Old St. Valentine

I love Valentine's Day.  Not the mushy/tacky parts of the holiday, but pretty much everything else about it makes me grin.  What other day of the year is it acceptable (and encouraged) to combine any shade of pink with bright red?? (J'adore a good pink/red color combo.) What other day of the year is giving a simple carnation to someone sweet and thoughtful?? (Gifting someone a carnation on any of the other 364 days of the year is a hate crime.) What other day of the year can you eat un-Godly amounts of chocolate and not feel guilty about it?? I love those cherry heart shaped suckers. I love fat little cupids. I love the quintessential boxes of the perforated sheets of valentine's cards that you'd scribble your name on the back of and stuff in the envelope with a cheap Palmers' heart-shaped chocolate or Nerds to give to classmates. I love the Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown movie.  I love homemade valentine's cards with delicate paper doilies. I love conversation hearts and am quite preferential to the orange ones.  I love the thought of having a valentine or a sweetheart, if only for the day.  For me, it's always felt like such a happy holiday, regardless of if I have had a valentine or not. 

via

Ironically though, David and I don't really do Valentine's... we never have made a big deal about it... 8 years running now.  Neither of us would be caught dead in a fancy restaurant on Valentine's Day-- the thought of that makes my skin crawl.  We usually just cook a semi-nice meal at home or head to a non-lovey type of joint, like a pizza tavern, where we dine with the other non-lovies of the world.

Last night, we decided to cook filet mignon at home.  David sears them in a cast-iron skillet and then melts butter on top of them... Be still my heart!  They are to. die. for.

So, I picked up some asparagus to accompany our steaks, and a while back I had grabbed a bag of the cutest heart shaped pasta from World Market and have been waiting for the opportunity to use it.  Truffle Mac 'N Cheese seemed to the right dish to round out our dinner menu.  And thus, the reason for my blog post tonight...  I found the BEST (and I mean, THE BEST) truffle mac 'n cheese recipe online.  And now I can't find where I found it, so I can't even give credit where credit is due, but I still have to share it with you, at risk of being arrested for plagiarism or whatever.

I didn't take any pictures of the prep because I honestly had NO idea it would be good enough to blog about.  Hindsight is 20/20, they say.

Anyway, I altered the recipe a little bit as I cooked, so I don't feel as bad for not giving you a source for the recipe... I guess you can say that it's partially my recipe.  In 50 years, my grandchildren are going to think that it is their sweet (ha.) old granny's original recipe because, as of 8 PM last night, it became a permanent Ellison Family staple dish.

Here we go.

TRUFFLE MAC 'N CHEESE

Get a box of 1 1/2 lbs. pasta.  I think that bowties or shells would be a solid choice, but choose whatever strikes your fancy. Go ahead and cook your pasta according to the directions on the box.  Drain and keep it warm.  I just placed the colander back into the empty pot and sat a plate on top of the colander to keep the heat from escaping...

Meanwhile, heat 3 TBSP unsalted butter in a LARGE pan over medium to medium-high heat (our stove is a dinosaur, so it took medium-high-- if you are cooking with a relatively newer appliance, a) I am jealous and b) medium heat may be fine. Just don't burn the butter.)

Once the butter starts foaming, add 1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour.  Stir until it is well-incorporated with the butter.  Slowly pour in 3 cups of milk (I remember the recipe called for whole milk, but I used 1% low-fat and it turned out fine).  Now start whisking the mixture over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, or until the liquid thickens into a sauce-like consistency.  You will need to whisk constantly.  This will count as your upper body workout for the day.  Keep a close eye on it and turn down the heat if you need to-- you don't want to scald the milk.  No one likes scalded milk.

After your milk mixture starts looking saucy, remove the pan from the heat.  You will need to have 2 cups of swiss cheese grated and on stand-by (I just grated a block of swiss cheese, or I am sure you could use the bag of the shredded stuff).  Stir in the swiss cheese little by little until it is melted fully into the sauce. 

Go ahead and add Salt & Pepper to taste at this point.  I found that it needed quite a bit of salt-- Next, add in 2 teaspoons of truffle oil.  I had white truffle oil on hand, and since truffle oil is in my top 4 favorite condiments, I probably added more than 2 teaspoons.  Just add a little and keep tasting and adding until it tells your taste buds that it's PERFECT.

Lastly, take your drained pasta and carefully combine it into the cheese sauce. Taa Daa! David put bacon on top of his. I went sans bacon.  Either way, it is one of the best things I have ever cooked, if I must say so myself.

This picture was a complete after-thought and doesn't do the dish justice, but I had to at least show it off.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day, and that the spririt of love will last year-round!

Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18