Note from the Editor: 
This is a recipe from the cookbook we are currently reviewing, Freshman in the Kitchen. The recipe being reviewed is for Crepes and Fresh Berries with whipped cream made from scratch. Click the link above to read more about the book and let us know what you think!

Coming from an extreme lover for mac and cheese, I have tried many different recipes for this delightful meal.  So, naturally, when deciding to review recipes for Freshman in the Kitchen, making mac and cheese was immediately on the to-do list.  3 different cheeses! Yum! Generally when I’ve made mac and cheese, cheddar cheese or white cheddar cheese have been my favorite choices.  This recipe, however, calls for cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese, and gruyere cheese -  a completely unfamiliar cheese to me!  This recipe also calls for garlic...how intriguing!
 
Mac and cheese is definitely my comfort food.  When I have a bad day, I immediately grab a box of mac and cheese and know that I can at least enjoy those 20 minutes of that day eating something that I love.  Instead of being a rich and creamy sauce, like most mac and cheese recipes I’m used to, the cheese sauce in this recipe was almost like a roux.    A roux is a combination of fats and flour that makes a sauce thicker.  In this case, the 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil that were called for sautéing the onions, needed to be soaked up.  By adding flour, the mixture dried up and became thicker when the milk was added.  This sauce was extremely thick and was not what I was expecting for mac and cheese.

The recipe calls for gruyere cheese, which is a pretty expensive block of cheese, that I personally thought was not worth it.  Not to mention, it has an extremely tangy and robust flavor.  Tasting something so strong was a little discouraging.  However, if you are a fan of gruyere cheese, this probably would have been the best mac and cheese you’d ever have. The bottom of the recipe says that because the three cheeses can get expensive, using just cheddar or adding swiss or pepper jack, instead of using gruyere, would save some money!  I would try this recipe in a heartbeat using different cheeses that are my own personal favorite. 
 
Also, the recipe calls for one small onion.  I did not even use 3/4ths of a small onion when I made the recipe because it seemed like way too much.  I would cut down the amount of onions even further to about half an onion.  That way, you can still get the flavor of the cheeses without getting an overpowering taste of onion. 
 
The directions for this recipe are extremely straightforward and are explained well.  The recipe mentions that the total time for this recipe is about 1 hour.  I would have to disagree.  Because making a roux type sauce was something completely new to me, and chopping onions still takes me awhile, it took about an hour and a half to complete the recipe. It was extremely easy to make, despite its preparation time.  And, I definitely did not have room in my stomach to go up for seconds!
 
Mediterranean Pasta Salad
 
Although mac and cheese is my favorite comfort food, different pasta dishes are a close second.  Pasta salad has been a traditional spring and summer side dish for a meal.  The fresh vegetables that my mom usually uses create a refreshing pasta salad.  However, my mom never put feta cheese on top of a pasta salad, which is exactly what drew me into this recipe.  Not to mention, the addition of peppers, which my mom cannot eat, also intrigued me. 
 
This mediterranean pasta salad had an italian and greek flavor to it.  The flavor combination was great!  I definitely gave this recipe an A.  The feta cheese and parmesan cheese were amazing with the other spices.  If you’re a fan of greek olives, or kalamata olives, this adds a great flavor to the pasta salad!
 
The recipe calls for A LOT of vegetables and frankly, not enough pasta for my pasta loving self.  I would use about 12 ounces of dry pasta as opposed to 8 that the recipe calls.  The only dressing that was on the pasta was olive oil.  Adding something like red wine vinegar, or another mild vinegar, would definitely add some pizazz to the pasta salad.  The amount of onions in the pasta salad was a little too much, and although they were salted, it was pretty overpowering.  Using less onions would probably be better!  This is definitely a recipe that I will make again!