Rotini is the GOAT Mac and Cheese Noodle

I want to end the week on what some may think is a pretty hot button issue. The world is crazy, there are hurricanes abound, it has been raining here in STL all morning, Earth is kind of a mess right now. And with what I will be talking about today, it may just make things even worse off for a select group of people. Let’s go.

In my home, when my wife has an out of town work trip, I do all of the cooking. My son likes to cook, but he has football practice four nights a week and games on Saturday. My daughter has shown interest, but she's only 8. My wife is a great cook, but she was out of town, and I have found myself enjoying cooking more and more everyday. When she has to leave it gives me the opportunity to try something new. My daughter loves mac and cheese. My son loves bacon. I love both. So this past Monday I went ahead and married the two to form bacon mac and cheese.

It was a big hit.

I have done versions of this in the past, but this week's dish felt and tasted different. When I make homemade mac and cheese I tend to use either elbow macaroni or small shells. It's classic. Growing up we ate a good amount of Velveeta shells and cheese. My wife grew up in a Kraft household. These are the classics.

Now, this is what I think may divide some people on the internet. This may get the people talking. I may get some wild comments with what I'm about to say. Don't hate me everyone, but this past Monday I went a little off the beaten path and used rotini to make the bacon mac and cheese. And it was, without a doubt in my mind, the best possible noodle one can use to make mac and cheese at home. It was the absolute perfect vessel for the cheese sauce. My daughter helped me with this, and it was a simple cheese sauce. I used butter and flour for my roux, and added a little salt. As that thickened we added milk and heavy cream. When that became gravy like we added a block of mild cheddar, shredded at home of course, with some gouda, which I also shredded at home. This was a great cheese sauce. It was goopy and soft. It looked like Velveeta to me. I was all in. We then added some bacon that I chopped to the cheese sauce and stirred it all in. After the rotini was done in the water, we drained it and added it to the cheese sauce. Right away I noticed that the sauce was adhering so much better than it does with elbow macaroni or shells. When you use elbow macaroni, the cheese kind of falls off and ends up in the bottom of the bowl that you serve the dish in. With shells, the swooped part gets some of the cheese in it, but then it cascades off from the top. With the rotini, the sauce clung to the edges in the rolled pasta. It stayed on the top and bottom of the rotini as well. The ridges in the pasta make for something of a catching apparatus that will take on any kind of sauce you may have. What made the rotini even better, the bacon bits fit perfectly into each ridge. There wasn't a piece of the pasta that was missing any of the components. I went back the day after to eat the leftovers, and when I reheated it, all of the sauce and bacon stayed in its spot on the rotini. I was in awe. I found myself thinking about it a few days after eating it, and being happily surprised at how well the rotini worked. My kids told me they liked that pasta best too.

I don't know if it is a recency thing, but I will be using rotini again when I make this dish to see if it works as well. All in all, rotini is my new go to pasta for bacon mac and cheese. It is the best type of pasta to get if you want to taste everything that goes into a pasta dish. Don't be too harsh with the comments, but I stand by this take as strong as ever.

Ty

 Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Getting Older, and Adding Bacon, Makes One Appreciate Brussels Sprouts

Hungry?

I've been writing a lot about sports, music, television and movies lately. That's what I am supposed to write about because I'm a pop culture writer, but sometimes you have to write about something a bit off topic.

No, I'm not going to talk about the primaries today, that's RD's job (ed note: go vote).

I'm actually going to talk about a food that I feel is wildly unappreciated. This is a food that, when trying to give to a child, draws a face of disgust. Hell, I know some adults that would give the same face. But, when executed properly, this food is tremendous. The food I speak of is the brussels sprout.

Now, as a kid, I wouldn't touch one of these with a ten foot pole. They smelled weird, tasted weird and who wants to eat a mini cabbage anyway? I was not a fan. But, as recently as two years ago, a love affair with this vegetable came on strong. I was eating at a restaurant called The Block in Webster Groves, Missouri and they had an appetizer called "flash fried brussel sprouts". The rest of the table thought this sounded good and I figured, I'm in my 30's now, maybe I like brussels sprouts. It didn't hurt that there was bacon in the dish as well. In fact, the ingredients in the appetizer where, brussels sprouts, bacon, slivered almonds, cooked onions, vinegar and lemon juice.

They had me at bacon.

When the dish was served, I think I ate about 75 percent of it. It was fantastic. Sure, the bacon and lemon juice were the most prominent flavor, but the brussels sprout was definitely present. This dish made me a fan of brussels sprouts. Soon, I'd find myself buying them at the store and incorporating them in dinners at home. I'd eat them roasted, fried, cooked in butter or oil, basically, I'd eat them anyway they came. My wife has gotten very close to replicating the appetizer from The Block too. As I said, we eat them a lot, so she wanted to try and she almost has it. Sometimes there's a touch too much vinegar or lemon juice, but they're still great anyway they come out. I find myself ordering them as a side when it's on restaurants menus. I'd rather have brussel sprouts than fries, if that's an option. And when restaurants do them right, they can be the best thing for the full meal.

The main reason this topic was on my mind was the recent trip my family just took. My wife and I, our two kids and my folks just ventured up to the Wisconsin Dells for swimming and relaxation for four days. We stayed at the excellent Great Wolf Lodge and they have everything there you could want, including restaurants. They have an indoor and outdoor water park, lodging, an ice cream parlor, story time for kiddos and a bar that doubles as a restaurant. The first night we got there, instead of looking for a local restaurant, we decided to eat at the main bar/restaurant. All the food was great, but my wife and father got a side order of brussels sprouts. At this place their brussels sprouts also had bacon, but they didn't have almonds or lemon juice or onions or vinegar, they had a Dijon mustard sauce. So, it was just brussels sprouts, bacon and a Dijon sauce. Sounds minimal, but my wife let me finish her order, and they were phenomenal. The Dijon sauce was sublime. The bacon was crispy perfection and the brussels sprouts were perfectly cooked. I found myself spooning the remaining sauce into my mouth because it was so tasty. Needless to say, the three other times we went to the restaurant, my wife, myself and my dad made sure we ordered this dish. It was awesome, possibly the best thing I ate during our stay, and I ate a shit ton of cheese curds.

So, if you're on the fence, or you haven't tried them in years, give brussels sprouts a chance. Be sure to add bacon, or if you are a vegetarian, just roast them with butter and oil. Both ways of cooking really accentuate the excellent flavor of brussels sprouts. I'm a big fan now and I'm sure you will be too if you give them a fair chance.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He hopes to one day revisit lima beans and durian. He is hoping they both are accented with bacon. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.