creamy, one pot mac and cheese

Ok people.  This is revolutionary.  I read this recipe on Pinterest, changed a few things, and added a little pizzazz to it to make it my own.  The basic idea is to cook the macaroni IN THE MILK- that's right.  In the milk.  After a while of simmering, you add your cheese (whatever kind you want).  It's creamy, delicious, so comforting, and healthiER (healthier=not necessarily eating straight bulgur wheat but a great healthy alternative to a mac and cheese made with a rich white bechemel sauce).  You can always put it in the oven with some bread crumbs if you like that oven baked taste.  Here we go:

Ingredients:

4 cups large elbow Macaroni, uncooked (or whatever kind of pasta you want)
4 cups milk if needed, additional 1/4 cup milk for final cooking (note: I have used 1% and while it has been delicious, it does not yield the creamy results that whole milk would provide.  keep that in mind!)
1 teaspoon dijon mustard (or you could use ground mustard)

1 onion, diced (small to medium sized- or whatever you have)

3 cloves of garlic (chopped)
a dash of oil

1 bay leaf  
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

generous dash of nutmeg
1 block (16 oz or so) of grated cheese (should be 2 cups), any one or combination of  (I used sharp white cheddar- inspired by Panera's mac and cheese- and parmesan because it's what I had.  delish.)

**serves around 6 people (makes GREAT leftovers for those of you with households of 2!)

Directions:

• In a medium saucepan, heat your oil and saute your chopped onion and garlic over medium heat until you get a little brown color on your onions
• Add your nutmeg and bay leaf 
• Add your milk, macaroni, and dijon
• Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat.  Stir your pasta pretty regularly because if not, it will all clump together so don't walk away!
• Once your milk simmers, turn it down to low (the original recipe inventor said if the milk is too hot, it will evaporate too quickly)
• Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until milk has absorbed into the macaroni.  Add more milk if the macaroni isn't fully cooked and cook for another 5 minutes, or until cooked.  I didn't let my milk evaporate completely because I still wanted a creamy sauce.  To each his/her own.
• Stir in your cheese(s)
• The original recipe says to turn off the heat and put the lid on the pot so the macaroni can continue to absorb, but I didn't do this because I got the consistency I desired.
• You could put it in an oven proof dish and add more cheese or panko bread crumbs and stick it in the oven if you want, or just eat it as is!

Enjoy! Sorry I don't have a pic- but trust me!  SO yummy! 

***PS I added roasted cauliflower to it and tonight I am adding roasted broccoli for color (and nutrients, of course!) 

Italian Hazelnut Cookies: Channeling My Inner Green Fairy

Do y'all remember the fairies from Sleeping Beauty? My sister, Robin, and I used to love Sleeping Beauty. We used to pretend that we were the fairies fluttering around to save Princess Aurora. Naturally, I was always the red fairy, the leader, because I was the oldest and the bossiest. Robin was the green fairy because she was the middle child. We made Joseph be the short, fat, blue fairy. (He was too little to object).

This week I made dinner for a family who follows a gluten-free lifestyle. After the meal was prepared, I got ambitious and decided to also make them cookies. I figured that the gluten-free persons of this world probably don't get to eat cookies very often and that is a tragedy. I found these wonderful gluten free hazelnut cookies called "Brutti Ma Buoni" which means "ugly but good" in Italian. Only five ingredients... surely I can handle that.

If you regularly follow this blog, you've heard me lament about how I don't have the baking gene. I've become a pretty decent cook, but I'm a miserable baker. Enter the green fairy. There's this wonderful scene in Sleeping Beauty where the green fairy tries to bake Princess Aurora a birthday cake. Despite all her efforts and passion and positive attitude, she gets it all wrong. She ices the cake and tops it with candles before even getting it into the oven. While separating the egg yolks from the whites for my hazelnut cookies, I was feeling the green fairy's pain:

See that face? That was my face.

Eventually the green fairy gives up and summons her magic wand for help. With just a few flicks of that magic wand all is better in the fairy's cake baking world.

A whole carton of broken eggs and a few failed batches of batter down the drain later, my cookies actually turned out well. I was able to channel my inner magic wand ... eventually.

If you are interested in watching the clip from Sleeping Beauty so you can understand what the heck I'm talking about, click here.

Hot Chili Oil

Last week I ran out of olive oil. This has been problematic... olive oil is kind of a key ingredient in the kitchen...

I keep forgetting to pick some up at Kroger, so when I return home to cook, I'm in a bit of a pinch.

Well, I don't have olive oil, but for some strange reason I have "hot chili oil". No idea why.

Since I can't seem to remember to actually buy olive oil, I have been using this hot chili oil as a replacement. The results have been surprisingly good!

It is pleasantly flavorful and spicy. It adds a unique flavor and depth to your dishes...

Last week I used it in a "Texas-style" red beans and rice. Today I added a splash to an asian noodle soup. Don't get me wrong, it adds quite a kick to the food, but if you're like me and you like heat, you'll think it is soooo gooood.

It's true. "Necessity is the mother or invention".

Chicken Pot Pie. Snuggle Me in a Blanket.

Once upon a time,

It was fall in Houston, Texas. Even though there weren't any pretty colored leaves and it wasn't quite cold enough to wear a scarf, the people of Houston were craving home-y, snuggley meals that reminded them of fire places, old books, and warm cuddly blankets.

I made chicken potpie the other night.

Are you impressed? I was impressed. It was quite good.

Now, my mother never made chicken potpie when I was a child... but I'm sure your mother did... So at least I was reliving somebody's childhood.

In the spirit of this blog, I made this chicken potpie on a major budget. Instead of the traditioanl ingredients, I used two medium sweet potatoes, a package of frozen peas, one organic chicken breast, and one small onion. I topped it with my friend's grandmother's pie crust (see the blog entry "Fig and Plum Pie").

I could give you the step by step details of this comforting meal, but I'm too lazy. I adapted it from the Cooking Light recipe. To see this recipe and even watch a little demo video, click here.

Once upon a time,

I thought I didn't like chicken potpie. Then I tried this recipe and realized that... I do. I do indeed like it. You will, too.

sea salted caramels

Friends, I admit.  It's taking me WAYYY too long to complete my "Food Network Recipe Box" challenge.  Although this recipe isn't from my recipe box, it's still from Food Network so we're going to pretend like this puts me one step closer to completing my challenge.  I made these morsels of goodness for my precious, precious friend in my MSW program, Melissa.  I took pictures along the way since caramels can be a little tricky to make.  Melissa said she licked the wrappers clean and I've been craving these guys ever since making them.  They are worth it to make for any kind of birthday where you don't know what to get the person (ie; your father in law who has everything he needs so what REALLY can you get him?  food always wins), or any kind of occasion, really, but I warn you: to wrap them individually and work that caramel is time consuming so keep that in mind.

Ina says it yields 16 caramels- but I think you can go for a few more depending on the size you cut them.


Ingredients:

• Vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon fine fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling (I just used my sea salt- much easier to find!)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

• Prep the pan:   Line an 8-inch-square baking pan with parchment paper, allowing it to drape over 2 sides, then brush the paper lightly with oil. (note: ANYTHING the caramel is going to touch you need to brush or spray with oil- YOU HEAR ME ON THAT?  I PROMISE IT WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER!)

sorry for the awkward picture, but here's what you're doing:

• In a deep saucepan combine 1/4 cup water, the sugar and corn syrup and bring them to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil until the mixture is a warm golden brown. Don't stir -- just swirl the pan.

• meanwhile, the pot in the back is for the purpose of doing this: 

• In a small pot, bring the cream, butter and 1 teaspoon of fleur de sel to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Your sugar mixture will start looking like this:

then this:

• once your sugar mixture (caramel) has reached this gorgeous, rich deep color, you add the cream mixture.  CAREFUL/CUIDADO!  It will bubble up "violently" as Ina says.

• stir in your vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium low heat for around 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248 degrees (firm ball) on a candy thermometer (it will look like this:)

• now pour your hot caramel into your prepared dish and refrigerate for several hours- I mean SEVERAL.  I think I may have used too deep of a dish, causing the caramel to be SUPER thick in width (which is fine, and still yields the same delicious results, just a little more difficult to work with) so yeah yeah, Ina says to use an 8x8, but I think you could get away with something that will make the caramel spread out a bit more- you feel me on that?  

• So, after your caramel has refrigerated, it's ready to be cut.  This is how Ina says to do it (because I am no where near smart enough to try and tell you how):

• Sprinkle the log with fleur de sel, trim the ends and cut into 8 pieces. (Start by cutting the log in half, then continue cutting each piece in half until you have 8 equal pieces.) It's easier to cut the caramels if you brush the knife with flavorless oil like corn oil.  Here's how mine looked if it helps:

 this is half a log- I cut it straight down the middle length wise- "hot dog" style, if you will

From here, I manipulated the caramel and plopped it on a square of wax paper I had cut out like so:

I then wrapped the little treasures up to look like this (per Ina's instructions- I am not creative enough to think of this!):

There you have it.  OUT OF THIS WORLD CARAMELS!!!

Click here for full recipe

Make these as SOON as you can!! They are SO worth the labor- especially if you are trying to impress somebody! (like your father in law!)

Homemade Yogurt

Yes. You read correctly: homemade yogurt.  Who knew such a magical thing existed!?  I learned about this last night when I went to my precious friend Jenni's house and she and her husband made HOMEMADE YOGURT right before my very eyes.  She actually got the recipe from our other precious friend (with a new precious baby girl I might add), Emily.  So, Jenni, by way of Emily, THANK YOU for sharing this recipe with me! And Emily- thank you for being in the loop on cool stuff like this! 

Jenni did the math for me- and while I can't reiterate the numbers for you (although Jenni or Emily please feel free to do so in the "comments"), it saves A LOT of money to make your own yogurt as opposed to buying the fancy Greek yogurt that everyone loves (which is why I strain my yogurt- but still, I end up with only HALF of what I bought by the time all the juices drain out of the yogurt!)

So, here's what you do (this is Jenni's recipe- this is not an original- although I wish I could take credit for such an incredible invention!)

• ·         Take a medium-sized saucepan and fill with 8 cups of room-temperature milk (ours isn’t always room-temp and it still turns out).

• ·         Place the medium-sized pan inside a large saucepan and fill the large pan with water up to the level of the milk.

• ·         Double boil the milk until it reaches 190 degrees F, stirring frequently

• ·         While the milk heats up, create an ice bath in the sink (about the same level as the milk in the saucepan).

• ·         Once the milk reaches 190 degrees, place the saucepan in the ice bath and let cool until it is 110 degrees.

• ·         While the milk cools, preheat oven to warm and turn on the light.

• ·         Gently whisk in 1-2 tablespoons of plain yogurt (from the store or a previous batch) and cover.

• ·         Put a towel over the saucepan cover and place in the oven. Turn the oven off!

• ·         Let sit overnight, for up to twelve hours.

• ·         To make your yogurt greek, strain (use a coffee filter and colander) for about 1-2 hours.

• ·         Freeze liquid whey to use in smoothies and sauces.

That's it!  We're all about saving the $- here's one GREAT way to do it!  

Gourmet Pizza

This is me not wanting to study for my midterms. BLAHHHHH!  I mean, I love school, I love school, I love school. 

Ok I'm done now.  Just had to get that off my chest.  On to more important things such as the fuel that keeps me going....GOOD FOOD!  So, living in Columbus, I have missed my Publix VERY VERY much, HOWEVER, now that I go to school in a town where there IS a Publix, I sometimes stop by there when I need a quick shortcut to make din din.  Last week this shortcut came in the form of Publix's amazing homemade pizza dough (found in their bakery).  I knew I had a bunch of stuff at home that I could put on this pizza, but I was also craving some other little goodies such as fresh mozzarella (I'm sorry, but the other stuff just doesn't compare) and an arugula salad to go on top.  Here was a picture of what it looked like:

I didn't do the step by step picture thing because honestly, this was a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of meal and I didn't know it'd turn out to be so good.  So, here's a list of what I put on it:

• roasted garlic (had some left over that I only used half the bulb for so I squeezed out the rest of the roasted garlic onto a cutting board, sprinkled it with some salt, and with the back of a knife, smeared it into a paste.  I then smeared this onto the pizza dough)
• fresh Kumato tomatoes (they look kinda purple but any kind will do)
• fresh mozzarella
• purple onion

**I put the pizza crust (after I spread it out over my pizza pan brushed with a touch of olive oil) in a 500 degree oven until it browned ever so slightly.  After that, I THEN put the above toppings on and stuck it back in the 500 degree oven until the cheese was melted- maybe 10 more minutes?

After the cheese was melted, I put on the following:

• chopped up prosciutto (I just happened to have this gourmet ingredient laying around- don't ask me why)
• an abundance of freshly chopped basil
• an arugula salad (literally- the best thing you can do with pizza is lightly dress arugula and toss it on top of a pizza- don't you dare disagree with me, Scott Mayo.)

How'd I make the arugula salad you asked?  With my newest obsession: reduced balsamic vinegar.  Reduced balsamic vinegar deserves a post of its' own, but we will settle with a few sentences about how incredible it tastes reduced.  If reduced enough, (and by "reduced" I just mean to put some of it in a small sauce pot, bring it to a boil, and let it cook down into a syrup), balsamic takes on a sweet, delicious flavor, unlike it's tangy original form.  I throw a pinch of sugar in with my balsamic as it reduces and oh.my.gosh.  I'll never go back to regular balsamic again.  Ever.  So, I took a bit of this reduced balsamic, poured some over some arugula, added a drizzle of olive oil, tossed it together, and placed this on top of my pizza for a perfectly balanced, healthy, gourmet pizza that rocked my world.  This dinner was WAY more than I thought it'd be- it was simply sensational.  And Kristi, if you're reading this, even YOU would like this pizza :)

Really, you can put anything you want to on pizzas, but I encourage you, however you make it, please try a salad of arugula (with reduced balsamic!) on top.  It will truly blow your mind.

Back to studying....

M

Acorn Squash Soup: Autumn in a Bowl

I have been obsessed with soup-like-things ever since we entered the month of October...perhaps because, in my mind, October officially marks the beginning of autumn... never mind the 90 degree Texas heat. I don't care how hot it is outside. I'm sick of summer and I will boldly wear scarves, burn pumpkin-scented candles, and make warm, comforting soups no matter what the thermometer says. Give me autumn liberty or give me death.

I know I get a bit dramatic. Roll with it.

Since Anthony always eats pizza with his youth on Sunday nights, I get to make dinner for myself and try new, crazy things that I would not expect him to jump with joy over.

I was in a vegetarian mood, so when I walked in to Kroger I picked up a plethora of interesting fall vegetables with which I had never cooked. Don't you just love cooking adventures? My bounty included:

1 gorgeous acorn squash
1 bunch of radishes
1 large rutabaga
1 turnip

I cut it all up, drizzled it with olive oil and seasoned it with salt, pepper,and plenty of fresh thyme. Although the end result was visually appealing with all the lovely muted colors...

It wasn't too tasty.

But was I about to let all that labor go to waste? Oh no. Not yet. There was only one hope for these little veggies to reach their full culinary potential. Simple roasting was unsuccessful... but what if I pureed them into a soup?

I returned my test subjects to the oven, placed them close to the heat, and roasted the patootie out of them until they got super soft and started to develop a caramel color.

After being pureed in a blender, added to a pot with a couple of cups of chicken stock, then livened up with a splash of milk, I had the most wonderful fall soup! Silky and velvety and warm and comforting and distinctly AUTUMN. Yes.

Serve with a green veggie for the purposes of striking color contrast. Also serve with fresh bread... because we all know that carbs = love.

Oh, and if you need to indulge your carnivorous husband, garnish the soup with some crispy, crumbled turkey bacon.

coming soon....

-pizza with smeared roasted garlic, prosciutto, and arugula salad
-fleur de sel caramels

sorry for the lack of posting recently!  Kate and I have been busy with school and work!  When I'm back near my computer cord and have my sanity back, I will post recipes to the above foods!

Peace, Love, and Good Food!

M&K