Macaroni and Cheese

I am always encouraging people to try making mac and cheese from scratch; it's really easy, and employing the methods of making it (like making a roux) are really good and versatile skills to have as a home cook. For example, you will now know how to make alfredo (or any other cream sauce) as well as nacho cheese sauce, which I made a while back [click here for the recipe].

Anyhow, I figured I should post on how to make it once and for all!

Two things you should know going into this post:
1. I made this on Sunday night before we ripped out the kitchen, and most of my kitchen utensils and food items were already packed. I didn't buy anything special for it; I only used what I had (that's how great this recipe is!) I also didn't want to turn on the oven, meaning I never baked this, and it was still delicious!
2. I have never made this the same way twice; I'll try to point out when you can get creative in the recipe.

I'm going to start you with a printable basic recipe that is a good one, from my idol Martha Stewart:
Martha Stewart's Macaroni and Cheese

 Make roux:
1. melt butter

 2. Your first chance to be creative: you can saute finely chopped onions in the butter, garlic, or mustard powder. I chose garlic. Make sure to cook it for a very short amount of time. In fact, I think Gordon Ramsey would scream at me for the brown-ness of the butter in this pan...but it's the stove! Not me!

3. Add flour (you're getting measurements from the recipe, no? I didn't measure anything, but you should if this is your first time. Also, I'm sure no one cares, but I use whole wheat white flour in ALL of my cooking, in case you were interested.

3. Add your milk and/or cream. Sometimes I use heavy cream and milk, sometimes just heavy cream or half and half, and at home, just 1 or 2% milk. This is the part of the roux that freaks people out. The flour is clumpy and looks weird, but just whisk it!

4. Ignore the brownish tint - once the flour is whisked into the milk it will make a nice, thick sauce base: this is the roux. Allow it to bubble slowly and thicken before adding your cheese.

Now add cheese!

I used a cheddar-monterey blend and mozzarella, because that's what I had. I typically use anything like extra sharp cheddar, white cheddar (but always some orange for color purposes), gruyere, havarti, blue, gorgonzola...anything that looks good. My favorite was a wood-apple-smoked gruyere I found once.

This is your other creative time: you can add Worcestershire sauce (unless I'm coming over for dinner: I hate it) dry mustard powder (if you haven't already), Dijon mustard, cayenne pepper, black pepper, etc.

Mmm this is making me hungry!

 You can, of course, stir add-ins if you like them. Suggestions: chicken, bacon/ham, peas...

Typically, I'd add bread crumbs (Martha advocates making them yourself, and I'll admit: they are great! Although I typically will use pre-made from Trader Joe's. Italian breadcrumbs are also delicious. You can then add more cheese (this is where I'd throw in a strong cheese like gruyere and another "hard" cheese; maybe parmesan or romano.) You can drizzle 1 tsp. of olive oil over the crumbs for moisture, and I will recommend garlic olive oil or even truffle oil if you have it!

Bon appetit!

Celebration Cakes

Last week, before I left for Palm Desert, I made these "celebration cakes" (so I called them) for J to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his accident. They were certainly a labor of love!

The recipe is another from Cooking Light, and involved unsweetened chocolate and cocoa, and a meringue of egg whites and cream of tartar (I do not like cream of tartar, so I didn't want to buy it and substituted with a pinch of cinnamon.) 

I must admit, the egg whites, which were such a pain to sort, made for a rich, egg-y flavor that was outstanding. Overall, I'd have cooked this a bit less, but otherwise this is just about as perfect as cake comes. I will also add fresh strawberries or raspberries next time. A lot of work (a LOT of dishes) but worth it for celebrations!

Look at the gooey inside texture. It was like souffle meets lava cake!

Mmmmm mole!

I didn't photograph this dinner (it would not have photographed well, trust me) but I made chicken mole for dinner. It was really great! Another Cooking Light recipe, and J loved it. It was fun to serve a dinner that involved oranges, dried ancho chiles and chocolate. Get out there and get cooking!

I served it alongside Spanish rice and black beans.

Now I do have a picture of this! Our dessert:

What I made for dinner

Enchilada casserole from Cooking Light...

 Also a Mexican cabbage salad (which I made up), corn on the cob and a chipotle sauce for the corn, also from Cooking Light.

Cabbage salad:

Cabbage
White distilled vinegar
Red Wine vinegar
Sugar (about a tbl)
Lime juice
Vegetable oil (about a tbl)
Salt and pepper
2 dashes of cumin

What I made for dinner

I just don't think to photograph my dinners often, perhaps because they never look appetizing in a picture. But they are!

Here is one I did remember:

From my new Cooking Light cookbook: oven-fried buttermilk chicken and corn fritter casserole served with green beans.

Mmmm Yummy Cupcakes!

I referenced these little beauties from my weekend post, and here is some more detail.

These are chocolate chip cookie-vanilla cupcakes from Martha Stewart Living (July 2011 issue)

The recipes themselves are fantastic; worth buying the issue for!

She starts with a basic cookie recipe, a recipe which my oven burned when I made these darling minis to top the cupcakes:

There is cookie dough pressed into the bottom of the cupcake wrapper, then the silky and delicious vanilla cake batter is placed on top.

Finally, a dollop of creamy vanilla buttercream.

Yum!

Family Dinner

 Calla lilies from our yard

 Delicious 5-cheese pasta from Barefoot Contessa.

 Table set and ready to eat

 My mom made this delicious and very different salad of endive, fennel, apples, blue cheese, candied walnuts, and a champagne vinaigrette

 Garlic roasted chicken (this picture makes it not look good I think?)

 What do you do when your nice cloth placemats get dirty? Do you wash and iron? Dry clean?

 Green beans with shallots ands kosher salt

 That red dish was an experiment--quinoa pilaf with beets. The recipe called for golden beets, and of course my store didn't have any...but my mom loves beets so I used red...well the whole dish (zucchini and all) turned bright magenta. Lesson learned!

 The table before being decked out

 And after

Interesting quinoa dish, covered in scallions and chives.

Placemats and napkin rings: Pottery Barn
Napkins: Ralph Lauren (Macy's)
Having beautiful things thanks to your loving family/friends and a wedding registry: priceless

:)

Mmmm Thai Lettuce Wraps

Another Hungry Girl 1, 2, 3 Recipe that turned out wonderfully...

I couldn't find light Thai peanut dressing, as called out in the recipe, so I made my own using natural unsalted peanut butter, rice vinegar, cilantro, lime juice, and crushed red pepper. It was so delicious I'll probably make it again for a salad!

 The veggie mixture inside the wraps consisted of cucumber, scallions, cilantro, shaved carrots, and rice vinegar. Then I cooked up some chicken for the inside, tossed in peanut dressing, and assembled.

 Below is the plain peanut butter I used...it's delicious!

MMM. I think I could also have added chopped bean sprouts and edamame to the inside mixture and even less chicken and they still would have rocked. Oh and for water chestnut haters...nary a water chestnut in sight! (they are in most lettuce wraps)

Overall, this was delicious and VERY low in calories. Unfortunately, it was not a main course-worthy dish and we were still hungry. But that's ok!

What I made for dinner

If you read yesterday, you know that the onion soup I made exploded all over me. So I do not have a picture of the soup, but believe me, it wasn't very exciting to look at. These awful and disgusting pictures are all I got of my "Mini Turkey Veggie Meatloaf Bites" but they were quite good, and very healthy.

The Caramelized onion bisque was delicious and also very healthy!

Dinner Idea

Need a quick dinner idea?

Try paninis and salad with green goddess dressing!

 It looks like green play doh, but it's delicious and healthy!

 Mmmm paninis with pesto, mozarella, tomatoes, and basil

 Green goddess ingredients, minus the green onions and basil. I have posted on this delicious dressing before...

I make paninis on my grill pan and voila! Almost-instant dinner!

Football Night Dinner

Another successful football night dinner that I thought I'd share--and it was 99% completed by the time I walked out the door in the morning:

Healthy Half-Veggie Chili Bread Bowls!

It did require an exclamation point because it was delish!

We have all read the headlines about the environmental impacts of consuming meat, and I am a firm believer that we can cut down on our consumption with positive environmental and health results. Since I've never been much of a carnivore, this is particularly easy for me, but remember: I cook for J. J is a carnivore. Big time. So these meals have to be filling and hearty meat-free or meat-light meals.

Pretty much no one needs a chili recipe, but here is an overview of my low-meat alternative:

About .5-.75 lb. of ground beef for that beefy taste - 15% fat or less
About .3-.5lb of Morningstar Farms' soy crumbles (soy-made ground beef substitute that is low in calories and high in protein--and I swear no one will notice it!)
1 can fire-roasted tomatoes
1 can chili beans
1 packet Tex-Mex seasoning
Chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic to taste
1 C (ish) frozen chopped onions
1/2 C. (ish) frozen chopped green pepper

I cooked the ground beef, drained the fat, and added the seasoning + water on the stove. When the seasoning was stirred in, I threw in the other frozen ingredients: soy crumbles, onions and bell pepper. Toss the roasted onions and beans in a crock pot, then stir in stovetop ingredients. Set to low and leave!

When I got home, I threw two sourdough bread bowls (purchased in the bakery section of the grocery store) in the oven to heat. I had already cut the "lids" and hollowed the insides. While they toasted, I threw together a simple lettuce, cherry tomato, feta cheese salad. I put out some light sour cream, shredded cheese, and cut avocado as my "toppings bar." At this point the bread bowls were toasty, I filled them with chili and we topped them as we pleased. YUM!

The best chocolate cake ever.

Two weekends ago I made the best chocolate cake ever. Seriously.

It all started with a Williams-Sonoma cake mix given to me by the lovely Christina (I suppose her husband was involved as well). I made some chocolate buttercream from Martha Stewart's Cooking School and it was to die for!

 Yum yum yum yum yum

 Please use good cocoa!

 Here is the mix if you'd like to make this yourself (I recommend it). It's really like a cake from scratch, not a mix...the box contains the dry ingredients and you add eggs and butter.

 The page from Martha's Cooking School (thanks, Kate!)

Easy Chocolate Buttercream:
6 sticks of unsalted butter
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3/4 C. unsweetened dutch-process cocoa powder
5 1/4 C. sifted confectioner's sugar

Cream butter with electric mixer until fluffy. Ad vanilla. Add cocoa. Add sugar (slowly!) Whip it for a long long time. Taste some. Frost.

Of course I brought it to a party so I could not take pictures of a slice, but I took the half of my piece home and thought I'd throw a picture in...

Notes on the mix: this cake was dense and delicious. It also weighed a TON. Next time I'd make it in THREE 9" round pans (although it says you can use two). It took a long time to bake. But it was worth it!

Notes on the frosting: since it's mostly butter, it can do great things. For example, I frosted a "crumb coat" first, then refrigerated that, then actually frosted the cake. You can refrigerate the frosting and it will set. If you refrigerate it in the bowl, remember to let it sit at room temperature and then whip it up again when you're done. I do not recommend making this without the aid of a Kitchen Aid or other stand mixer.