Alpine Mac'n Cheese

This recipe it taken out of Cuisine at Home (Feb. 2012 edition).

I had made a cajun mac and cheese earlier in the month, but given that my husband loves anything with kielbasa, cheese, and pasta- I figured it couldn't hurt to try another recipe. This one is a 'fancier' version of what we usually make in our house- and invovles some cheeses I've never made mac and cheese with before. Look at us- all fancypants with our cheese that really isn't all that fancy- its just not served in 'singles' like the Kraft stuff is.

One word of advice: cut back on the amount of dijon used- I had already cut it back in the recipe to appeal to my audience of picky eaters, and it was still strong in the dish!

Recipe adapted from Cuisine at Home

Alpine Mac 'n Cheese

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs (we used panko for a crunch)
* 2 tbsp. minced fresh parsley (omitted in ours- alex hates flakey green things)
* 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
salt and pepper to taste

* 8 oz cavatappi or elbow pasta
* 8 oz kielbasa sausage
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* 2 tbsp unsalted butter
* 2 tbsp minced shallots
* 1 tbsp caraway seeds

* 2 tbsp flour
* 2 1/2 cups whole milk, warmed
* 1 cup shredded gouda
* 1 cup appenzeller, gruyere, or emmental cheese (we used gruyere)
* 3 tbsp dijon mustard (i used 2 and it was still strong tasting)
* 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

To Make:

* Preheat oven to 400. coat casserole dish with nonstick spray
* for topping: combine crumbs, parsley, and melted butter in a bowl. set aside
* cook pasta in salted boiling water, drain, set aside
* brown kielbasa in a pan with olive oil. drain on paper-towel covered plate
* melt 2 tbsp butter in same pot over medium heat, add shallots, caraway seed. cook until seeds are toasted (we omitted seeds)
* whisk in flour. cook one minute. whisk in milk, cook until slightly thickened. reduce heat to low. add cheeses by the handful, whisking until melted.
* stir in dijon and worcestershire sauce. then add pasta. then add sausage. transfer to casserole dish and sprinkle crumb topping over the top.
* bake until sauce is bubbly and crumbs are brown- about 20 minutes.

Creamy Herbed Chicken & Pasta

Slow cookers are my best friend. Granted, I am home all day, doing nothing, so its not like they help me out in the 'I have no time to cook' department. I'm just lazy. I spend all day just playing with the boys, waiting for the hubs to come home. It just mostly happens that around the time I would usually start cooking dinner, both boys need to be fed/bathed/paid attention to so its always difficult to prepare food with them crying and running between my legs in the kitchen. Again, slow cookers are my best friend.

This recipe is altered a bit. I found a recipe for creamy herbed chicken in my Taste of Home Slow Cooker magazine I picked up while waiting in the checkout line at Walmart. I couldn't find the specific packet of seasoning that was called for in the original recipe, so after about 20 minutes of looking and 30 curse words later, I gave up hope and went in search of the next item on my list. Turns out, in the dressing aisle, Kraft has pasta seasoning packages! Not exactly what the recipe called for, but I'm going to say it was a very successful substitute!

Ingredients:

* 1 lb chicken breast (I use the packages of 3)
* 1 can cream of chicken soup
* 1 cup milk
* 1 teaspoon dried thyme
* 1 teaspoon parsley flakes
* 1 package garlic and herb pasta seasoning (Knorr brand used in original recipe)
       My substitute: Kraft Parmesan Seasoning Packet in Rosemary and Garlic
* Salt and Pepper
* Pasta of your choice

To Make:

* Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray
* In a medium bowl, combine soup, milk, thyme, parsley, and herb seasoning packet. Whisk together until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste
* Add chicken breasts to slow cooker. Pour soup mixture over chicken
* Cook on LOW for 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked
* Cook pasta according to package directions

I also added a little flour mixed with cold water to the liquid after pulling the chicken out of the slow cooker to thicken up the sauce so it could be poured over the noodles. I used fettucini noodles, but since it was a parmesan based seasoning package, it could very well have worked over some cheese tortelloni or something like that... delicious!

Cajun Mac & Cheese

No big story here. I asked Chris to cycle through my Food Network Magazines until he found a recipe he wanted me to make during the week. It took him all of two minutes to find the recipe and demand (nicely of course) that it be made immediately. And it was.

Cajun Mac & Cheese
Adapted from Food Network Magazine (March 2012)

Ingredients:
* 12 ounces wagon-wheel pasta (my store did not have this... can you believe that?)
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 6 ounces andouille sausage or other cajun sausage, chopped
* 2 bunches scallions, thinly sliced (I omitted this due to lack of decent looking scallions at the store)
* 1 bell pepper (green or red), chopped
* 1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
* 2 tablespoons flour
* 2 cups whole milk
* 8 ounces sharp-cheddar cheese, cut into small cubes (I grated to make melting easier)

To Make:
* bring pot of salted water to boil. add pasta and cook until al dente. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water, then drain pasta
* while pasta is cooking, combine olive oil and sausage in a skillet over high heat. cook until sausage browns, about 2 minutes. Stir in scallions and pepper and cook until pepper is soft, about 3 minutes.
* add cajun seasoning and flour. stir for 2 more minutes. gradually whisk in milk and cook until sauce is smooth and thick, about 5 more minutes
* stir in cheese until melted, add some of the reserved water if sauce is too thick. stir in pasta, and stir until nicely coated with cheese sauce.

Serve immediately. Chris topped his with a little extra seasoning (cayenne pepper or cajun) to spice it up a bit. It wasn't too spicey on its own (Alex ate it just fine) but has lots of creole-y flavor!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

When I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner tonight, his answer was the usual: I don't care. We had some burger thawing in the fridge, so I asked him if he wanted me to make meatballs.

His response was: Yes, but make them the normal way ok? Not the way you make them all the time.

Burn.

In my house, meatballs were made with brown gravy and mashed potatoes- and thats how I like 'em.

Apparently, everyone else eats them with spaghetti sauce and noodles (?)  how about that! Please note the sarcasm in that, I'm not an idiot who doesn't know what spaghetti and meatballs is... 

I sighed, never having made them in this fashion, and turned my attention to make some italian style meatballs to appease the husbandly Gods. (I mean, I do still need him to mow the backyard after its done raining.)

Ta-Da!

I didn't use a set recipe- I just shuffled through a bunch on foodnetwork.com until I found elements of some that I liked and threw them all together, which turned out pretty darn tasty. My husband even said 'they turned out good, babe'. Not that I need his praise to know a good job, but if he's happy, he may just mow the front yard as well!

Ingredients:
* 1 lb hamburger
* 1 egg
* 1/2 cup italian breadcrumbs
* 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
* Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

To Make
* Combine all ingredients in a bowl (feel free to use your hands)
* Roll them into size of your choice- I made smaller ones to ensure they would cook through quickly
* Place them on a cookie sheet (grease with olive oil if you need to)
* Bake for 10 minutes (or more if they are larger)
* Once cooked through, add them to sauce of your choice, or make a homemade sauce like the sauce for Mama Sue's Lasagna

Place on top of al dente spaghetti noodles- serve with green salad and homemade garlic toast!

Alfredo Sauce

A few months ago, I went on a no sugar, no carb diet. I completely cut out all carbs except those from veggies. While it was the hardest few months of my life, I did lose weight- like crazy. I'm talking 15 lbs in two months. A-mazing. What's even more amazing is that now, I'm back to eating carbs. While my wasteline isn't as small, my belly and my soul are much more content! Hey, you only live once, right? Right!

I decided to make my own alfredo sauce to enjoy on my carb-packed-and-oh-so-good pasta I have been eating on a regular basis now. Now, I know for a fact that an anonymous source had given my husband the recipe for Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce. Could I find it? Of course not. Did I tear apart my recipe box looking for it, almost to the point of hysteria? Of course I did. Chris must be keeping it a deep dark secret from me. I did, however, find a good recipe from an old 2009 edition of Food Network Magazine. It worked out just fine. Plus, lets face it, Olive Garden alfredo sauce isn't as good unless you have Olive Garden breadsticks to dip it in...

Ingredients:

* 6 tablespoons butter- unsalted
* 1 cup heavy cream
* 1 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon pepper
* 1/4 cup reserved water from boiling noodles

To Do:

* Cook pasta. Strain, leaving about 1/4 cup water in pot.
* Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat
* Add heavy cream, stir, and bring to boil
* Remove from heat once a boil is reached.
* Return noodles to pot with water reserve
* Add butter cream mixture to pot with noodles and 3/4 parmesan cheese
* Toss to combine
* Season with salt and pepper, top with extra parmesan cheese.

I did cut the recipe in half, as I am still cooking for one and half at home. Alex loves my cooking, and he can sure take down a lot of it for a 9 month old, but there was no need for me to make the whole batch of sauce!

I tossed my alfredo with some cheese filled tortellinis and some shrimp that I sauteed in butter and garlic salt.

Grandma Ann's Mac & Cheese

The biggest vacations we ever took when I was growing up were up to Glasgow, MT. About as far north as you can get in Montana, and almost as far west as you can go (full of beautiful... beautiful... er... uh... plains), was my Grandma Ann's house, the house my mother grew up in. We used to go for Thanksgiving/Hunting Season every year, and the occassional Christmas, Easter, and summer trip.

When I think of my Grandma Ann's house, I think of her stemless glasses, stealing gingerales out of the fridge, rolling down the hill in her backyard, playing G.I Joes, getting squirted by my first grapefruit, the collection of books I learned to read with, her old red car sitting in the driveway, how scary the downstairs storage room was, and playing restaurant downstairs. Yes, the cooker in me came out in the presence of both grandmothers, and we always played restaurant: complete with play-dishes and homemade play-doh. The play-doh was made by my Grandma Ann herself. It was the best. The second she was done making it we would rush to play with the warm, squishy, salty (yes I tried to eat it a few times) mounds of colored goo. It was my number 1 favorite thing that ever came out of her kitchen.

This was my second favorite thing

All Grandmas are known for their cooking. My Grandma made this dish everytime we came to visit. It is my all-time favorite comfort food, and I remember it was such a heavenly experience everytime I ate it. I wish I could say I had a knack for making it, but alas, my first time will live in infamy, as I forgot to boil the noodles first, and I doubt I will ever live it down. So, it turns out I'm giving you more than an amazing recipe for mac & cheese today, I'm handing out life lesson: always, always, always... boil your noodles.

Ingredients:

* 16 oz macaroni noodles (about 2/3 of a box) (cooked, a'hem)
* 16 oz of Kraft Deluxe American Cheese (now, it HAS to be THIS cheese. Walmart no longer sells it. You will find it at any other grocery story, sitting right next to the Velveeta- but do NOT use Velveeta- I swear its just not the same- at all. Find the blue box of Kraft, worship the blue box of Kraft, settle for nothing less than the blue box of Kraft! )
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup milk (more may be needed, keep the jug out)

To Do:

* Boil Noodles. Duh. Drain noodles. Do not used uncooked noodles. Don't be a moron like myself.
* Cube cheese into medium sized chunks
* Mix 2 eggs with 1 cup milk in bowl.
* In casserole dish, combine COOKED noodles, cheese cubes, and the egg/milk mixture. Stir together.
* Top off the casserole with milk until almost to the top of the dish - this will help make it extra creamy
* Bake covered for 35 minutes at 375F
* Take top off, stir, and bake for 10 more minutes

Delicious as a side dish or just sit down with the entire casserole dish and a fork. I'm not even a little ashamed to say I've done it before. Not even a little.