it mac n' cheese to the test.

The Review

Brand:
Stouffer's 'Simple Dishes' macaroni & cheese

Mac-Aids

We all love mac n' cheese.  Well I have a great fondness for it and I hope that those reading it are either just as big of fans of the cheesy noodley cassarole, or have a perverse enough sense of humor to watch me consume as many kinds of this stuff as possible while having a chuckle at my expense. 

You know that mac n' cheese has hit the big time when you start to see non food stuffs appear in the likeness of this blog's subject matter.  While being tourists with friends who were here for a long birthday weekend, we spent quite a lot of time in San Francisco enjoying the sites and just a small chunk of what the city has to offer.  While wandering through the tourist trap known as Pier 39 we found our way into one of the candy shops to spy what they had. 

The Candy Baron is a dangerous store where loose candy sold by the quarter pound might as well come with a mortgage repayment schedule and the shelves are stocked to the hilt with all kinds of candy and candy related parafanelia.  Hiding in the back corner were some of the more random things that seem to be in the local candy shops now.  The section devoted to bacon (if I only wouldn't die from eating so much of it, I would try to find a way to blog it as well), a section devoted to 'naughty' candies and other random items that best fit in there because they don't fit anywhere else.  While looking over the bacon section I spied something that just begged to be reviewed on Mac N' Steve...

The Review

Brand:
Accoutreatments Macaroni & Cheese Bandages

Could these be the best bandages ever???

In The Land Of Milk & Cheese

As I've said in a few earlier posts I work for an energy consulting firm here in the Bay Area.  One of my first jobs was working in an implementation program for a Southern California utility.  We had a client site visit and we weren't sure where exactly we were supposed to be going.  So it was my job to find out. I went to see if Land O' Lakes (the parent company) website happened to list their production facilities anywhere.  I just happened onto the fact that Land O' Lakes was celebrating Mac n' Cheese month when I was looking things up.  They had a recipe on the site and I figured why not try it.  It looked easy enough and up to that point, I had never made any good home made mac n' cheese meals myself. 

Since then, this meal has become my go to home make mac.  It gets made every few months and has become the primary side dish for our Xmas dinners (it goes great with the ham we always have), been brought into work for movie night and was most recently made for all of our Chicago friends who came out for Sharen's birthday this last week.

The Review

Recipe Title:

Land O' Lakes 'Best Ever Macaroni and Cheese' (This recipe is no longer on the Land O' Lakes site)

I'm A Big Kid Now!

Mac n' cheese isn't just a meal for adults and in many ways it's become a kids meal, that adults get to have with their kids.  The Krafts of the world advertise up and down on kid's shows and really market towards the youth of the country.  I may be silly enough to make sure that I get the Pokemon mac n' cheese, but I am not the norm.

When I was young I was occasionally allowed to eat TV dinners (the no longer fashionable name for the frozen meals of today) and often I made the choice to have ones that were marketed towards kids.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are a number of different 'kids' mac n' cheese meals out there.  It's a good thing I'm a kid at heart, because I didn't feel guilty one bit for buying these meals.  I'm looking out for kids too with this blog!

The Review

Brand:
Kid Cuisine Mac & Cheese

The power of cute penguins playing baseball is a sirens song to kids to get parents to buy this dish.

It Never Hurts To Get A Little Color

This blog has really changed my shopping habits.  I am now going through freezer aisles and scouring them for potential new or weird vareties of mac n' cheese. Which is kind of weird because I normally completely skip the TV dinner aisle (except to grab the occasional emergency dinner frozen pizza).  One would think that you would run into the same brands over and over, which to an extent is true.  But i've been finding that all my local stores are carrying at least one or two brands that another store doesn't seem to have, or specific vareties of a brand that another doesn't have (for example, just for Amy's Kitchen i've found four vareties at three different stores of two competing grocery chains).

I'm also finding a number of brands that i've never heard of before which for the sake of this blog (and potentially for the mac n' cheese eating portin of the US) is a great thing.  Today's review was the first mac n' cheese meal that included other things with the meal (either mixed with the mac or that accompanied the mac) and was a brand i've never heard of before purchasing it for the sake of the blog.

The Review

Brand:
Helen's Kitchen Mac & Cheese made with organic broccoli & Durum wheat semolina pasta

11% more of what!?!  I'm not sure if I should be excited or scared.