Mac and Cheese - pretty darn good

My mom would make the most delicious mac and cheese. My kids used to love going to her house on holidays if only to have the mac and cheese. Especially Brett, because he used to be a picky eater and the mac and cheese was something that he would eat. I used to watch her make it and it wasn't very complicated, macaroni, butter, milk, chunks of cheese - bake for at least one hour at 350.

Well, I like to try different variations of the recipe. So today I used grated Jarlsberg and colby cheeses and a little yogurt cheese, along with the milk and butter. Baked about an hour and then I put finely grated bread crumbs mixed with a little melted butter and some parmesan cheese on top and baked a little longer.

I should have taken the picture before Dave and I dug into it, but I didn't think of the blog until later in the evening. It turned out pretty tasty, though.

Ravioli

My mom is in town all week for a visit. She lives in Oklahoma...so far away! So, I am glad she was able to come back and get to know her new little granddaughter for a while.
Well, my brother had plans to come down for dinner last night. My mom and I couldn't decide on what to make, so we asked Brett what he wanted.
He said "Ricotta stuffed Ravioli with a Tomato Basil Sauce." And of course, I said "sure!". I am always down for something new and I love to experiment.
I checked and I had pretty much everything needed except for some tomatoes and the cheese.
First step was to make the ravioli. I used a basic pasta recipe. Flour, eggs, and a pinch of salt. My dough was a bit tough...so I will have to work the recipe and technique, but it was fun.
I don't have a pasta maker, so I just used a regular rolling pin and did my best. I tried to get it as thin as I could.
It didn't take too long to get all the ravioli's formed. It was a bit relaxing as well. Well...it would have been relaxing if that was the only thing I was doing, but as usual....there was kids running around, crying, and doing what they do best.
The filling, I kept simple. Ricotta, mozzarella, and salt and pepper. I also added a little egg.
The sauce...again was simple. I sauteed some onions and garlic and added a can of crushed tomatoes. I simmered it for a while. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and some fresh purple basil. I wish I had a bit more basil...but that is what I had left on my back porch.;)

So, in the end. The ravioli was a tad tough. Due to my lack of technique in pasta making...and the fact that it needed to be a bit more thin. But, the taste was great and I could set aside the thickness of the ravioli and still enjoy. The sauce was simple and not overpowering. And when you got a bite with the basil in it, it gave a wonderful fragrance to the dish.

I always seem to forget how much I enjoy fresh pasta. And how easy it is to make. It can be a bit time consuming, but well worth it. I do have an attachment on my kitchen aide that I can make fettuccine and spaghetti. I haven't used it in a while. I think a few more fresh pasta dishes are in my near future. Fresh pasta also freezes well and cooks up fast!

Enormous Cream Puff au Chocolat

I had my eye on a recipe for a while, and I was pretty much one ingredient short. Heavy Cream. It isn't something I keep on hand, but really I should. I am certain I would get a lot of use out of it, if I did.
This recipe is a basically one giant cream puff, similar to the little freezer guys you can buy...but sooo much better. But, I am getting ahead of myself.
First step is to make a Choux Pastry. This is a very basic old school recipe. It consists of butter, flour, and eggs and it makes a light, airy pastry.
I made the pate-a-choux and piped it out on to a floured sheet pan. This was more difficult than it should have been due to a rip in one of my piping bags. Well, a move to a different piping bag and a big mess later...I did get a nice ring of choux pastry. I topped it with a little egg wash and popped it in the oven at 450. I baked it until it had risen and gotten nice and golden. I gradually brought the temp down and baked it for a bit longer. I also poked some holes in the crust once it had risen, in order to let some steam out. The goal is to dry the pastry out a bit.
The chocolate sauce. Made with corn syrup, cocoa, dark chocolate, sugar, butter and cream. Very good!

After the pastry came out of the oven, I split it in half and scooped out the middle dough. I put the pastry back in the oven for a few minutes to dry it even more.

I whipped up some heavy cream with some sugar and I was ready to assemble!

This dessert was rich and decadent, but it was also light and sweet. I loved the balance. I could have licked the plate clean!

There is another variation with a custard filling. Maybe I will try that next time. Thanks Julia!!

Leftovers redone

I have so many leftovers in my refrigerator right now. I almost have too many to eat in a timely manner. I am not sure how it happened...we ate a lot of food, there was still just a lot left. And everyone knows that leftovers get less and less appetizing ...really fast.
Well, one of the items was spaghetti and meatballs. I had frozen a batch of meatballs with some red sauce before I gave birth to my third child. We pulled them out the other day and added them to some pasta. Well, the flavor was lacking. I am not sure why. Maybe I didn't season the meatballs enough before freezing. Or maybe the freezer just sucked out all that good flavor. Either way...they were just mediocre.
Yesterday I decided to make up the rest for dinner. I had some fresh veggies, so I sauteed up some onions, green peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes. I added a little extra tomato sauce to moisten everything up a bit more.

Here are the kids waiting for dinner... it usually entails Aydan whining, crying, and pulling on my leg.

I heated up the spaghetti separately and threw it all together.
I must say it turned out pretty good. Oh, and I added some fresh basil that I got from my planter on the back porch. It added a tad of depth to the dish.
So, I successfully turned some ordinary meatballs into something much more tasty. It helps that I just love fresh veggies. I could eat those up all day!

Bread and sandwiches

For months now I've just been going through the motions with my lunch-time fare. Maybe a sandwich with some packaged store-brand deli turkey on el-cheapo wheat bread. Depending on how excited I might be about eating that sad sandwich on that particular day I might put some mayo or cheese in there. Maybe not though. To be honest the above is a fairly standard lunch "filler," and hard to get interested in. It fills a void pleasantly and that's about it.

Just the other night I discovered that my local grocery's deli sold it's day-old bread at a marked discount. If you're like me, you wander the areas between the fruits and veggies and the bakery area for just a little while hoping something grabs your interest. On this particular occasion I decided to pick up a day-old loaf of sourdough bread. Uncut, just a beautiful rotunda of crusty goodness.

After slicing out a heel piece and covering it in butter and making it disappear, I was able to slice out some nice sandwich-sized peices. Throwing them into a toaster oven for just a couple minutes added quite a bit more than I would have thought! I used the same old packaged sliced turkey, but added some mustard and lettuce and swiss and tomato... and suddenly I had a beautiful, exciting sandwich.

I will also say that the bread works quite well at grilled cheese, but is a bit odd when attempting french toast. It can't do everything. What's the lesson behind all this? Well, factory bread is often cheap and utilitarian and that is a boon. But for 50 cents more you can have something that really makes you want to eat it. Make the loaf yourself if you have the gumption, but a nice crusty chunk of goodness is the perfect thing to keep to make lunch exciting.

The Introduction Post

We celebrated my husband's 32nd birthday yesterday. We didn't have a big huge grand event, but of course there was food involved. The day before his birthday, I had to ask "what do you want to eat on your birthday?" Because...as we all know...your birthday isn't about what you get, how many presents, etc. It is about how well you eat on your birthday. You must eat well, and it better be food you really enjoy.

Well, we had plans of having quite a bit of family around so we opted for some easy comfort food. Which works out well, because my husband digs a lot of comfort food. I made my sloppy joes and baked beans. And of course we had chips to scoop up the rest of the sloppy goodness.

I have a recipe for sloppy joes that I have been making for a while. I got it from a friend of mine, and I have never gone back to manwich....and to be honest, I can't even tell you what manwich tastes like anymore. I'm not even sure how to spell it. The beans recipe came from the same friend and it is just as popular as the joes. It is simple...northern beans, sugar, ketchup, onions and bacon. It doesn't get more simple, but I have found the key thing...is to make sure you get good color on the onions and bacon. That really sets the flavor off. Mark was happy with the meal and was well satisfied.

Dessert - he told me just to make some lemon cake and my usual frosting. I kept probing him for other ideas. "Don't you want something a little different?" "creme brulee?" "chocolate lava cakes?" He shrugged me off..."no, just the cake is fine". I could tell that he didn't want to put me out. And I had to let him know that I wanted to make something different. Cake has been done. I was feeling a bit adventurous...and wanted something that we don't usually have. He was glad to hear that and opted for the lava cake. After all...he had been hinting about it for quite some time.

I made a triple batch and we went through a lot of them. I made them in muffin cups, so they were just small size. Aydan really liked the cake, as you can see from the picture above. We topped the chocolaty goodness cakes with some freshly whipped cream. Which is a must!

The Case For Thin Burgers

*Forget the glossy cookbook pictures, with pictures of 1 lb. chunks of ground beef on a bun, they call 'burgers.' Nice to look at, but if you've ever sunk your teeth into one of those monstrosities, you'd face the reality that what looks good.... isn't. A burger is about BALANCE, people. Its the meat plus the toppings and bun. They work TOGETHER. When one component hogs all the taste buds, it is a dictatorship, not a democracy. Further, the outside of the patty has different flavor components than the inside, because of browning and searing. And frankly, more 'outside' wins out over more 'inside.'
*The answer to this photographic dilemma is thin burgers, and if you feel you really require more dead cow meat in a burger, just put a couple thin burgers together (more outside surface), and you'll still be better off than a big, single patty.
*Regardless of your opinion of McDonald's, those thin little burgers have more going for them than cost effectiveness. Thin gives more balance, and a erto, a better burger. 80 gazillion people can attest to that.
*'Where do I start, you might ask'? First of all, get some good ground beef, even if you have to grind it yourself. Fresh is best. Avoid WAL-MART. Its a mystery what they do to their beef, but I expect Congressional hearings to commence any day now. Having said that, feel free to head to SAM'S CLUB which has excellent beef at great prices, and they turn it over fast. Same company, different beef standards, I don't get it. But there it is. Your local grocery could be a winner or a loser, so test it out.
*How to get them thin? Well, Iused to use a taco press, but I've resorted to getting the beef to room temperature, and using your hands, keep mashing it and turning it. HOLES ARE GOOD. Wet hands help the process, and reduce the stickiness of the meat. It should be loose as a goose, so just flop it into the pan where it will be safe. Mash out thick spots a bit. Turn on the medium heat, and take it from there. As it fries, it will firm up, and it will cook fast! Leave it longer, if you like a little burn. Don't forget the cheese on the flip side. If your beef is good, just a little salt and pepper is all you need.
*If its BAD meat (aka Wal-Mart) , I suggest adding powdered onion, garlic, Old Bay seasoning, worcestershire sauce or A-1, and some chili powder. Then when its fried up, promptly serve it to your dog, who will love you for life, or until the chili powder hits him. But don't serve it to anyone you like.
*If your ground beef happens to be chilled, just mash it good into the cold pan, and then bring it to the heat. Sure it will be raggedy, but it will be authentic, and you will love it.
*Toppings and bun structure will be handled thru a future blog.
*Finally, if after trying thin, you still prefer thick, have the honesty to call it what it is: meat loaf on a bun. I have opinions, and I'm not afraid to use them. That is all.
**Jerry**