Smoked Cheddar Cheese and Macaroni

This is by far my favorite mac'n'cheese recipe. I was in a situation recently where I wanted to make this dish while traveling and quickly found out this recipe is hard to find. I googled every combination I could think of to find this exact recipe with no luck. Luckily I've been making this dish for several years and (almost) have the recipe memorized! In an effort to "always" have the recipe at my fingertips, I am posting it here:

Smoked Cheddar Cheese and Macaroni (from Chef Jeff Cooks)
3 Tbls canola oil
4 cups elbow macaroni
4 Tbls unsalted butter, softened
1 cup grated mild white Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups grated mild smoked Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups grated sharp yellow Cheddar cheese
1 Tbls kosher salt
1 Tbls freshly ground pepper
2 cups milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drizzle the oil into a large pot of boiling water. Add the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package. Drain well. Transfer the noodles to a large stainless steel bowl, add the butter, and mix well. Add the cheeses, reserving 1/2 cup of the smoked and yellow Cheddar cheeses for the topping. Add the salt and pepper and stir well. Stir in the milk and adjust the seasoning. Transfer the noodle mixture to a 13x9 baking dish, cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25 to 35 minutes. Sprinkle with reserved cheeses and bake, uncovered, until all the cheese is melted, 15 to 20 minutes more. Serve immediately. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Change is coming....

It has been SIX months since I have done anything with this blog....shame on me! I started the blog when I had a lot more free time (meaning before having Ally) as a way to share recipes with my family and whoever else wanted some new meal ideas. I also enjoyed participating in a few blogger recipe groups for a short time.

Now "free" time is scarce, Ally is quickly approaching TWO, and the time I use to take to prepare meals, take a photo before sitting down to eat, and blogging has gone by the wayside. I know there will still be recipes to share but rather than that being the primary focus of the blog, I'm going to start using it (hopefully on a more frequent basis) to post fun things we are doing as a family in Louisiana. Yes, you read that correctly! The last time I posted, we were living in Wyoming and since then the Air Force has moved us to Louisiana, and we are REALLY enjoying it!

I
'm too far behind to really catch up on the blog, so I'll be starting from right here, today (with maybe a few back posts about the move) from here on out. Stay tuned....change is coming!

Mexican Tortilla Lasagna

It has been a long time since I have found a recipe that my family enjoyed so much that I need to add it to my "favorites" recipe binder. I have a lot of recipes torn out of magazines, marked in books, bookmarked in my favorites on the computer that I know I will never get around to trying all of them! I am glad I did get around to trying this recipe for Mexican Tortilla Lasagna. I've seen a number of recipes similar to this, but for some reason this particular recipe turned out great! A bonus is that it can be made ahead of time and either put in the freezer or refrigerator to bake when you are ready (in fact, the recipe makes two pans of lasagna...one for now and one for later)!!

Mexican Tortilla Lasagna (Woman's Day magazine-October 2010)
Makes 2, 6 servings each
2 lb lean ground beef
2 large poblanochili peppers, seeded and diced (2 cups)*
3 Tbls chili powder
2 cans (14.5 oz each) fire-roasted diced tomatoes with garlic*
1 can (15 oz) corn kernels, drained
1 can (10 oz) mild enchilada sauce
1 cup chopped cilantro**
8 burrito-size flour tortillas
8 oz cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat two 8 to 9-in square or round baking dishes with cooking spray. Put beef and peppers in a deep 12-in nonstick skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, breaking up chunks of meat with a wooden spoon, 9 minutes or until beef is browned and peppers are crisp-tender. Stir in chili powder, cook 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes, corn and enchilada sauce; bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

To assemble each lasagna: Line bottom of each baking dish with 1 tortilla (it may come up the sides of the dish a bit). Top each with a rounded cup of meat mixture, then 1/4 cup of the cheese. Repeat layers 3 times. Cover lasagna you are baking now with nonstick foil. Bake 20 minutes. Uncover lasagna and bake 10 minutes more or until heated through. Remove from oven; cool 5 minutes before cutting.

Meanwhile, cover second lasagna with plastic wrap, then wrap tightly with nonstick foil. Freeze up to 2 months. (When ready to reheat: One to two days before serving, place frozen lasagna in refrigerator so it has time to thaw. Remove plastic wrap; re-cover with the foil. Bake 50 minutes; uncover and bake 10 minutes more until heated through.)

*I substituted the poblano peppers and fire-roasted tomatoes with can of Rotel.
**I omitted the cilantro.

Halloween 2010

Last year my baby girl was only 11 days old on Halloween and she was not excited about her Halloween outfit or the hundreds of pictures we were taking of her!

Baby "B"

This year is a whole lot different and we have a cute little ducky waddling around the house! She will help Mommy and Daddy pass out candy to all the trick-or-treaters that stop by the house this evening....maybe next year she'll actually make her trick-or-treating debut.

Happy Halloween!

Chicken....two ways!

Since I seem to only update the blog about once a month, I figured I had better get on it since I am running out of time for October! It's been a hectic month, but more about that in another post (maybe!).

On Sunday I roasted a whole chicken which provided for a wonderful meal not only on Sunday evening, but also gave me enough leftover chicken to use later in the week in home-made chicken and noodle soup. Although the recipes came from two different sources, I am "pairing" them together in a cookbook so I can always use them around the same time (until we get to the point that a whole chicken is consumed by our family for one meal...but that is still a LONG way off!). Both meals were perfect for the cold weather we are now having in Wyoming...we just saw our first snowfall early this week!

Herbed Roast Chicken (ToH Magazine)
One 2-gallon resealable plastic bag
1/2 cup orange juice
1/3 cup olive oil
2 Tbls butter, melted
1 Tbls balsamic vinegar
1 Tbls Worcestershire sauce
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbls minced chives
1 Tbls dried parsley
1 Tbls dried basil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
1 roasting chicken (6 to 7lbs)

In the 2-gallon resealable plastic bag, combine the orange juice, oil, butter, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, chives and seasonings. Add the chicken; seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight; turning occasionally. Drain and discard marinade. Place chicken on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 hours or until a meal thermometer reads 180 degrees. Cover loosely with foil if chicken browns too quickly. Cover and let stand for 15 minutes before carving.

Home-made Chicken and Noodle Soup (adapted from Mother's Best cookbook)

3 large containers of chicken stock

2 cups finely diced carrots (about 3 large, peeled)

2 cups diced celery (about 4 stalks, ends removed)

2 cups cooked chicken

1 pound egg noodles, cooked

1 bunch fresh dill, chopped, for garnish

Heat chicken stock in large pot over medium heat until stock comes to a simmer. Add carrots and celery, simmer for 8 minutes or until fork-tender (or cooked to your liking, we prefer ours a little softer). Add cooked chicken to stock with vegetables and heat until chicken is warm. Place cooked noodles in soup bowl, ladle the chicken soup over the noodles. Garnish with dill. Makes 6-8 servings. **Feel free to add additional seasonings of your choice to the soup if you are not starting with well seasoned chicken.

This is for Wanda.....Shortcut Pumpkin Bread

My friend, Wanda, is "famous" for her pumpkin muffins....it's the easiest muffin recipe you will ever find! The recipe uses a boxed cake mix and canned pumpkin...that's IT...and they are perfectly moist and good!

When I came across the recipe for Shortcut Pumpkin Bread, I knew I needed to share it with Wanda. This recipe uses more than two ingredients, but it's still super easy.

Shortcut Pumpkin Bread (Parents Magazine - October 2010)
Prepare a yellow-cake mix according to package directions OMITTING water.
Stir in 1 cup pumpkin puree, 1 cup mashed bananas, and 1 tsp cinnamon. (For Wanda-skip the bananas and add more pumpkin :)!)
Pour into a greased 9" loaf pan; bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes.
In a mixer bowl, beat 4 oz. softened cream cheese and 1/4 cup softened butter until creamy.
Stir in 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and slowly add 1 cup powdered sugar.
Frost cooled bread; chill. Makes 16 slices.

Monkey Bars

This is a great recipe for those over-ripe bananas, and a change from your traditional banana bread. The recipe calls for white whole-wheat flour which I did not have so I used regular whole-wheat flour. My monkey bars turned out a little darker due to the flour substitution, but they had a great flavor.

Monkey Bars (Woman's Day Sept. 2010)

1 2/3 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 5 bananas)

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp each baking soda and cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups white whole-wheat flour

1 cup mini chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 15x10x1/2 inch baking pan with nonstick foil (let the foil extend about 2 inches above pan at both ends). Whisk mashed bananas, sugar, oil, milk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl until mixed thoroughly. Whisk in flour just until blended; gently stir in 1/2 cup of the mini chocolate chips. Spread batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Holding foil by ends, lift from pan onto a cutting board. Carefully cut lengthwise in 4 strips and then cute each strip in 10; remove foil. Makes 40 bars. (2ww pts)