Hot Dish Review

Winter is a great time to hibernate with your honey. Although it wasn’t very cold, me and ST decided to stay in and snuggle up to a couple of bottles of red wine, an organic rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods, and some homemade mac & cheese.

In honor of the Australian Open, we picked up a bottle of 2006 Australian red called Yard Dog. It’s a blend of petit verdot, cab, and merlot with a really cool label and a screw top. Pretty tasty. We ended up opening the bottle of 2007 Volver tempranillo I already had purchased, despite its unattractive label, at Ansley Kroger (the best wine store in Atlanta, by the way).

I had pulled a couple of mac ‘n’ cheese recipes out of magazines over the last few months, some with three cheeses, others with cream cheese, ham and spices. There were so many variations it was hard to come up with a solid recipe. I ended up loosely basing mine on a three-cheese pasta bake from Southern Living.

Thankfully, there are no photos of the process….not a pretty sight. It was quite a fiasco. The cheese sauce was absolutely delicious, prior to baking. However, once baked, the dish was rather dry. Maybe more sauce, less pasta? (I only used 3/4 of the pasta that I cooked). Maybe eat it without baking it? Here’s the recipe. let me know if you have a solution to the dry outcome!

SMOKY HOMEMADE MAC & CHEESE

4 oz. macaroni
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. flour
1 cup 2% milk
1/4 cup grated fontina
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup grated smoked gouda
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper
pinch of cayenne

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pasta according to package directions, al dente. Grease two 6″ individual casserole dishes with cooking spray or butter.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour, cooking for one minute. Gradually whisk in milk and continue cooking 3-5 minutes. Stir in the three cheeses, garlic, salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Add cooked pasta to the sauce and stir to coat, then pour into the individual casserole dishes. Top with bread crumbs and bake for 20 minutes.

That’s it! I wanted to put bacon in it but didn’t have any (what the fuck, no bacon?). Anyway, the flavor was great. Also, I wanted to use an interesting pasta like cellentani but ended up with regular elbows….I’m sure penne or shells would be a good choice too.

Maybe the mac & cheese didn’t turn out exactly like I expected but I was with ST and that’s always delicious.

Upscale boutique hotels are springing up all over Atlanta, from midtown’s Georgian Terrace to the newly renovated Ellis Hotel downtown. Each one has a restaurant that serves the hotel guests breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It would seem as though that alone would provide automatic success to these restaurants, however, it isn’t enough to serve out-of-town guests, they need to draw in locals to stay afloat.

The Terrace is serious about local, sustainable produce. Much smaller in scale than Mennie’s Livingston, it is probably easier for chef Joel Young to maintain this level of excellence. B and I recently stopped by the W Downtown to see Bill Hallman and his new cocktail dresses for the waitstaff at the Lobby Bar, then proceeded on to The Ellis for dinner.

Our hostess allowed us to choose our table as the place had pretty much cleared out by the time we arrived. The restaurant does indeed have a terrace, probably fabulous for breakfast and lunch, but a bit chilly for dinner so we sat inside in the adjacent intimate dining area. Chef Joel joined us, chatting about his background and love of local and sustainable dining.

Not a difficult task here in Atlanta with numerous farms providing fresh produce and locally grown proteins to our prestigious restaurants like Woodfire Grill, Dynamic Dish, Livingston, and many more. Chef Joel visits the farmer’s markets each day to find the best of ingredients for the menu at The Terrace, which automatically gives the menu a bit of Southern flair despite chef’s Connecticut roots.

B and I were two hungry chicks upon our late arrival. We started with the Terrace crab cake and sweet potato ravioli. Served upon a large mound of sauteed spinach and muchrooms, the ravioli was almost an entree portion for me, sweet and savory. The crab cake was stellar, exhibiting very little filler and very much chunky crab. But it was the accompanying salad that received my adoration…..just a simple citrus vinaigrette with a sweet note, awesome.

A wonderful bottle of Colores de Sol Malbec was spicy, peppery, yet very smooth and drinkable.

We opted for two entrees, the flatiron steak and the Amish chicken, and two more sides, collards and mac and cheese. Their beef is grass-fed….a big deal to me, having interviewed Bill Kurtis (the dude with the kickass internet commercials right now) who owns a grass-fed cattle ranch in Kansas called Tallgrass. Cattle was meant to eat grass, not corn, so the grass-fed beef is totally free of antibiotics to treat illnesses brought on by grain diets and also naturally rich in Omega 3 fatty acids. We ordered it medium rare, served sliced on a bed of caramelized Vidalia and carrot slaw. I loved the slaw. There was a copius amount so I took it home, having it the next day with sausage balls!

The Amish chicken was served with mushroom risotto. With a crisped skin and tender meat, the chicken was flavorful and paired perfectly with the creamy risotto. B said the collards were some of the best she had ever had (hey, this coming from a Southern girl!), they were mellow and smoky with bacon. The macaroni and cheese was topped with bread crumbs and baked with Lamb Chopper from Cypress Grove in California, the maker of my favorite Humboldt Fog. What could be better? Not a damn thing.

Dessert was determined even before the entrees….bread pudding? Yes sir! I love it, as long as it is not covered with a cloying syrup. True to form, Chef Joel presented a dense bread pudding with raisins, sliced fresh pear beneath it to cut the richness. We also tried the apple cranberry crumble which was so delicious. But the serving was definitely for sharing….enormous! The homemade vanilla ice cream on top was great.

I know folks are daunted by going “downtown”. Stop being a pussy! Parking is valet, the food is phenomenal, the setting is romantic. And if you drink too much you can always get a room there.