High Class Mac & Cheese

Or as Dennis calls it, "Mac & Chee." Saves so much time.

I got this recipe from a website called FoodGawker. I don't know anything about it, except that judging from the name and the part of the site I was at, that it has a lot to do with looking at pictures of food. Or judging food by how good it looks in those pictures. Either way, I saw this page that was the "Most Favorited All-Time" of FoodGawker's picture/recipes. The pictures are fantastic! They make mine look like dog food. Delicious dog food!

I call this high class mac & cheese because it uses cheese other than Velveeta. Not that there's anything wrong with Velveeta, but I am a cheese connoisseur (I wish) so I love getting "nice" cheeses when I can afford it. This recipe calls for some specific cheese that I don't even know how to get, so I made some substitutions. It's cheese, for cryin out loud! It all tastes great and gets melty when you heat it up so I say if it tastes good, I can substitute it.

Ingredients
8 oz penne pasta (half a box)
2 cups of cheese sauce (see recipe below)
1 oz cheddar, grated
1 oz Havarti, grated
1/2 tsp chili powder

The way this recipe is set up was kind of confusing to me. I had to scroll back and forth which I despise (!) but never fear, I am going to try to fix this issue. Maybe. I'm just going to try to write it the way I wish it was written. Don't get your hopes up too high though.

First, cook your pasta. Get a pot of water boiling and pour half of the box into the pot. Stir it a little, set the timer for 9 minutes, then start your cheese sauce. Here is where I interject that now would be a fine time to preheat your oven to 350!

Ingredients for Cheese Sauce
1/4 c butter
1/3 c flour
3 c milk
14 oz cheddar, grated
1 oz gorgonzola, grated
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp chili powder

Melt the butter on medium heat in a large saucepan. And I do mean large - you will be adding all of your ingredients to this pan. In hindsight, a pot might be better. Once the butter is melted, slowly add the flour and stir for 2 minutes. This mixture is called a roux aka a thickener for sauces.

Add the milk one cup at a time, stirring constantly until it is thick, about 10 minutes. The mixture is now called a béchamel sauce, which is a white sauce used in many Italian dishes. You didn't know you would be learning today, did you!?

 

Béchamel!

Remove from heat and stir in the cheeses, salt, garlic powder, and chili powder until it is all nice and melted together. Set aside.

 

Cheese sauce. Nomnomnom.

Now hopefully this process did not take longer than 9 minutes. Otherwise, your pasta will have overcooked! This is why you set the timer. Well, I dunno about you but this is why I set the timer, anyway. So you should drain your pasta and rinse it with cold water. Then mix 2 cups of the cheese sauce in a medium bowl with the pasta.

 

You wish you could multitask this well.

BEWARE! I say 2 cups! The whole mixture is 4 cups. Why the recipe says to make 2x the amount needed, I don't know. But I made the mistake of pouring it all into the bowl. This is what I was talking about with the recipe being confusing. I didn't want anyone else to make that mistake and have to fish 2 cups of cheese sauce out without getting any penne. It was really hard, man!

Ok so now you butter your 8x8 Pyrex pan and pour your mixture into it. Sprinkle the rest of the shredded cheese and chili sauce on top and pop it in the oven for 20-30 minutes. I picked 30 and it was awesome.

Pre-oven.

 

Post-oven. What a difference 30 minutes makes! (at 350)

Thanks to Joe at My Cooking Quest for the recipe. Here is the original link. Don't forget to lift your pinky when you eat it.

Quick Note about Oatmeal

I have no firsthand pictures to support this post, but I did something Monday morning/afternoon that I need to share with the world.

I made oatmeal using half milk and half.... eggnog. That is all.

PS. When I googled eggnog, a bunch of pictures of eggnog showed up and 1 painting of a woman breastfeeding. WTF. Does she produce eggnog instead of milk? I'm confused and scared now.

PPS. When I scrolled down my google results, I saw pictures of pancakes. This leads me to believe that people are making pancakes with eggnog and now I am inspired.

Scrambled Eggs with Sausage Biscuits & Gravy

An easy one, and a two-parter. What did you do to deserve this? You can thank Mere. Normally I probably wouldn't have put this recipe online, but one of her friends demanded that I put the breakfast up and that Mere's picture appear on the blog. So, feast your eyes on Mere.

Anywho, scrambled eggs. Not hard to make, but I do have my own way of doing it. It might be the same as everyone else's way but who knows.

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

shredded/sliced cheddar

salt & pepper to taste

5-6 drops of Tabasco (optional)

This is all guesswork (for 1 serving) except for the eggs, because I usually just eyeball the amounts. If you have the patience to shred your cheddar cheese, good for you. If you are like me, I cut a few slices and break them into small pieces then toss them in. I mix up the eggs with a fork, using it like a whisk. Toss a pad or 2 of butter into a pan, use the fork to coat the pan with the butter, then pour the mixture into the pan.

Try to resist the urge to mess with the eggs too much. Just let them be for a few minutes, then try to flip the entire mixture over if you can. The key is minimal contact! If you make these eggs well, you won't need any condiments. I love em.

Now for the Sausage Biscuits & Gravy, a favorite for Dennis. He introduced me to them and they are so simple yet utterly delicious. All you really need is a pound of breakfast sausage, some flour & milk, and a package of biscuits (unless of course you want to make your own from scratch).

First, put the biscuits in the oven and while you're waiting for them to bake, you can prepare the sausage & gravy. Just cook the sausage however you normally would - break it up in the pan and stir it occasionally. Once the sausage is done and you have a decent amount of grease in the pan, add 2-3 tbsp of flour and pour milk in until it covers the bottom of the pan (try 1 cup and work your way up from there if you are uncertain). Stir the mixture around until a gravy starts to form.. it shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

And that's it! Dennis likes to spread his biscuits around the plate and smother them with the sausage gravy, whereas I like separating my food into quadrants (as evidenced from the picture above). Happy breakfasting!

Fluffy Pancakes

When I first found this recipe for fluffy pancakes, I was a little turned off by the vinegar in the ingredients list but it got so many rave reviews that I decided to give it a try.

Ingredients

3/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Mix the milk & vinegar together. You will be adding the dry ingredients to this mixture, so make sure to use a large bowl. The directions say to let the milk & vinegar mixture "sour" which sounds gross, but stick out the recipe to the end!! It will be worth it.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, & salt together in a separate bowl.

Add the egg & butter to the "soured" milk & whisk. Then add the flour mixture & whisk until it is smooth.

At this point, I like to pour one pancake to get a feeling for the consistency. Sometimes if it is too thick, it will just pour into a blob and it won't spread out into a circle. I use a whisk or a spoon like I'm spreading sauce on a pizza to flatten the pancake into a circle. Then I add a little milk to the mixture to thin it out. Now that I think of it, maybe I should just adjust the milk from the beginning! I will try this and update the recipe if it works out.

Anywho, this recipe usually makes 8-10 medium-sized pancakes.. medium meaning a little smaller than a CD. I usually make a bunch of plain Jane circles, then one or two fun ones.. like so..

This pancake was for me...

And this one was for Dennis!

We have an electric skillet that I can make 3-4 pancakes on at a time, but when I use a pan it definitely takes longer and the pancakes tend to cool off a little by the time I'm done with the batter. I just pop them back on the pan or skillet for around 30 seconds on each side and they're good as new.

We usually don't finish all of the pancakes, so once they have cooled down enough I put the leftovers into a Ziplock bag and toss them in the fridge. They heat up great in the microwave!

I have tried a few different recipes for pancakes, and so far this one is the best. Here's the original link at AllRecipes.com.

Chicken Teriyaki, Yellow Rice, & Cheesy Broccoli

This meal was made back in March after Dennis & I first started dating. We were so proud we sent pictures to his mom, which is the only reason I have such an old meal documented.

It was really simple to make. I think the hardest part is probably timing everything.

The chicken (from what I remember, this was March 2008!) is just a chicken breast, basted with Ken's Steak House Teriyaki sauce. We have some KSH Honey Teriyaki sauce in the fridge right now, so I'm not sure whether we used that or plain teriyaki sauce, but I'm sure either one works.

The rice is also easy enough - yellow rice called "Vigo." We are partial to Success Rice, the boil-in-a-bag kind, so making rice the regular way is annoying now because it always seems to stick to the bottom of the pot. Someday I will find a way to fix this, but not today! The yellow rice packet suggests adding a chicken bullion cube to the boiling water for flavor, which we do, and it makes it very flavorful indeed.

The cheesy broccoli comes from Dennis' mom's recipe. I usually throw some broccoli in a pot with a half-inch of water, put the lid on, and then just check on it occasionally. When it starts to look really bright green, I take a little piece out and taste it. When it has the right consistency, I take it out. I should probably start timing this process, but that would take out the spontaneity factor!!

The cheesy sauce is made of Velveeta, butter, flour, & milk.

1 tbsp melted butter

1 tbsp flour

1 cup milk

Mix ingredients, warm in a pot on the stove, and then add the cheese. I asked Dennis, "How much cheese?" & he said, "As much as it takes..." So basically, to your own taste. Just stir continuously & add slices of cheese slowly until it reaches the consistency that you like.

Voila! Again, the timing can be difficult but it helps if you have an extra pair of hands in the kitchen. I have to thank Dennis for this one as it was his idea & we have had it many times since.