For married life, I thought it’d be fun to buy one cookbook and use it our first years together. We went to B&N together the first week I was here and settled on William-Sonoma Cooking at Home. It looked challenging enough. I prepared a menu for the week, using about two recipes a meal. Yesterday Ethan was craving chicken, so dinner became Buffalo Wings with Baked Mac and Cheese.
Buffalo Wings: The wings were fairly easy, but I didn’t follow the directions as closely as I would have liked. The main difference was in how I cooked them. We don’t have access to a grill here, so I cooked them on the stove-top with the extra marinade. I’m not used to working with chicken wings, so I felt like they took forever to cook through.
Baked Mac and Cheese: The cheese required a separate recipe before creating this one–a White Sauce provided in the sauce section of the cookbook. This really wasn’t complicated, thank goodness. But the center was not gooey like other mac and cheeses I’ve seen. The small shell pasta seemed to soak up the cheddar and white sauce, which made an interesting take on the comfort food. I would have liked if the bread crumbs were more golden, but I’d say it wasn’t too bad for my first try.
I served the meal with Ranch/sour cream dip and veggies. Ethan scarfed it down, so I guess the meal was a success? Hehe, hope this food post wasn’t a bore =)
Update: We received Ethan’s early b-day present last night, a sweet TV from Amanda! Have to get a TV stand asap!
Caviar Dreams 
So funny to read this. When we firat married, we were atationed in Barstow, CA. I remember spending all day planning and preparing a meal for when Steve would come in from the field. Rachel Ray’s 30 min meals would have been a novel Idea for me. Ha You are doing well!
Haha, it literally took me too long…I hope I increase my cooking efficiency!
Looks delicious!!!!!!
Thanks, I reeealy tried…second real thing I’ve cooked for him…eek!
Looks like a great meal to me!! You can NEVER go wrong with mac and cheese….LOVE it!!!
I figured so too!
[…] setting aside the heavy in lieu of the latest recipe from our William Sonoma cookbook (last seen here). I admit I loved the name more than anything–so after a shopping trip for sweet potatoes […]