Creamy Mac & Cheese

• This was super easy and really creamy. Not grainy like most homemade Mac & Cheese recipes I've tried. I love me a one dish meal.

It comes to us from http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2009/03/skillet-creamy-macaroni-and-cheese.html

INGREDIENTS

• 3 1/2 cups water, plus extra if needed
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
• 12 ounces (about 3 cups) elbow macaroni
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
• 6 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded (1 1/2 cups)
• 6 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (1 1/2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small chunks
• Ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring 3 1/2 cups water, 1 cup of the evaporated milk, the macaroni, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a simmer in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat. Cook at a vigorous simmer, stirring often, until the macaroni is tender and the liquid has thickened, 9 to 12 minutes.
2. Whisk the remaining 1/2 cup evaporated milk, the cornstarch, mustard and hot sauce together in a small bowl, then stir into the skillet. Continue to simmer slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
3. Off the heat, stir in the cheddar and Monterey Jack, one handful at a time, adding water as needed to adjust the consistency of the sauce (I didn’t need any additional water when I made it). Stir in the butter and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Breakfast Hashbrown Casserole

this was a good basic breakfast casserole recipe. I liked the two cooking stages a lot. It came out with a really good texture. You can definitely add other things you like,  but I wanted to have the basic on here for future reference.

Bag of frozen hashbrowns
1-2 cups Ham or cooked sausage
1 cube butter
1-2 cups shredded cheese
Other toppings (green onion, bacon, tomatoes, olives, etc)
6-10 eggs (the recipe calls for 6, but I always like more)
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 tsp. seasoned salt

Cover bottom of 9 x 13 pan with half or whole bag of hashbrowns. Pour melted margarine over the top. Layer chopped ham or sausage and grated cheese. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes.

Beat together  eggs,  evaporated milk, and seasoned salt. Add to hot casserole and bake at 350 degrees for an additional 30 minutes.

Pear & Cream Cheese Tart

This comes from Flower Patch Farm Girl. Yes you should make it. Yes it's easy and yes it tastes gourmet. AND...it has fruit in it so it's totally healthy!
 1 stick of butter, softened
1 cup sugar, divided
1 cup flour
1 pkg (8 0z) cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 thinly sliced pears, peeled

Preheat oven to 425.
Beat butter and 1/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy. (I do this in my Kitchenaid mixer.)
Add flour, mix well.
Spread firmly onto bottom and up the sides of a springform pan (I push it about 3/4 of an inch up the sides of a 10-inch pan. A 9 inch pan is a more standard size, so you could push up about an inch.)

Beat cream cheese and 1/3 cup sugar in same bowl.
Add egg and vanilla, mix well.
Spread evenly over crust.

Combine remaining 1/3 cup sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg.
Toss sliced pears with sugar mixture until covered.
Arrange pears in concentric circles on top of cream cheese filling, starting with the outside and working in.
Eat any left-over cinnamon sugar pears.
(Do not share.)

Bake 10 minutes then reduce to 375 and bake 25 minutes or until golden brown at edges and the middle is set.
Cool on wire rack.
Remove outside of springform pan.
Refrigerate tart for a few hours until cool and well set.

Italian Chicken Sandwiches with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Another great meal from OurBestBites.com. The whole family loved this! Buy enough buns for everyone to have seconds.


Ingredients
7-ounce jar of roasted red peppers, drained and patted dry (about 3/4 C)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
kosher salt and black pepper
1 large french baguette (about 24″ long) or 4 large hoagie buns
2 cups cooked shredded or (or a few chicken breasts grilled and sliced)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese, or several slices
a handful of fresh basil leaves
Instructions
Place roasted red peppers, garlic, mayo, and lemon juice (if you don’t have a lemon, sub red or white wine vinegar, or just leave it out!) in a food processor. Add a pinch of salt and a few cracks of fresh ground pepper. Process until smooth and then store in the fridge until ready to use. You can make the sauce ahead of time.
Slice bread in half to open it up. Lightly brush with olive oil or butter and place under a broiler until golden brown and toasted. Remove from oven and spread red pepper sauce on the bottom half of the bread. Layer chicken on top of it and top with cheese. Place back in the broiler just until cheese is melted. Top with basil leaves. Spread red pepper sauce on other side of bread and put sandwich together. Slice in to 4 large hoagies, or 8 smaller sandwiches.

Lasagna Soup

Credit goes to http://peggyunderpressure.com/2012/12/deconstructed-lasagna-soup-electric-pressure-cooker-recipe/ for this delicious dinner

This recipe is for a pressure cooker, but it would be super easy to make in a regular pot too.

• Lbs. Spicy Italian Sausage (You can also use lean ground beef or even ground turkey)
• 2 16oz. Cans of Chopped Tomatoes (Omit one can if you want less calories)
• 1 8oz. Can of Tomato Paste (Omit completely if you want less sodium and calories, which I did so I don’t have a photo of it)
• 1 Whole Yellow Onion, chopped
• 3 Cloves of Fresh Garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning 
• 4 Cups of Chicken Broth
• Package of Mafalda Pasta, which look like cute little pieces of lasagna (You can use broken pieces of lasagna as well, which is what I did. Or fusili pasta)

Cheese Balls:

• Shredded Mozzarella
• Low Fat Ricotta Cheese

In your handy dandy pressure cooker’s inner cooking pan/pot, put a bit of olive oil and heat up the browning feature if your model has it.  Otherwise you can do it on the stove in a saucepan.

Crumble the sausage or whatever meat you are using and brown the meat in the pot.  Add the Italian Seasoning and lightly saute everything together.  Turn off the browning feature.

Add in the minced garlic and chopped onions.  Also the cans of chopped tomato and tomato paste.  Give everything a good stir.

Now pour in the Chicken Broth or water.  I did a mix of broth and water until my pot was at the MAX line full capacity.  Make sure not to over fill pass this line or you’re going to have a mess.

DO NOT ADD THE PASTA YET!  We’ll do that later.

Close the lid and lock it.  Set the pressure valve to Airtight.  Program your pressure cooker to cook for 10-minutes.  Or if it has a pre-set SOUP function, go ahead and press that.

That’s it.  It’s all ready to go.

Now, I want to make sure everyone knows that when you’re making a large pot of soup that has a high liquid content, the pressure cooker will take longer to come to pressure because it has to take time to heat up the liquid inside it.  Once it is all heated and the pressure has been reached, the cook time will then begin and count down.

While the pressure cooker is doing its thing, you can make the cheese balls!  Lasagna is known for all its cheesy goodness.  And I know cheese is really not the way to go if you’re trying to watch your calorie count.  But it’s okay, you’re just using a little bit of cheese.  It’s nothing compared to the baked lasagna that’s loaded with gallons and gallons of thick fattening cheese in layers and layers.

To avoid making a mess, use a clean plate and put some shredded mozzarella cheese onto the plate.  Then scoop out about 2-3 tablespoons of ricotta cheese and mash it onto the plate and mix it with the mozzarella.  Mash and roll until both cheeses are incorporated and roll it into a nice tight ball.  You can choose to add some dry parsley and dry basil to the cheese balls too.  Make however many balls you want and cover with saran wrap.  Refrigerate until you’re ready to serve the soup.

Whenever the pressure cooker has finished pressure cooking, adjust the pressure valve to Exhaust to release all the pressure.  For a big pot of soup, it may take almost 2-minutes for it all too release completely.  Once all the pressure is released, open the lid.  The unit should also have gone to the Keep Warm setting automatically.

Give everything a good stir.

Add about 1-2 cups of pasta to the soup.  Don’t add too much because the pasta have the tendency to soak up a lot of the liquid and get really bloated looking.  Add just enough for the amount of servings you want.  Season with salt but don’t go overboard.  I always leave salting my food towards the end or when I’m actually serving it.  Shut the lid to the pressure cooker again and program it to cook for just ONE more minute.

Once that has completed, go through the usual cycle to release the pressure and unlock the lid.

Ladle a nice portion into a serving bowl and drop a cheese ball into the center of the soup.  Serve while it’s nice and hot!  The cheese will melt and make the soup sort of creamy. 

Devil's upside down cheese (or is it flan?) cake

I'm well aware that a half eaten cake is just not that beautiful, but I've come to accept that I'll never get a picture before we consume, so this is what I've got. 

This bad boy comes from www.everydayfoodstorage.NET. I saw it on TV a while ago, pinned it and forgot about it. I rediscovered it yesterday and had to make it. I love that it can be made with food storage items. I didn't love that it took 2.5 hours to make. However, it was still simple and well worth the time. My family raved about it!

Ingredients:

• box chocolate devil's food cake mix
• water (amount per cake mix)
• oil (amount per cake mix) or bean puree (in the same amount as the oil-to learn how to use the bean puree for oil click HERE)
• eggs (amount per cake mix) or 1 T dry egg powder + 2 T water for each egg
• 1 (11 oz.) jar caramel sundae topping
• 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk*
• 1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk*
• 1/2 c.. fresh milk*
• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
• 1 t. vanilla
• 5 eggs (powdered eggs can be used but it will change the texture a little-use a heaving 1/2 c. egg powder + 1/2 c. water
• Or omit the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and fresh milk and use:
• 1 2/3 c. water
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 2/3 c. dry non-instant powdered milk or 3 1/3 c. dry instant powdered milk
• 1 T butter

Method:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick coating. Pour caramel into prepared pan. Prepare cake mix according to package directions and pour cake batter into the Bundt pan over the caramel topping.

To make the flan: Pour condensed, evaporated and fresh milks into a blender with the cream cheese, vanilla and eggs. (If using powdered milk, just add all ingredients to the blender.) Mix well.

Pour flan mixture very slowly over the cake batter. (You will see pieces of cake batter floating to the top-this is normal). Spray a piece of aluminum foil with non-stick spray and cover the pan TIGHTLY with aluminum foil. (This step is VERY important.)

Set the Bundt pan into a large pan and set on the oven rack and slide into the oven. Carefully pour hot water into the larger pan to a depth of 2 inches (The Bundt pan will be sitting in two inches of water).

Bake for 2 hours (Yes, I mean it TWO hours-don't worry, nothing will burn, I promise!). After the two hours, remove cake from water and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Peel off the aluminum foil. Invert cake onto a large plat with rim (or you'll have a caramel mess everywhere). Cool completely then refrigerate. Refrigerate leftovers.

NOTE: Even though the flan is poured on top of the cake batter, it will sink to the bottom of the pan.

Clam Chowder

3 (6.5 ounce) cans minced clams

1 cup minced onion

1 cup diced celery

2 cups cubed potatoes

1 cup diced carrots

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3 C. milk

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Drain juice from clams into a large skillet over the onions, celery, potatoes and carrots. Add water Just to cover, and cook over medium heat until tender.

Meanwhile, in a large, heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Whisk in flour and stir constantly until thick and smooth. Stir in vegetables and clam juice. Heat through, but do not boil.

Stir in clams just before serving. If they cook too much they get tough. When clams are heated through, stir in vinegar, and season with salt and pepper.

Hamburger buns

I never have buns on hand and sometimes I just don't want to go shopping, so these are a good alternative. They took a bit of time to rise, but they were very easy to make overall.

Yield 10 buns:

13 1/ 4 to 3 3/4 cups flour

1 pack active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp.)

1 cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, margarine, or shortening

1 beaten egg

Sitr together 1 1/4 cups of the flour and the yeast. In a saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, butter, and 3/4 tsp. of salt until warm and butter almost melts.  Add to the flour mixture and beaten egg. Beat with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds. Beat on high for 3 minutes.

Turn out dough and knead in the remaining flour until you have a moderately stiff and elastic dough.

Place in greased bowl. Cover and let rise until double (about 1 hour).

Punch down and shape into 10 circles that you flatten into 4 inch circles. Place on greased baking sheet and let rise about 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 for 15-18 minutes.

Coconut Cupcakes

1 box white cake mix
1 can coconut milk
4 egg whites

Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cube butter
3-31/2 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. coconut extract

Combine cake mix, coconut milk and egg whites then mix as the box directs (no oil or water). Bake 18-20 minutes, according to box directions

Mix frosting until smooth. Smother cupcakes, then dip them in shredded, sweetened coconut to make them extra pretty.

Chinese Orange Beef

Recipe taken from OurBestBites.com and slightly adapted from ATK Quick Family Cook Book

Ingredients
2-3 teaspoons grated orange zest (I just zest 1 whole orange)
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Asian chili sauce
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons cornstarch
vegetable oil for pan
1-1/2 pounds flank steak, trimmed and sliced thin across grain and lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper (to clarify: that’s one steak, that weighs about 1.5 pounds)
3-4 green onions, sliced
hot white or brown rice for serving

Instructions
Whisk orange zest and orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, chili sauce, ginger, and cornstarch together in a bowl.
Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Drizzle pan with oil and tilt to coat. Add half of beef, breaking up any clumps and let cook without stirring for one minute. Stir beef and continue to cook until browned, about 2 minutes; transfer to a bowl and cover. Repeat with remaining beef and transfer to bowl.
Whisk sauce to recombine, add to now-empty skillet, and cook over medium heat until thickened, about 2-3 minutes. Return cooked beef, with any accumulated juices, to skillet and toss to combine. Serve over rice and garnish with green onions.

Pizza Dough Part Deuce

Pizza Crust

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 tsp. yeast

2 tsp. sugar

about 2 3/4 cups bread flour

1/3 cup semolina flour (optional)

1 tsp. salt

Makes 1 large pizza (so I double it to make 2)

Mix warm water, yeast and sugar in mixing bowl.  Let the yeast bloom.  When it is foamy on top, add the salt, semolina flour and about 2 cups of the bread flour (if making a single recipe).  Let knead in the mixing bowl and then gradually add more bread flour until the dough pulls together.  It is better to err on the side of slightly sticky rather than too stiff for this dough.  Let is knead for a few more minutes and then let it rise for about 1 hour.  

For pizza, roll out dough and place on a greased pizza pan.  Also, I like to spray the edge of the dough with a little oil so it browns better in the oven.  Top with sauce, cheese and toppings.

Bake at 500 degrees for about 9 minutes.

Eat!

Gnocchi Soup

While wandering aimlessly through Wal-mart, wondering what to make for dinner I realized two things: 1-It was super snowy, which means Mother Nature is basically daring me not to make soup, and 2-My husband was going to be late at work and probably wouldn't eat dinner with us so he wouldn't be disappointed if I decided to have soup for dinner (he doesn't like soup. Wha?) Boo-yah! So my mind started turning and kept getting stuck thinking about that gnocchi soup at Olive Garden. This recipe certainly isn't exactly like that soup, but it's what I came up with based on the ingredients I thought to get and what I already had.

4 Tbsp. butter :)
1 onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped (I didn't have this, but it would've been good)
2+ cloves garlic minced
4 Tbsp. flour
8 C. chicken stock (or whatever you have supplemented with water)
3 carrots peeled and sliced
1 head cauliflower chopped small
cooked chicken pieces (rotisserie chicken, canned chicken, etc.)
1 pkg. gnocchi
1/2 bag spinach chopped
2 C. whipping cream :)
salt
pepper
thyme, parsley, nutmeg, whatever


Melt the butter then saute onions, garlic and celery until cooked. Add flour to make a roux. Cook for about a minute. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Let it thicken up a bit, then add carrots and cauliflower. Cook about 15 min. until veggies are good and soft.

At this point I would've liked to use my immersion blender to blend it up all creamy (which maybe would've eliminated the need for the cream), but my  immersion blender melted in the dishwasher, so I just went ahead and added the gnocchi. Let the gnocchi cook 2-3 minutes, or until it floats to the top. Add chicken, spinach and cream. Heat through. Add whatever spices your heart desires.

Serve with this French bread, but only if you read the recipe before you started cooking because the bread needs to be made first. You can whip this soup up while the bread bakes. And if you bake your bread on your silpat mat that was last used to make cinnamon rolls and your bread has a very slight cinnamon taste, it's a good thing.

Mmmmm.

Corn Bread

2 C. Flour
1 1/2 C. cornmeal
6 Tbsp. sugar
5 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. butter
4 eggs
2 C. milk
1 C. oil

This is a doubled recipe because that's how much my family likes it. For an 8x8 pan, halve it. But this goes in a 9x13.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the 2 Tbsp. butter in the pan and put it in the oven to melt while you get everything else ready. This is the best part about the cornbread. When you pour your batter in the melted butter it fries up around the edges and makes it delicious!

Stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Combine eggs, milk and oil in separate bowl and mix well with fork. Pour into dry mixture and stir until moistened. Do not over mix

Pour batter into hot pan of butter and return to oven for 25 min.

Maren's Chicken Enchilada Soup

Chicken Enchilada Soup

1 can black beans (rinsed & drained)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can corn

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup green bell pepper

1 can enchilada sauce

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 1/2 cup milk

2 chicken breasts

pepper jack cheese

In a slow cooker, combine beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, & peppers. Place 2 chicken breasts on top of mixture. In a large bowl, whisk together enchilada sauce and soup, gradually whisk in milk until smooth. Pour sauce mixture over ingredients in cooker. Cover, cook on low heat for 6 - 8 hours, or on high 3 - 4 hours. Remove chicken cut or shred into bite size pieces Add chicken back into soup and top with the pepper jack cheese, and serve. Can also be topped with avocado, sour cream, or crushed tortilla chips.