real life test kitchen: mary jane butters’ mixes
I’ve been wanting to try some of Mary Jane Butter’s organic food meals every since I read a profile about her in the New Yorker a couple of years ago. I’m not sure what took me so long, but I finally ordered a few from her site. In case you haven’t heard, MJ Butters is a bit of an organic gardening Yoda, with the style and taste of a farm fresh Martha Stewart. She has created a small organic utopia on her farm in Idaho where she teaches organic gardening, creates a magazine, runs a b&b and makes up some good-for-you fast food. Since we are STILL without gas for cooking, I decided to try her Organic Mac ‘n Cheese mix. Being something of a mac-n-cheese connoisseur, I was a bit suspicious of a “just add boiling water” concoction. But despite my doubts, it was pretty yummy. I ended up having to add a little more water than the 3/4 cup that was called for, and even then there were some crunchy bits after ten minutes of seeping. I sprinkled on some fresh parm and ground pepper and enjoyed a healthy version of my favorite comfort food. Does anyone else have a “just add water” meal to recommend (besides Cup Noodles!)? — Angela M.
June 28th, 2006 at 8:30 am
MISO!!!! true, you have to boil the water, but then all you do is stir in the dashi stock, miso paste, and seaweed, add tofu (or my fave, frozen gyoza from trader joe’s), and voila! meal in a bowl! no *real* cooking required!
June 28th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Annie’s macaroni and cheese is 100% organic and absolutely delicious. Awesome macaroni
June 30th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
One thing about Mary Jane is that her name is all one word for tradmark/service mark/registered mark purposes. (that stuck out at me in teh New Yorker article.)
As for miso, get the paste not the dried miso. Powdered miso is yucky.
January 31st, 2007 at 9:00 am
[...] It’s not often that I find things in my daily media-gossip-blog troll that merge into the Shelterrific world, but this post at Gawker is about a subject so universal, it crosses all blog boundaries. Yes, I’m talking about macaroni and cheese. Apparently a fierce debating is raging as to the merits of Annie’s Organic vs. the classic Kraft box. You’ll find a lengthy (and hysterical) dissertation on the subject over at Salon.com. It does a side-by-side comparison with Annie’s bunny-endorsed mac-n-cheese and the vibrant orange stuff of Kraft. Yes, Annie’s cheese powder comes out ahead (with only nine ingredients rather than 20), but from a nutritional standpoint, they’re almost tied. I wonder how it compares to Mary Jane Butters’ mix which we wrote about last summer? For that matter, Rachael Ray’s recipe is so easy, it’s enough to make you swear off the instant forever. What’s your take on the mac-n-cheese debate? Do you eat the mix stuff? If so, which ones? — Angela M. [...]
September 11th, 2007 at 3:56 am
[...] a can’t remember NOT eating, and while I usually skip the boxed variety (unless of course, it’s organic) I am not afraid to whip up a cheesy, gooey feast. When I want it in a hurry, I use a recipe from [...]