Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Everyone should know how to make a good Macaroni and Cheese. And I'm not talking about the Kraft box kind. As my numerous followers know, I like food with a little kick to it. This Mac and Cheese recipe has just that. Plus, broccoli adds vitamins or nutrients... or whatever you call that healthy stuff I'm not getting out of my nutella jar. This recipe, like 80% of my blog, is based on a recipe of my Mom's. I just started adding cherry tomatoes which I think adds great color and flavor. I figured tomato slices are delicious in grilled cheese sandwiches... so they would taste just as good in Macaroni and Cheese.

The prep time for this dish is a little longer than my usual items but because of that this recipe leaves leftovers. What you do tonight you don't need to do tomorrow.



Before getting out anything, start boiling water because you need cooked macaroni elbows for the recipe.

1. cook about 10oz of elbow macaroni.
2. While cooking the pasta add the following ingredients into a large mixing bowl:
16 oz container of onion dip (I usually end up only adding roughly 10oz, I don't like it overly sour)
12 oz of cottage cheese
2 whisked eggs
8-16 oz of once frozen now thawed broccoli spears. I break it into smaller sections.
2 cups of FRESHLY grated cheddar cheese. I did this once with the easy stuff already shredded in a bag--big mistake. The fresh stuff makes a big difference.
1-2 tsp of crushed red pepper, depending on how hot you like it
more than a handful of rinsed cherry tomatoes.

Once the macaroni is cooked, start preheating the oven to 350 for baking and drain the pasta and add it to the above mixture. Mix everything all together and place into a glass baking dish. I actually use two dishes when I do this. We eat one the night we make it and the second dish is for leftovers.




Melt a tablespoon or so of butter and sprinkle this on top with some bread crumbs.

Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. If you fill one dish to the top you may want to cook it longer, but if you have two dishes with a thinner amount less time would be fine. You want the dish to still be soft.

Enjoy!

Hi Readers! This is Nicole, Summer's little big sister back in Southeastern Mass. Summer is going to let me guest blog today and share a meal I made with our slow cooker. Hope you enjoy.

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Today I made a very yummy, soul pleasing, slow cooked white bean and chicken chili. The slow cooker is one of the greatest kitchen gadgets I own, second only to my expresso machine. (Yes, I own an espresso machine.)

This recipe is quick and easy. It only takes about fifteen minutes to prepare and it simmers away in the slow cooker all day while you’re at work or school. When you walk in the door exhausted and hungry, the house smells delicious, and dinner is ready and waiting for you.

To make this chili, you’ll need:



2 cans of white cannellini beans
1 can of corn
1 can of green chilis
32 oz (4 cups) chicken stock (The carton is usually 32 oz so use the whole thing)
boneless chicken breasts (I used three.)
half a yellow onion
a couple of garlic cloves

For spices, you’ll need:



1/8 tsp Ground Coriander Seed
A pinch of salt
1 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp White Pepper
1 tsp Oregano

You’ll also need olive oil to saute the onion and garlic, and cook the chicken. After the chili cooks all day, I added 1/4 cup of heavy cream and some flour to thicken it up.

So, to get started, you need to put about a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and warm it up on medium heat. While the oil heats, chop up the onion into very small pieces with a butchers knife. Very. Small. Pieces. When you think you’re done chopping, chop some more.



The oil should be nice and hot by now, so put the garlic in a garlic crusher and crush it into the pan. If you’re Italian like Summer and I, use four or five cloves. If you have an Irish stomach like Summer’s man, stick to two or three. Push the garlic around with a spatula and let it sizzle away for about a minute. Don’t let it turn brown. Add in the chopped onion, and also the coriander, cumin, and oregano.



Continue turning the mixture with the spatula until the onions start to look translucent. This smells amazing...



Amazing.

Once the onion mixture is done, scape it into the slow cooker. If you’re using a cast iron skillet like I am, get someone with upper body strength to help you. Put the skillet back on the burner, add a little more olive oil, and place your chicken breasts into the skillet. Still on medium heat, cook them just until the outside of the chicken is nice and white, then place the chicken into the slow cooker right on top of your onion mixture. The chicken will finish cooking through when you turn it on.



Drain and rinse the cannellini beans and toss em’ on top of the chicken and onions. Add the corn and the green chilis.



Pour the chicken stock in. I also wound up adding 1/2 cup of white wine. Try not to sample the wine and stick to your morning cup of coffee.



Now you’re ready to turn the cooker on and go about your day!



I let this simmer on low for about 8 hours. When I got back from school, (after I savored the aroma and finally poured myself a glass of that white wine) I removed the chicken breasts from the cooker and shredded them with a fork. I put the shredded chicken back into the cooker, added 1/4 cup of heavy cream and a sprinkle of Wondra flour to thicken it up, (just add little bits of flour at a time until you're satisfied with the thickness) and tossed in a pinch of salt and about 1/2 tsp of white pepper. I left the lid off of the cooker and set the heat up to high for about 45 minutes and let it simmer away.

I forgot to take a picture until after we ate about half of it, but here it is:



Not the prettiest dish you’ll ever see, but with chili it’s all about the flavor. This was spicy and warm and a nice variation on the usual red bean/red meat chili. Try it with some fresh cornbread and I think you’ll agree.

Nutella and Walnut Pastry Square

This is ridiculously easy. I saw my Mom do it when I was home for Thanksgiving Break so I threw it together Friday night. It's really good. You can trust me on that because, like October's pizza, I forgot to take a picture until after I started eating it.

Ingredients:
1 Pastry Puff sheet (most packages come with 2)
a little flour
1 egg
1 jar of nutella
walnuts

Thaw the puff pastry and roll it out with a pin so there aren't any cracks. You'll probably need some flour to keep it from sticking. Using a knife, lightly cut about 1 inch from the edge. Do this all the way around. This makes the crust. You don't have to cut all the way through, just enough so you can see it. Preheat the oven and beat an egg. With a pastry brush paint the egg-wash along the crust: this makes that nice golden color. Let it puff up in the oven (maybe 15 mins). Remove it and while it's still hot spread nutella on the top. You might want to place a few globs of nutella on it and let the chocolate heat up before spreading it. This will make it easier to spread. Otherwise you might pull up the flakey top. Then sprinkle some crushed walnuts on top and put back in the oven for a few minutes before eating it.

After digging in it's just as good refrigerated.

New Calzone Pics

To better visualize October's Calzone recipe you better check out these pics!


This is the spinach and feta calzone. There are lots of ingredients to add to the spinach so check it out in the earlier recipe.


This is the provolone, ham and soppressata (hot) calzone. You could also replace the soppressata with salami. I crumble feta in this one too just because it has a great white color when it's done cooking. The provolone tends to blend in color with the dough.



yummm

Chicken Parm

There's nothing like coming home after a long day dealing with hormonal 11 years and cooking some good food. It's like they all disappear while Amy Winehouse sings in the background. Ms. Cannon morphs back into Summer. ahh.

Two nights ago I made some chicken parm and it came out goooood. Honestly, I'm not a huge chicken parm fan usually. I've never ordered it in a restaurant. Dan likes it a lot though so I wanted to make it for him. It came out really well though, so here goes.

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts
bread crumbs
milk, about 1/2 cup, maybe a little more
1 egg
olive oil
Parmesan cheese
provolone cheese
some shredded parmigiano-reggiano (or regular parm)
red sauce

-Rinse the chicken breasts and put on a plate. If they are thick I would pound them flatter so they cook faster, but it's up to you.
-In one bowl stir up the egg with fork and add some milk. mix.
-In a second bowl pour some bread crumbs and mix with Parmesan cheese.
-Dip each piece of chicken into the egg and milk mixture and then into the bread crumbs. Make sure the breast is covered in bread crumbs.
-After doing this for all the chicken pieces, pour some olive oil into a skillet (so it covers the bottom) and turn on medium-high. Once the oil gets hot you are going to fry both sides of the chicken breasts. Leave on each side for about 4 minutes or until a nice brown color and be careful when flipping it because you don't want to splatter hot oil.

While doing this preheat the oven at about 350.

-In a baking dish place the chicken breasts on some tin foil. Pour on some red sauce and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese. Then place some strips of provolone cheese on top. Bake for about 25 minutes.

When we ate it I also served it with some spaghetti and yummy rye bread. Enjoy!