the best mac and cheese...

this recipe came from a childhood favorite. it came from the mormon cooking book.
as always, i added my own twist too.



2 1/2 c. elbow macaroni (measure before you cook it)
4 TB flour
4 TB butter
2-3 TB chopped onion
1/2 t salt
dash of pepper
2 c cream (or milk, it called for milk but i had some cream ready to expire and i tell you, it was a beautiful thing...)
2 c cubed american ( i didn't want to resort to kraft singles so i found this in my deli and i used a half pound)





topping (my addition and oh so YUMMY)
1 c panko bread crumbs (you can also use regular, panko rock tho)
3 TB butter, melted.
1/2 t basil
1/2 t oregano
2 TB parmesan cheese


cook elbow macaroni according to directions.


in a saucepan melt butter. add onions and flour. stir together until it takes a paste shape. add cream slowly whisking. let flour and butter paste incorporate with cream and add cheese last.


whisk until all incorporated.


toss cheese sauce with cooked macaroni into a 9X13 dish. mix together topping ingredients and sprinkle over top of mac and cheese.



bake at 350 for 30 minutes uncovered.

{thanks for the pretty photo martha}

*commentary*

i've made a lot of mac and crack (as kristy calls it) and this is hands down the best, most simple recipe. we like to eat it with a piece of ham with applesauce adorning the ham. i also doubled this recipe and froze the rest so next week when i feel lazy my kids will think i'm cool.

other entertaining ideas:
did you see jordan's post on how she served her mac and cheese? i used it and scooped out 2 individual servings and put them in some cute ramekins. they were a perfect lunch for a mom and a sick baby. and i do think this is company worthy, just so you know. i have a christmas party brewing in my head with this lovely and a beautifully dressed ham.....

Little Owls

I bought this magazine last fall because I thought these cupcakes were adorable. There are lots of other fun and festive recipe ideas in the magazine, too. If you are interested, you can purchase it here. I made these cupcakes a couple weeks ago. The cupcakes themselves weren't great, but I do love these little owls. The cupcake recipe included for these was a white cake with shredded coconut (this says spring to me...not fall) and cream cheese frosting. When I make them again, I'll probably use a spice cake or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Anyway, here's what you need for the decorations if you want to try them.

Eyes: place two butterscotch candies for the eyes. Dip chocolate chips in a little frosting and place in the center of the butterscotch candies.

Nose: whole cashew

Feathers: slivered almonds placed around the eyes.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Lighter Lasagna

I have been inspired by my friend Jill to try cooking more vegetarian meals. For some reason cooking vegetarian is a little intimidating to me. I think it is because I don't have many vegetarian recipes, nor have I tried too many vegetarian main dishes. I typically think pasta and soup when I think about vegetarian main dishes...but I know there are many options out there and I'm on a quest to find some good recipes to incorporate into our weekly menus. To start off, I tried a lighter lasagna recipe that Jill posted on her blog. This lasagna is delicious and simple to make. I love lasagna where you don't have to precook the noodles! What's your favorite vegetarian dish and where do you get your best vegetarian recipes? Please share your favorites...and try this recipe- you'll like it.

Lighter Lasagna, from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites
This lasagna is so rich with vegetables, herbs, and wine that you'll never miss the extra cheese and fat that we're accustomed to finding in standard recipes. Serves 6-8, preparation time 40 minutes, baking time 60-70 minutes.

2 cups cubed zucchini
1 cup cubed bell peppers
1 cup chopped tomatoes
4 cups sliced mushrooms (about 12 ounces)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup dry red wine (I used chicken stock)
3 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil
10 ounces fresh spinach, rinsed
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
1 cup grated low-fat mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 recipe Tomato Wine sauce (page 350) or 3 1/2 cups prepared tomato sauce
1 pound uncooked lasagna noodles (uncooked)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, salt, and wine in a saucepan, bring to a boil, cover, and then simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes, until all of the vegetables are tender and juicy. Stir in the basil and set aside.

Cover and cook the spinach on high heat in just the water clinging to the leaves for 3 minutes, until wilted but still bright green. Drain and chop coarsely. Combine with the cottage cheese, mozzarella, and Parmesan and set aside.

Spread 1 cup of the tomato sauce evenly on the bottom of a 3-inch deep nonreactive 8 x 12-inch baking dish. Layer with 5 or 6 noodles, 1 generous cup of undrained veggies, and 1 cup of the spinach-cheese mixture. Cover with a second layer of noodles, 1 cup of sauce, 1 heaping cup of veggies, 1 cup of the spinach-cheese mixture, and a third layer of noodles. Finally, add the rest of the veggies, the remaining spinach-cheese mixture, a fourth layer of noodles, and the rest of the sauce. Cover tightly with foil and bake until the noodles are tender, about 60 minutes. Let sit at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Baked French Toast with Apples and Caramel Sauce

Last weekend I decided to make something special for Sunday morning breakfast. We had recently been to the apple orchard and so I wanted to use up some of the apples we had picked. We decided to try this baked french toast recipe that a friend gave me a while ago. It was delicious. Now, the ingredients in this make it seem a little more like a dessert than breakfast, but it's okay to indulge every now and then. This recipe is absolutely worth the indulgence. It is really good.
Baked French Toast with Apples and Caramel Sauce
A glass baking pan will help prevent the toast from sticking. This recipe must refrigerate overnight, so work that into your planning and prep time.

Ingredients
1 (1 pound) loaf French bread sliced
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/3 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
4-6 apples (peeled, cored and sliced)
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 Tbsp. white sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Directions
1) Cut bread into 1 1/2 inch thick slices and place in a lightly greased 9 X 13 inch baking pan. In a large bowl, beat eggs with 1 1/2 cup skim milk, 1/3 cup white sugar, and 1 Tbsp. vanilla. Pour egg mixture over bread slices. Make sure all the bread gets soaked so it doesn't leave any dry spots. The liquid left in the bottom will all be soaked up by morning.

2) Arrange apple slices on top of bread. Mix together cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 Tbsp. white sugar then sprinkle over the apples. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

3) After mixture has refrigerated overnight, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4) Bake toast in preheated oven until golden brown, about 1 hour.

5) While toast is baking, prepare caramel sauce by combining 1/2 cup white sugar, flour and melted margarine in a small sauce pan. Stir in brown sugar, 1/2 cup skim milk and 2 tsp. vanilla. Cook until thick, stirring often.

Serve French toast hot with warm caramel sauce.

Black Bean Soup with homemade breadsticks

Sorry for another soup recipe, but like Becca says, I embrace Fall too and all I want to eat during the cool, fall/winter months is yummy soup with some sort of bread! This one is one of my family favs. Not only is it good, but healthy.

Black Bean Soup
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T. cumin
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
2 T. veggie oil
1 can chicken broth
3 cans black beans, undrained
1 medium jar of salsa (I used my homemade recipe because I am not a fan of store bought-recipe below)
3 T. lime juice

In a 4 qt. sauce pan, heat oil and put garlic, onion, cumin and red pepper flakes in. Then in a blender, blend 1 can black beans with 1/2 of the chicken broth and then add to the garlic and onion mix. Add the other 2 cans of black beans and broth to mix and then add salsa and lime juice.

Homemade Salsa (we all have our own salsa recipe, but I thought I would list my brother's rendition.)
This was the perfect way to use up the rest of my garden tomatoes!
5-6 tomatoes, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2-4 jalapenos, remove seeds and finely chop
1/2 bunch cilantro
2 large limes juiced
1-2 T. olive oil
salt to taste
I am not a huge fan of chunky salsa, so what I do is chop my tomatoes and onion, then throw them in the blender to sort of puree them.

Thirty-Minute breadsticks (I know we all have our own breadstick recipe too, but I just thought I would add this one from my Pinch of Salt Lake cook book)
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 T. honey
1 1/2 C. warm water
1 tsp. salt
3-4 1/2 C. flour
1 egg, beaten

In a large mixing bowl soften yeast and honey in warm water. Add salt; blend. Add flour gradually, blending in until dough pulls away from sides of bowl and forms a ball. Divide dough into 24 pieces. Roll each piece between hands to make sticks about 10 inches long. Place crosswise on 2 large greased baking sheets. (dough can be divided into 12 pieces and placed on one pan to make thicker and softer sticks). Brush with beaten egg; sprinkle with desired seasonings (sesame seeds, poppy seeds, Parmesan cheese, salad supreme).
Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Soup

Fall, I embrace you! While we don't have the summer days at the beach anymore, we now have pumpkin picking and brisk morning runs. There is something about fall breezes that makes me excited! We can't wait for school to start (even though it always starts in the hot humid August days...but, isn't it much more fun keep pretending that it starts in the fall?), we can't wait for the harvest time of apples, pears, peaches, squash and the smells of cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg that accompany these foods and, admit it--we can't wait for Christmas. All the good times are ahead of us in the autumn season, and I'm totally not thinking about that January/February/March stretch. Just put that right out of my mind.

To get in the mood, I made some butternut squash soup. It was delicious--my husband said "this is perfect." um, wow, I felt like a rock star. I like this recipe, because I only needed to make one cut down the length of the squash prior to roasting. I like this because cutting up butternut squash, to me, is risky business, and I'd like to keep all of my fingers intact, thank you very much. There is quite a bit of handling in this recipe--roasting and stewing and blending. At one point, I was ladling boiling squashy liquid into my blender, half of it dripping all over everything, while Pete was pulling at my pants and yelling "MAMA! Mama, I need that" and everything was spilling all around and life seemed pretty nutso for about 15 minutes. One of these definitely would have come in handy. But, the beauty of this soup is it tastes even better a day or two later, so, today, when the boys were out playing, I sat down by myself to a beautiful bowl of homemade soup and read a magazine and felt really, really happy.

Here's the recipe adapted from Joy of Cooking:

Butternut Squash Soup

1 medium butternut squash, halved lengthwise and seeded

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 large leeks, cleaned thoroughly and chopped

4 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

3/4 cup whipping cream

chopped fresh parsley or cilantro

croutons

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place squash cut side down on oiled baking sheet. Bake until the squash can easily be pierced with a fork, about 1 hour. Let cool, then scoop the pulp from the squash skin and discard the skin.
2. Melt butter in a soup pot over medium-low heat. Add leeks and ginger and cook, stirring, until tender but not browned, 5 to 10 minutes.
3. Stir in 4 cups of stock and the squash pulp. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring and breaking up the squash with a spoon, for 20 minutes. Puree until smooth. Return soup to the pot.
4. Stir in cream, and thin with stock, a little at a time, until you reach the desired consistency of soup. Heat soup through and ladle into warmed bowls. Garnish with herbs and/or croutons.

Bagels and Schmears

I'm trying to make my breakfasts a bit more respectable. It has proven quite the challenge to break my college routine of cold cereal for days and months and years in a row. So, we're exploring many *quick* morning meals and this veggie spread just made our breakfast list!

From the November 2007 Everyday Food:

Creamy Vegetable Spread on Whole-Wheat Bagel

1 package (8 ounces) reduced-fat cream cheese

1 medium carrot, grated or finely chopped

1 red bell pepper (ribs and seeds removed), finely chopped

1 scallion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

coarse salt and pepper

small whole-wheat bagels, split and toasted for serving

In a medium bowl, stir together cream cheese, carrot, bell pepper, scallion, and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Spread bagel halves with vegetable spread, and serve. (Store remaining spread in an airtight container, up to 5 days.)

autumn in a dish.....

i know i have posted this recipe before, but i am going to do it again, since it is season appropriate and all. i have made few revisions to this recipe as well.

first let me say...

my fabulous mother always made this and a pot of soup in the fall and took us to our local campground many, many, many fall nights. creating such a flood of warm memories for us kids. we now do the same thing in our family. this is me crowning my childhood friend kellie with the first piece of autumn in a dish for the season, quite an honor!


apple pudding

1 C sugar
1/2 C butter
1 egg
4 lg apples, shredded
2 C flour
2 t soda
2 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1 C pecans (optional)
1/2 t. salt

cream sugar and butter. add egg and apples. add flour and dry ingredients. bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes in a 9 by 13 pan.

caramel sauce

1 C butter
2 C sugar
1 C cream or canned milk
1 1/2 t vanilla (add after removed from heat to ensure the flavor)

bring to a slow rolling boil, about 5-6 minutes.

DRENCH a piece of cake in this and you will be so happy....


*we cooked this in a dutch oven. 8 coals on top, 9 on bottom, 35 - 40 minutes {heaven}

dutch oven quiche....

is the best way to eat my quiche. i thought i had eaten until i had it from the dutch oven....

mercy! it cooks perfectly, 9 coals on the bottom, 8 on top and cook for 45 minutes. it comes out perfect. i think next time we cook it, i will pop it in the dutch oven and cook it in the oven....

orange fritters with cinnamon cream syrup

sound delightful don't they. truly they are. i ate these first years ago dining here for breakfast. they were so good. on our last excursion here i found they took them off the menu and i was glad the year before i came up with my own recipe.

well, this is a concept really, i can't give you an exact recipe, it will depend on what scone mix you like.

i have found a really good boxed scone dough by a local company, honeyville.
i buy their scone box and follow the directions adding a few ingredients.

i add the zest of one orange. for the liquid, i squeeze one orange and whatever i get from that i use as part of the liquid requirement for the recipe.

here is a picture of the dough once it rises.


we took this camping and after it was done rising i put it in a container and kept it in the cooler {fridge if you are not camping} until i was ready to use it.

i fried them in oil until they were brown on each side. they are wonderful!


especially with this syrup: {which can be used on a wide variety of breakfast foods, pancakes, french toast, or you can drink it, ahem......}

Cinnamon Cream Syrup

5 T melted butter
1 C heavy cream
3 T brown sugar
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t maple extract (i have left this out before and it was fine)

combine all ingredients in a small saucepan on medium to high heat. cook, whisking constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens slightly (3-4 minutes)

you can make this ahead and heat to serve when you are ready for it!

Apple Crumb Pie

OK, I just took another trip out to the apple orchard today to pick some fabulous apples and I am always just inspired by the feeling of fall in the air this time of year. It's amazing! And every time that I have a stock of apples on hand, this delicious dessert comes to mind and I have to make it. I like apple pie. It's a good thing. I really, truly, passionately LOVE crumb topping from apple crisp. The beauty of this recipe is that it combines the goodness of both of those desserts into one, amazing whole.

I got this recipe several years back from another one of our New Haven friends, Jen Brewer. We made it while she so graciously hosted our family for an away rotation at the Mayo Clinic. I learned a lot of great recipes from her on that trip that I adore. Thanks, Jen! BTW, I seem to remember this recipe coming from an ex-girlfriend of Jerry's! Kinda funny :-)
APPLE CRUMB PIE:
Filling:
10-15 apples, peeled & cut into chunks
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 cup sugar (+)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (+)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Topping:
1 cube butter, chilled, but not too hard
1/3 cup heaping sugar
1/2 cup heaping flour
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 pie crust

Put pie crust in bottom of pie dish. Load apple mixture on top - should be heaping. Make the topping by cutting the butter into sugar and flour until crumbly, then sprinkle over top of apple pie. Wrap tin foil around edges of crust to keep from burning. Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour. This tastes fabulous served warm with ice cream.

Don't you just love that this recipe uses "heaping" so many times. That's just my kinda thing :-) Enjoy!

heaven, bliss and good fortune

my favorite new recipe....

i love lindsays blog, she has my kind of taste you see. everything i make from her turns to gold and this is no exception! this one is super easy but takes patience as it needs time to freeze. it is best when frozen overnight.

frozen coconut key lime tart

you can find lindsays recipe and tutorial here.

i browned some coconut in the oven and then added some lime green food coloring to my whipped cream. i piped it with a large ziploc and cut a little hole in the tip and kind of swirled it.

additional info - i made this and served it in quantity at my recent coupon class. in an effort to make all of it pretty, i wanted to use my 1 tart pan for all 5 tarts, but i decided to try and make this in a large pyrex. i made the crust and cooked it in the tart pan and then crumbled it and put it in the pyrex adding the filling and cream over top, it was a great way to serve in quantity and tasted great even tho it wasn't as pretty!

{p.s. the cream of coconut is right by the drink mix section of the drink isle, and make sure to note it is cream of coconut, not coconut milk. and stock up, you will want this often!}

hired...

here is grayce's birthday cake, in a stunning photo shoot with my mountain man brother. too bad he lives in the great white north....

you can find the recipe here

Ranchero Mexi-Chicken Crostada

As I have been browsing other food blogs, I came across this food blog called, "The Picky Palate" As I have gone threw this gals recipes, I have been so impressed! She is so creative with the way she makes her food and I found this yummy recipe on there that I wanted to share with you all. Follow the link here. This recipe was so easy and so flavorful! I served this with a side of seasoned black beans and watermelon. We loved it!

Chicken Stew with Dumplings

The weather has really cooled off this week and yesterday it was rainy and cold. I was craving some kind of soup and ended up making this. It was really yummy and total comfort food.

STEW:
3 cups cooked and shredded chicken (I used part of a rotisserie chicken)
5 cups chicken broth
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried thyme
3/4 pound new potatoes, quartered
3 carrots cut into 2-inch pieces (I just used baby carrots)
2 celery ribs, sliced
1 medium onion, cut into eighths
1 (10oz) package frozen peas

Bring chicken broth to a boil. Add all the ingredients except the chicken and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15-20 minutes. Add the cooked chicken.

Dissolve 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch in 1 cup of half and half, cream or milk and stir into soup mixture. This step is optional but helps to thicken the stew a little bit.

DUMPLINGS:

1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup fresh minced parsley (I just used a few shakes of dried)

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk and parsley. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls into simmering stew. Cover and let cook for about 15 minutes or until the dumplings are tender.