Traditional Macaroni and Cheese

So I was at work yesterday, and I stumbled across a picture of macaroni and cheese somewhere on the internet, and it was like a switch clicked in my head, and ALL I could think about from that moment on was home made macaroni and cheese. I recently made macaroni and cheese when a friend of mine was in town a few weeks ago, but that was a fancy one with gouda and gruyere cheeses, and that's just not in the budget this week. So I went looking and found a recipe on this blog that I'll be following from now on, and it looked awesome, and pretty easy, so here we go. I made a few changes to it, though. I used shell pasta, instead of elbow pasta, I omitted the ham and onion, and I used store bought breadcrumbs because I'm lazy. I mixed 1/2 cup breadcrumbs with 2 tbsp's butter before adding them to the top of the mac and cheese. I also used less noodles than the recipe calls for(about 10 0z instead of 160z), because a full pound of pasta is a LOT of pasta. Also, I used a bit more cayenne than the recipe called for, because despite what my husband might think, I do like things to have a bit of bite to them.

Ingredients Needed:

1 lb elbow noodles, cooked according to package directions.

4 tbsp butter

1/4 cup flour

1/2 small onion, chopped or grated

4 cups milk

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 1/4 cups sharp yellow cheddar cheese, shredded(in my opinion, the sharper the better)

1 1/4 cups white cheddar cheese, shredded

salt and pepper to taste

8 oz ham, diced

2 slices of sandwich bread

To Make:

Preheat the oven to 375. Cook the pasta according to package directions, then set aside. In a large sauce pan, melt the four tbsp butter in the pan, then add the onion, cook for 3-5 minutes, then add the flour. In a steady stream(or as steady as you can make it) pour in the milk, whisking constantly until all lumps are gone. Cook this mixture, whisking frequently for about 6-8 minutes, until mixture is thick and bubbly. Then add the cheese(leaving out about 1/2 cup or so, to sprinkle on top), and stir until cheese is melted. Add the pasta back into the cheese sauce, stir, then add ham and stir again. Season with salt and pepper.

In a food processor, pulse the bread until you have large crumbs. Then with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese, sprinkle on top. Bake for 30 minutes.

This is a REALLY good macaroni and cheese. And the thing is, it just tasted better the next day, and leftovers are always a good thing.

Roasted Chickpeas

I came across this recipe for roasted chickpeas a few weeks ago for roasted chickpeas, and thought to myself "I like chickpeas(well, I like hummus, and that's made from chickpeas) and I like roasting things, so how could this be bad?" That sounds like trick questions where the answer is "let me tell you how bad it could be...it was terrible!" Luckily, that's not the case. These were pretty darn tasty, actually. The thing with roasted chickpeas, it seems, is that they themselves dont have much flavor to them when they're roasted. All the flavor comes from the seasonings you add, and there are so many possibilities, you could roast chickpeas from now until the day you die, and never run out of flavor combinations.

I went fairly basic, since it was the first time I've made them.

Ingredients Needed:

1 15 oz can chickpeas

1 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

salt and pepper.

To Make:

Preheat oven to 400. Rinse and drain chickpeas, then spread out on a paper towel for a few minutes to dry. In the meantime, heat the oil in a medium skillet, then add the garlic and onion powders. Let cook for a few minutes, until the mixture become fragrant. Then remove pan from heat, and add chickpeas. Stir until the beans are covered with the oil mixture, then transfer to a foil lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so.

Easy, and delicious. Some of them will burn, but most of them will be fine.

Like I said, I went with a very simple flavor combo here, since it was the first time I made this. The next time I make it, I'll probably add some chili powder for a bit of bite. They would also be awesome with cinnamon, nutmeg, and honey.

Endless possibilities!

Cherry....Turnovers?

I've always had a slight fear of puff pastry...I got some a few years back, intending to make...something, and I ended up just throwing it all away, because I just couldn't figure out how to stretch out the puff pastry. A few days ago, I was at the store, and saw these big beautiful bags of cherries. Cherries have never been my favorite fruit...they're a little too sour for me on their own, but in things, I adore them. My aunt Jeni used to make cherry turnovers once a year at Thanksgiving. I would wait all damn year for those turnovers. They were perfect. So, when I saw that bag of cherries, I immediately thought of turnovers. Then I thought about strudel, then about empanadas, then about cherry pie. My mind tends to wander sometimes. I was right back to turnovers in about 5 seconds though.

I didn't actually go from a recipe for these. I normally never cook or bake without a recipe, and it's rare for me to deviate from a recipe for any reason other than pure stupidity. But, I figured, how hard could it be? A little hard, that's how hard. For one, it's hard to pit cherries by hand. Second, the puff pastry came in long thin strips, rather than squares, so I had to roll them out a bit in order to get them folded the right way. So these ended up being more cherry 'pockets' than turnovers.



Ingredients Needed for Turnovers:
1 1/2 cups cherries, pitted. (also, it's a pain to do this by hand, by a cherry pitter if you don't already have one)
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp sugar
1 package puff pastry
1 egg
1 tbsp water
sugar for dusting.

Ingredients Needed for Icing:
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tbsp milk or water
1/4 tsp lemon extract



To Make:

Preheat oven to 350, and set out puff pastry to thaw. While that happens, pit cherries, and then toss with the cornstarch and 2 tbsp sugar. Set aside. In a rolled out piece of puff pastry, spoon out about 1/4 cup or so of cherry mixture. Then fold the puff pastry around the cherries. You can make a fancy design if you want, I just went for a sort of crimping action. Repeat with the rest of the puff pastry pieces. Stir the egg and water together, then brush the egg mixture over each turnover, then sprinkle it with sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes. While the turnovers are baking, mix 1/2 cup confectioners sugar with 1 tbsp milk or water. Then add 1/4 tsp of vanilla or lemon extract. I used lemon, because lemon is awesome.



These turned out....pretty good, considering I didn't use a recipe. I've somewhat lessened my fear of puff pastry, so that's cool. They're definitely not up to my aunt Jeni's level, but she was a professional pastry chef for 15 years, so that's not surprising. I think I'll try them again sometime with apple.

Melissa's Mom's Cookies

The first time I ever had No Bake Cookies, I was about 18 or 19. I went home for a few days with my friend Melissa over summer break, and her mom had made these cookies. I immediately fell in love. Now I had no real interest in cooking or baking at that point in my life, so I never got the recipe from her, and unfortunately she's no longer with us, so I've spent the past few years trying different recipes(although they're all fairly similar) and I finally found a recipe on allrecipes.com that, after a few adaptations, is about as close as I think I can get.

As the name No Bake Cookies suggest, there's no actual baking involved in these, just some stove top time. You can make these in about 30 minutes or less, which is awesome. They're a great pot-luck cookie....very little work for quite a bit of reward.

Ingredients Needed:
1/2 cup(1 stick) butter
1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter(the recipe calls for chunky, I prefer smooth)
3 cups quick cooking oats

To Make:

In a large saucepan, melt the butter, sugar, cocoa, and milk together. Bring to a boil, and cook for a minute and a half. Remove from heat, and add the oats, peanut butter and vanilla. Scoop by teaspoonfuls onto cooling racks covered with parchment paper. The cookies should start to set up after about 15-20 minutes. Aaaaaaaaaand, done.

Makes about 2 dozen large-ish cookies, or 4 dozen small-ish cookies.

See? Easy.

These are one of my favorite cookies ever, and in honor of a great lady who left us too soon, they shall now be known(at least to me) as Melissa's Mom's Cookies.

Blueberry Buckle

I had to stop at the grocery store the other night because I'm an idiot, and didn't think to get tortilla's for the steak fajita's I was making that night. While I was there, I browsed through the produce department for a minute, and can I just say how much I love summer fruit? Watermelon, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, I love them all. Especially peaches, but we'll get to that later on this summer. Peaches here are still sort of anemic looking.

One summer fruit I've never really been super fond of though, is blueberries. They're okay, I guess, but they're not amazing. I like blueberry muffins, and blueberry pancakes(although not as much as I love chocolate chip pancakes) but that's about it. They're just not my favorite. My husband, however loves them. He's constantly bugging me to make blueberry pie. Since that's something I would never ever eat, he's in for a long wait on that one.

But, on this fateful afternoon, I was passing a display, and the blueberries were on sale, and they actually looked pretty nice. So, I decided to be a good wife, and make something blueberry for my hubby.



I bought two packages of blueberries, and remembered seeing a recipe that I was pretty sure I had everything on hand for in one of my cookbooks. I didn't have everything on hand. And I wasn't about to go back to the store just for shortening, so Jim would have to wait.

The next night, however, I stopped at the store, bought shortening, came home and whipped up this little baby.

I really really like it. I had never heard of Blueberry Buckle before, but it's sort of like a giant blueberry muffin. Or a blueberry coffee cake. I did a little digging to find out what exactly is a buckle, and this is what I came up with: During the baking process, the cake batter rises up around the fruit, encasing the fruit in batter and causing the streusel to buckle, creating a distinctive crinkly appearance.
Well, mine didn't seem to have a distinctive, crinkle appearance, but it was pretty darn good.



Ingredients Needed:

2 1/3 cups, all purpose flour, divided
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup sugar, divided
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 cups blueberries, well drained
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, softened.

To Make:

Preheat oven to 375. Sift 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt together. In a mixing bowl cream 3/4 cup sugar, shortening and egg together until smooth(about 2 minutes or so). Blend in the milk, then the dry ingredients, then fold in the blueberries. Spread the batter into a greased and floured 9x9x2 baking dish(I actually had a bit of a problem with this, the batter is very thick, and wanted to stick to everything but the baking dish. A little spritz of non-stick cooking spray on a spatula worked wonders). Combine remaining 1/2 cup sugar with 1/3 cup flour and cinnamon. Cut in the butter to form a crumb consistency. Sprinkle this on top of the batter. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted comes out clean. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.



And I know it says to serve warm, but I had some for breakfast this morning, and it's just a good cold.

This may change my mind about blueberries.

Lasanga Rollups(or Italian Enchiladas)

I've seen these everywhere lately. I found the original recipe that I used in a local area cookbook. Then a few nights ago I saw them at Olive Garden, and I remember seeing them on a few blogs here and there as well. These were pretty good. I think you're just as well off making an actual lasagna though. They're just as difficult to make, and they take just as much time, and they're harder to eat.

They would make a good potluck food, though.

Ingredients Needed:

12 lasagna noodles
1 egg, beaten
15 oz carton ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozerella cheese
2 medium onions, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 15 oz jars spaghetti sauce
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

To Make:

Prepare noodles according to package directions, then drain, plunge into cold water, drain again, and place noodles on paper towel.



Combine the egg, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese. In a large skillet, saute onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add the ground beef, and cook until browned. Drain the excess fat. Stir in the 1 cup parsley, basil, oregano, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper.
Add the beef to the cheese mixture, and blend together. Pour 1 jar of the spaghetti sauce into a 9x13 baking dish.
Spread each noodle with 1/4 cup of filling, and roll up, then place in sauce.
Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat, then add the flour, cook for about 1 minute, until flour taste is gone. Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly until thickened. Then add 1 cup parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Pour sauce over the lasagna rolls. Pour remaining jar of spaghetti sauce over the white sauce, and sprinkle with 2 tbsp parsley and 2 tbsp parmesan cheese.
Bake, covered with foil at 400 degrees for 20 mintues, remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.



See what I mean? You might as well just make lasagna, and then everyone will know that you were slaving over a hot stove all day. With these, people will think they were easy to make, when really, they're not at all.

Roasted Tomato and Basil Soup

And what goes better with grilled cheese sandwhiches than tomato soup? I knew when I made the grilled cheese that I would need tomato soup to go with it, and canned tomato soup just wouldn't do with fancy grilled cheese.

I found this recipe for roasted tomato soup with basil, and since that's one of my favorite flavor combo's, I figured this would be perfect. The soup is just fancy enough to accompany the fancy grilled cheese.

Ingredients Needed:

3 lbs plum tomatoes

4 cups basil, choped

1/4 cup olive oil

1 sweet yellow onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2 tbsp olive oil

1 quart chicken stock

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes(with juice)

1 tbsp thyme(fresh is best, but if you dont have that, 1 tsp ground thyme worked just as well)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

To Make:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut tomatoes into halves or wedges, and then toss with the 1/4 cup olive oil, sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet covered with foil. Roast for 30-40 mintues. In a large pot, melt butter and olive oil together, then add the onions, garlic, and red pepper. Saute until onions are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the thyme, canned tomatoes, chicken stock, and basil. Then add the roasted tomatoes including their juices. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Pulse a few times in a blender. Serve with grilled cheese sandwiches, or by itself.

I'm in Love

From the Viking website.

One day, this will be mine.

Grilled Cheese with Muenster and Carmelized Sweet Vidalia Onions

Grilled Cheese. Classic comfort food. Wonder bread covered in butter, all brown and crisp, with some sort of cheese product inside. It's a classic for a reason. Everyone in the world craves grilled cheese when they're sick, even people who don't know what grilled cheese is. It's in our collective DNA.

I've always been a bit afraid of grilled cheese. I would burn the bread, or not brown it enough. The cheese wouldn't melt. And trying to make the soup(you know what soup I'm talking about) at the same time was a recipe for disaster, not dinner, so either the sandwich or the soup was cold. It's a mess.

But today, dear friends, I have conquered my fear, and made what just might be the best grilled cheese sandwich anyone has ever had. The bread was perfect, the cheese was melty. Oh, and the onions. I've spent the past 29 years avoiding onions like they were poison, but in the past few months I've discovered that I adore caramelized onions.

A friend told me about this recipe awhile back, and I knew that both my husband would love it. I wasn't sure I would love it, because I have the palate of an 8 year old, plus the grilled cheese phobia, but I decided to give it a whirl.

Ingredients Needed: (for 2 sandwiches)

4 slices of bread(whatever kind you want..rye would probably work really well with this. I used white bread, because that was what I had handy)
4 slices muenster cheese
1/2 sweet yellow onion
2 tbsp butter + 1 tbsp butter softened for spreading on bread.

To Make:

Okay, really it's grilled cheese. You probably don't need me to tell you how to make grilled cheese. Slice onion, and saute in the butter until browned and soft, about 30-40 minutes. Cook grilled cheese as you normally would, except pile onions on top of cheese.

Smore's Brownies

From kindergarten through 2nd grade I went to a Quaker school. My parents wanted me in private school, and that was the only non Catholic private school in our town. I'm not sure why Quaker was better than Catholic, but it was their choice, I guess.

So, every year, at the end of the year, there was a three day camping trip that all the kids in the school went to. On one of the nights, the parents were there too, and all the kids put on a talent show. Me and my friends Lindsey and Amy put on a sketch called "The Whiners". Basically, we just got up in front of everyone and whined for 6 minutes. None of us really understood how freaking annoying that must have been for all the parents in the audience.

The point of this story, is that this is pretty much the only time of the year that I would ever get smore's. I don't know that I've ever met someone who doesn't like smore's. If I do, I've probably disowned them, because seriously, what's not to like? Crispy graham crackers, melty chocolate, and burned marshmallow. What part of that sounds bad? I know that some people like to take their time, and slightly brown the marshmallow evenly, but as person with ADD, I don't have the patience for that. I would always just shove the marshmallow in the flames, pull it out after about 10 seconds, and eat whatever was left on the stick.

So, I came across this recipe for Smore's Brownies on the Betty Crocker website, and I thought it looked pretty good. Then I saw another recipe that had marshmallows baked directly into the brownie mix, and I thought that looked way better, so I decided to try it.



The results are mixed. The brownies taste pretty good, but they didn't turn out looking in any way how I thought they would look. I was hoping for lightly browned marshmallows, and instead what I got was burned to a crisp marshmallows. And it turns out, that's not nearly as good at 29 as it was when I was 7. Also, I used a box brownie mix instead of making them from scratch, which could also be a factor.



Ingredients Needed:
1 box fudge brownie mix(with accompanying eggs, water, and oil called for on box)
12 marshmallows
4 graham crackers

To Make:

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13x9 baking dish. Prepare brownie mix as directed. Crush the graham crackers, and fold into the brownie batter. Pour batter into the prepared dish. Place the marshmallows randomly in the batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Sauteed Zucchini

You know what I love? Vegetables. There are very few veggies that I don't like. Brusslesprouts. That's about it. And I've heard people say that if you prepare them right, they're actually really delicious. I don't know that I believe those people, but whatevs. I may try it someday.

One of my all time favorites is Zucchini. I love it raw, fried, steamed, sauteed, any which way.

I happened across a recipe for sauteed zucchini, and this is what I love about food. There's a way to make almost anything in the entire world bad for you. All you have to do is cook it in leftover bacon grease. This was my husbands idea, not mine, I assure you. I tried to fight it, but you just cant fight bacon(another one of those foods that I cant get enough of, and therefor never EVER buy, except I bought some yesterday). So that's how I ended up with really really awesome, but bad for me zucchini to go along with my burger from last night.

Ingredients Needed:(for 2 people)

2 small zucchini's
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper

To Make:

Slice zucchini in to small wedges. Heat a skillet with the olive oil(or bacon fat), and then add the zucchini. Season with the salt and pepper. Saute for about 2-3 minutes. Add the minced garlic, then saute for another minute or two.

And of course, if you actually care what you put into your body, don't use bacon grease. But if you care about putting awesomely delicious things into your mouth, definitely use bacon grease. It's awesome either way.

Steak Sandwiches

I am a proud carnivore. I love chicken. I love pork. I love fish(although that's on the fence meat-wise). I love sausage, and ham, and bacon, found beef and goetta. But above all others, I love steak. Sirloin, rib eye, filet mignon, flank steak, skirt steak, t-bone. I love it all. Over the past few years, my husband has opened my eyes to the sensory pleasure of medium rare. It's all wonderful.



So, it's actually somewhat surprising that I don't cook steak all that often. I'm scared of grilling, and pan fried steaks, while delicious, aren't something I've ever mastered either. Jim does most of the serious meat cooking in our house.

But I ran across this recipe for steak sandwiches a few days ago, and I knew that I just had to make them, with just a few minor adjustments.

Ingredients Needed:

1 lb beef(tenderloin or sirloin)
Salt
2 tbsp fresh ground pepper
canola oil
2 crusty rolls
4 slices cheddar cheese
5-6 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 sweet yellow onion
1/4 cup mayo
1 tbsp prepared horseradish, drained
1/2 tbsp grainy mustard

To make:

In a small bowl, mix together the mayo, horseradish, and mustard. Set aside until ready to assemble sandwiches.

Heat a medium skillet to med-high heat. Melt 1 tbsp of butter, then add the mushrooms, and cook for several minutes. Add the onions, and cook these down as well. They can keep cooking over low heat until the rest of the food is done. They'll just get better the longer they cook.

Rub both sides of the meat with oil, and go to town on it with the salt and pepper. Add about 1 tsp oil to large skillet over med-high heat, and cook steak about 5-6 minutes on each side.(3-4 minutes per side if you like your steak to be rare). Remove from heat, tent with foil, and let sit for about 5 minutes. Slice steak into 1/4 inch thick slices. While the meat is sitting, cut the two rolls in half. Layer the mushrooms and onions on the bottom half of the roll, then add the sliced steak, then the cheese. Put under broiler for about a minute or two, just until cheese is melted.
Spread the mayo mixture on top half of roll.

Enjoy. And trust me, you will enjoy.

Cornbread Casserole

I normally only really like corn if it's of the "on the cob" variety. But I had to make something for Mother's Day today, and I decided to make this corn casserole that I had made once a long time ago, that people seemed to like. The best thing about this recipe is that it's incredibly easy. Only 6 ingredients, and it takes no time to prepare. It's really good. Sweet like cornbread but with actual corn in it, so it's sort of like eating a vegetable. A vegetable with a cup of sour cream, but still.

Ingredients Needed:

1 15 oz can whole kernel corn, drained, but reserve half the liquid
1 14.75 oz can sweet cream style corn
2 eggs
1 8 oz package dry corn bread mix
1 cup sour cream
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

To make:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a 13x9 baking dish. In a large mixing bowl, combine corn, eggs, cornbread mix, sour cream, and reserved liquid. Stir until well blended. Pour into the prepared dish, and sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

See? Super easy. And super delicious. It's a dish that tastes like you spent a lot more time on it than you did, and that's my favorite kind. I love when people think that you spent all day preparing dinner, but really you were playing Puzzle Quest all day.



Try it, you wont be disappointed. Unless you really hate corn, in which case, maybe try some other kind of bread. But try this first, because it might change your mind about corn.

Coconut Macaroons

There are so many cookie recipes out there, it's hard to choose which ones you want to make. I knew as soon as I saw these that I wanted to make them. Coconut is one of my favorite flavors, and I can't believe I've never had these before. They tasted so good...they were soft and chewy, the recipe made more cookies that any one person can conceivably eat in three weeks. Perfect. I'm in love. What's more, they were so incredibly easy to make. Just 5 ingredients. Crazy.

Ingredients Needed:

2 large egg whites
Pinch of salt
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 12 oz bags of shredded sweetened coconut

To Make:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl(and I do mean large, this recipe makes a huge amount of cookies) whisk together egg whites and salt until frothy, about two minutes if using a hand or stand mixer, not sure how long it would take by hand. Stir in the condensed milk and vanilla. Then, using a rubber spatula, fold in coconut until well blended. This is difficult by the end, the mixture gets really really thick.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mat, and drop 1 1/4 inch rounds 1 inch apart. Bake for 15- 20 minutes. These get really sticky. If you have trouble getting them into shape, spray your hands with non stick cooking spray. It will give you better control over the cookies.

Remove to a cooling rack, and once cool store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Okay, so I made a few changes to this recipe. I made my cookies much smaller, so there actually ended up being about 4 dozen cookies, instead of the two dozen that the recipe calls for. This also meant that the cooking time was much lower, about 7 minutes. The cookies will feel a bit mushy when you first take them out of the oven, but they firm up in no time.

If you want to dress them up a bit, place an almond in the center of each cookie, melt some bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, and drizzle over the cookies. You've got yourself a homemade Almond Joy.

Long and Complicated Meal Part 3: Dutch Apple Pie

For the last part of Phill's special meal, he requested "a pie of some kind". I'm a huge pie lover, but I'm incredibly picky about pies. The only fruit pie I really like is apple pie. And Phill only likes fruit pies, so it seemed natural to make an apple pie. My husband campaigned hard for blueberry, but I really really don't like blueberries in anything other than pancakes, so he lost that fight. And most others, but that's another story.

I found a recipe at My Baking Addiction that didn't seem too complicated, and looked awesome, so I decided to try that.

It wasn't until the day that I was actually going to make the pie that I realized that I was missing a few key ingredients. One: a pie pan. I used to have one, I have no idea what happened to it. Plus the one I had was a regular pie dish, not a deep dish pie dish, and this recipe was for deep dish pie. Two: I don't have a rolling pin. Three: my oven(as I think I've mentioned before) sucks, and I was really worried about burning the pie.

Well, one and two were easily solved, and three could be solved by making sure I check on the pie frequently. Obstacles removed, I set out to make a pie. From scratch.



Ingredients Needed:

For Crust:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp and 1 1/2 tsp white sugar
3/4 cup shortening
1 tsp salt
1/2 egg
1/4 cup water

For Filling:
6-8 granny smith apples(depending on size), peeled, cored, and sliced thin
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup whtie sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg(recipe calls for freshly grated, but you can use ground nutmeg if that's all the store has)

For Topping:

1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup butter, softened slightly.

To Make:

Crust:

In a medium bowl, combine together the flour, shortening, sugar, and salt. Blend together with a pastry cutter, or a fork until crumbly. In a small bowl, mix a whole egg with water, then dump half the egg out, leaving you with half an egg. Blend this into the flour. Chill in fridge until ready to make crust.

Filling:

Peel, core, and slice your apples into a large bowl.

In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter, and then stir in flour to make a roux. Cook until flour taste is gone, about 2 minutes. Add the white and brown sugars, then water, and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce to low, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Toss the apples with the cinnamon and nutmeg. Place crust into pie pan, and pile apples in the crust, mounding them slightly in the middle.



Once apples are in pie crust, pour the butter/sugar mixture over the apples. Do this carefully...you do not want to lose any of this sauce...it's incredible.



Topping:



Mix together all ingredients except butter together in a large bowl. Add in the butter, and get in the with your hands, and mix thoroughly until mixture is crumbly.

Top the pie with the oatmeal topping, and then bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350, and continue baking for another 35 to 45 minutes. If the topping starts to burn a bit, cover with aluminum foil.

So, here's what I've learned from making a pie from scratch for the first time.

1. You don't need a rolling pin to roll out pie crust. Seeing as I forgot to buy one, and used a bottle of balsamic vinegar to roll out the crust, I know this for a fact.

2. This pie has a very very strong nutmeg flavor to it, so if you don't like nutmeg, reduce the amount that you put in. I really like nutmeg, and it was a little strong for me, so someone who didn't like nutmeg at all would really hate this pie.

3. This crust recipe is awesome. I had considered just buying a crust, and making the rest of the pie myself, but I'm so glad I didn't. It was really easy to make, and it tasted so good. It was flaky, and chewy, and firm all at the same time. I'm not sure how that happened, but this pie crust is a winner. Also, I forgot to add salt to it, so maybe it's even better with the salt. Or maybe the salt makes it terrible. I don't know. Probably better, though, because salt makes everything better.

Long and Complicated Meal Part 2: Salmon Croquettes

Last post was about the super fabulous macaroni and cheese that I made for my friend Phill while he's in town. Part two of the meal he requested was crab cakes. I was all set to make them, until I realized how expensive crab is. Boy howdy, is it expensive. So, Phill decided that he would buy the crab himself, because he really wanted crab cakes. Good to go.

We get to the grocery store, and go to the meat and seafood counter, and that's when we realized that crab is actually way more expensive that I had even realized. 21 dollars for half a pound????? Seriously, seafood counter at Remke? Seriously?? I realize that being in a landlocked state, and not in like, Maryland, means that I have to pay a bit more, but I had no idea it would be that much. So we grabbed the crab(21$ per pound?!?) and headed off to finish shopping. About halfway through the store, one of us, and I'm not sure which one, suggested making salmon cakes instead. We thought about it, and after a quick call to my mom, who assured me that I could basically make the recipe I had been planning on, just substituting salmon for crab, we decided to make the switch. The guy at the seafood counter made fun of us. Not cool, seafood counter guy.



I was a little bit worried about making these, because just last week my husband and brother in law were bellyaching about how their mom had made them eat salmon patties when they were young, and how much they hated them. But let me tell you...these turned out great! There were a few slips and stumbles in the process, but overall, these seemed to be a hit.

Ingredients Needed:

About 1 1/2 pounds of fresh salmon(this part is very important...don't used canned salmon)
2 cups fresh bread crumbs(also very important)
3 small scallions, minced
fresh parsley, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup mayo
old bay seasoning
1 egg
2 tsp dijon mustard
fresh lemon juice
worcestershire sauce
tobasco

To Make:

Start out by cooking the salmon. This is very important it turns out. You can eat crab raw, apparently, so it wouldn't have mattered as much if we had used crab instead of salmon, but unless you like raw fish(which apparently people do....I guess they call it sushi? well, me not so much). How we did it was to cut the salmon into small pieces, then fry it up in just a bit of olive oil, for about 3 minutes or so, then flake the salmon into even smaller pieces.

Now, into a bowl goes the salmon, bread crumbs, parsley, and scallions. Mix together lightly, being careful not to crush the salmon pieces. Sprinkle a bit of the Old Bay into the mix every time you turn it, and that way it will be evenly distributed among the whole mixture.

In another bowl, mix together the mayo, egg, mustard, lemon juice, worcestershire, tobasco, salt and pepper.

Gently fold the mayo mixture into the salmon mixture, again, being careful not to mush the salmon too much. Form into patties. The recipe that I orginally used for this said that you were supposed to cover the patties, and refrigerate for one hour. I didn't do that, mostly because I forgot to, and they still turned out fine. They might have been overwhelmingly awesome had I done that, but I really don't think it adds too much to the recipe.

Heat a skillet over medium heat, and add about 1/2 inch of oil into the pan. When the oil is hot, add the salmon cakes to the pan(be careful not to break them) and fry for about 3-4 minutes on each side, depending on the size of the cake.



So, wow. I've never had salmon cakes, or patties, or croquettes before, and these were great. Crab cakes probably would have been better, because, well....crab. But these were still really good. We served them with a cajun remoulade sauce. SO GOOD. The sauce really pushed these over the top.

Ingredients Needed for Sauce:

1/2 cup mayo
1/2 minced celery stalk
lemon juice
1 minced scallion
1 tbsp minced parsley
1 tbsp ketchup
splash of worcestershire sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste.

To Make:

Mix all of those things in a small bowl, and you're done. Easy peasy.

Super Long and Complicated Meal Part 1: Mac and Cheese

My friend Phill came into town for the week this week, and I had told him a few weeks ago that I would make him anything he wanted for dinner while he was here. His request was Crab Cakes, Macaroni and Cheese, and some sort of pie.

Since all of that is far too much for one blog post, I'll be breaking it down over the next few entries. Today we'll start with the Mac and Cheese.

This isn't just any mac and cheese. This is serious mac and cheese. No joke. I'm a Kraft kind of girl...I've never really loved homemade macaroni and cheese. Real cheese doesn't taste as cheesy as fake cheese. Which is weird, I know, but it's true.

So, Phill sent me the recipe for macaroni and cheese that he wanted, and I dusted off my metaphoric apron, and got to work.

This really isn't that complicated of a recipe, it just seems like it is. There are a lot of steps, but overall, it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be.

Ingredients Needed:

1/2 lb pasta(the recipe called for elbow, but I used shells instead)
3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp butter
2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 cup finely diced onion(i only used 1/4 cup, and that was plenty)
1 stem rosemary, bruised
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 large egg
6 oz gouda
6 oz gruyere

Topping(Optional, I left it off per Phill's instructions)
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
3 tbsp butter

To Make:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil pasta in salted water according to package directions. Drain, and set aside. Grate cheeses.

In a medium to large saucepan, melt the butter and then add flour to make a roux. Cook until flour taste is gone...usually about 2 minutes or so. Make sure there are no lumps, then add ground mustard and paprika. Whisk in and cook for 1 minute. Add the onion, and rosemary stem, cook another 1-2 minutes. Pour in cream and milk, whisking constantly. Simmer this mixture for about 8-12 minutes, making sure it never boils. Temper and egg(add about 1 tbsp of the sauce to the egg in a separate bowl, stir it around) then add to the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove rosemary stem. Slowly add 3/4 of the cheese into the mix, and continue simmering until cheese is melted. Fold the pasta and cheese mixture together and pour into 2 1/2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top, and put in oven for about 30 minutes, or until top is golden brown. If you want to add the breadcrumbs(and why wouldn't you, honestly) Melt the butter, then stir in breadcrumbs, then sprinkle over the cheese.


Okay, so here's the thing. When you get to the point where you have to add the pasta back in, you're going to think that you did something wrong. It's going to look like way too much sauce and not nearly enough pasta. Have faith. It will turn out fine. Better than fine, actually.



This was incredible. The taste, the texture, everything about it was great. This is probably the best macaroni and cheese I've ever had. It's not something I'll make often, because it turns out that fancy cheeses are really expensive, but it will definitely be a special occasion dish. Also, the next time I make it, it will have breadcrumb topping.