John F. Kennedy famously remarked that a White House dinner he held for Nobel Prize winners was “the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Ah, Jefferson.

He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the third President of the United States and a devotee of macaroni and cheese.

Macaroni and cheese?

Jefferson was a foodie.

Macaroni and cheese was proudly introduced to America at his table at Monticello. Jefferson had discovered the dish during his five-year sojourn in Paris. There, he fell in love with French food and was so besotted with macaroni and cheese in particular that, when he returned to America, he was sure to bring back a recipe –along with a macaroni pasta extruder (America’s first!). Thereafter, he enthusiastically served macaroni and cheese at Monticello and at state dinners during his Presidency.

To be sure, you can get macaroni and cheese in various forms these days. It doesn’t have to be a gourmet dish.

You can get it deep-fried at fairs (ugh!) and sometimes wrapped in pastry (interesting!) and vended from food carts on the streets of urban America. Then, of course, you can make your own from those ubiquitous boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese found on every shelf in every market in every city and town in America–a standby for harassed moms and broke college students. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, by the way, has been around since the American Depression when it was advertised as feeding 4 people for 19 cents. Wow!

Jefferson, I think, would be appalled. For him, macaroni and cheese was an epicurean delight to be enjoyed in elegant surroundings– not some fried food on a stick.

Like Jefferson, I appreciate the elegance and subtleties of macaroni and cheese and it is a favorite dish on my table. In fact, one of the first dishes I learned to cook was macaroni and cheese. It was right out of the Good Housekeeping Cookbook (page 112, 1962 edition). I just looked it up to find the page number and found that I had underlined the recipe in bright orange. Made me laugh. The recipe is about as plain-Jane as macaroni and cheese recipes can be but it was delicious and I was a young cook when I used that orange marker.

Recently, during a late-night online recipe crawl, I came across a macaroni and cheese recipe that held the promise of upping my macaroni and cheese game. Tantalizingly, the recipe was one shared by Thomas Keller from his renowned Napa restaurant, Bouchon Bistro, where the dish is served as a part of the restaurant’s annual Thanksgiving dinner for veterans and their families. Keller’s recipe, published in Saveur Magazine, called for substituting some sophisticated cheese– Comte, fontina or Gruyere–for the traditional cheddar. His recipe also has you slow cooking a clove-studded onion in the sauce that is poured over the macaroni. Wow, again!

Here is my adaptation of Keller’s recipe.

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How do you feel about butternut squash?  No, really.

For those of you who might shy away from the squash, consider the following: It is a fruit; who doesn’t love fruit? It is a healthy food; who doesn’t want to eat healthy?  It is inexpensive; who isn’t cheap  thrifty?  It’s not kale.

Dense and creamy, butternut squash is the product of a 1940s-era hybridization project by Charles Leggett of Stow, Massachusetts. He started with a gooseneck squash and the rest is history. The butternut got its name because, according to its early promoters, the interior flesh of the fruit is as smooth as butter and as sweet as a nut. Kinda corny but it works.

But…don’t you just hate to peel it?

While it’s true that butternut squash is hard to prep, it doesn’t have to be. Here is a link to an excellent piece from Eating Well Magazine that demystifies how to prepare the squash: Eating Well On Preparing Butternut Squash. Alternatively, you can poke holes in the raw squash’s skin and then microwave it for about five minutes to make it easier to peel. That’s what I do.

Here is a wonderful butternut squash recipe.

This recipe is adapted from one that appears in chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s new cookbook, Ottolenghi Simple. Israel-born and London-based, Ottolenghi is the author of a number of best-selling cookbooks including Plenty, Plenty More, Jerusalem and Sweet. Up until now, his recipes have been known for their inventiveness but also for their difficulty and for the long lists of hard-to-find ingredients. Ottolenghi Simple focuses on recipes that are quick to prepare, that involve short lists of ingredients and that can, in many cases, be made well in advance.

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Here is a link to Amazon where you can buy Ottolenghi’s book: Amazon.

a happy holiday, the best new year, and a little chocolate cake.

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This recipe was adapted from an original recipe that appears here.