I hate baked macaroni and cheese, but I love the stuff that comes in a box. But it’s horrible for you. So I figured this out from some online recipes.
Homemade Mac & Cheese, instant-style.
16 oz elbow macaroni or shells
4 eggs
1 cup half & half
1 tablespoon mustard powder (optional, but adds a little kick)
1 stick butter
1 1/2 lbs grated cheese (cheddar in my case, but you can go with whatever you like)
Some salt (say a teaspoon, but it’s really up to you)
Pepper (to taste)
Boil the macaroni to taste (12 minutes or so for me). Drain. Put back in pot and melt in butter. In a bowl, beat the other ingredients together, except for the cheese. Pour mix in with macaroni. Turn heat to low. Stir in cheese until melted, which should only take three or four minutes. If you want, you can leave the pepper out of the mix and pepper it to taste in the bowl.
It’s really not bad at all, and it’s a lot less guilt inducing than the blue-box stuff. It takes maybe 30 minutes from start to finish.
Goulash, Potatoes Au-gratin and and an estimable salad:
Six potatoes, Wash, peel, and slice thin, Put in boiling water for 7 minutes before draining.
Two large onions. Slice each way until you’ve reached 288 tiny pieces.
2 lbs beef, lamb or wild boar, cut into 1 inch dice and dredged.
Brown the dredged meat in a whole-stick buttered pan, Remove the meat, add 3 tablespoons paprika and the onions, simmer while you drain and cool the potatoes. Put the meat back in when the onions are transparent, and add a cup of stock before covering and reducing the heat to the lowest setting.
Send the oven towards 350F on broil, put a layer of sliced potatoes in a oiled baking dish. Top with onions. Cover with potatoes, repeat until ingredients are exhausted. At this point you pour a cup of milk and a 1/4 cup of grated cheese into the potatoes and send them into the oven.
You’ve an hour left now, so you hard boil 2 eggs while crushing a garlic clove into a 1/4 cup of olive oil. Slice a vidalia and press it into a bowl of that nasty old red wine behind the toaster. When the eggs are cool enough to handle, shell them and mash them with the nasty onions and the garlic oil. Pour this over the leaf you’ve chosen for a salad.
Make a pitcher of Manhattans. Serve them by the pint.
I hate baked macaroni and cheese, but I love the stuff that comes in a box.
I thought I was the only one! That baked kind is too chewy-on-the-top-bland-on-the-bottom, school-cafeteria type of mac and cheese for me. I likewise prefer the evenly-coated orange/yellow non-sticking-together delight that even a store brand of boxed macaroni and cheese can provide. Why is it so bad though? Refined white flour? Whole milk? Real butter? Powdered-cheese-induced-lung-problems? Would a whole wheat, low fat version of mac and cheese be as awful as it sounds like it might be?
I think it’s just the baking part. The cheese sauce doesn’t properly drench the noodles. It’s more like a bunch of noodles glued together with some kind of gross cheese concrete.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend going with a low-fat mac & cheese. What’s the point? But you can have a less preservative-laden one made fresh with not much more effort than making it out of the box, and you can control the level of cheesiness. And it has actual cheese in it, rather than some milk-solids based cheese-food product.
Also, I highly recommend using real, unsalted butter and half & half when you make the box-based mac & cheese as well. Put in just a little too much half & half and stir it in for a little longer than you think it needs. It’s extra creamy that way.
half pound of cooked beef roast shredded and chopped
1 chorizo diced small
1/4 cup of minced onion small
2 cloves garlic minced small
some olive oil at the ready
4 soft corn tortillas
1 small lime quartered
fresh cilantro = maybe a quarter cup slightly chopped
small bit of warm tomatillo sauce and/or some mexican hot taco sauce
put minced onion and minced garlic in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and heat
a couple of minutes later put in the meat and the chorizo and heat while thoroughly blending
should be somewhat dry when it is done only a few minutes
warm the tortillas and fill each one with an equal share of meat mixture
sprinkle the cilantro over them
then squeeze a lime wedge on each taco
then top with a little tomatillo or hot sauce
leave this one alone the way it is .... I think a nice glass of cool not cold sangria
or a nice bohemia with a shot of a good reposado
forget the sangria just go with the tequila and the beer
I hate baked macaroni and cheese, but I love the stuff that comes in a box.
The best mac and cheese is made with a block of Velveeta, 1/2 a stick of butter, macaroni and salt and pepper and nothing else. Just like Momma made it.
I hate baked macaroni and cheese, but I love the stuff that comes in a box.
The best mac and cheese is made with a block of Velveeta, 1/2 a stick of butter, macaroni and salt and pepper and nothing else. Just like Momma made it.
**This recipe is best in a Bread Machine on the dough cycle.**
This comes out as a New York-style type crust. Pretty thin but a bit puffy on the edges.
2 Cups Warm water (100-115 degrees)
2 Tbsp. Olive oil (not extra virgin)
4 1/2 cups Bread flour (sifted)
3 Tbsp. Butter (softened)
2 Tsp. Salt (iodized?)
3-5 Tsp. yeast (the kind in a jar)
Add the water and oil.
Sift the flour and add.
Cut butter into thin slices and disperse throughout.
Add salt.
Make a little well in the middle of the flour and add yeast. 3 teaspoons works fine, but some like the bite from more yeast.
After the dough cycle: sprinkle a large cutting board or counter with flour. Remove dough as one big ball. Cut in half with a pastry blade (or very sharp knife). From there just carefully stretch it out on a large circular pizza pan. Drizzle and thinly spread olive oil on entire surface of the stretched dough before adding toppings.
I haven’t tried it by hand, but if anyone does let me know how it goes.
I hate baked macaroni and cheese, but I love the stuff that comes in a box.
I thought I was the only one! That baked kind is too chewy-on-the-top-bland-on-the-bottom, school-cafeteria type of mac and cheese for me. I likewise prefer the evenly-coated orange/yellow non-sticking-together delight that even a store brand of boxed macaroni and cheese can provide. Why is it so bad though? Refined white flour? Whole milk? Real butter? Powdered-cheese-induced-lung-problems? Would a whole wheat, low fat version of mac and cheese be as awful as it sounds like it might be?
my wife makes a damn good baked mac and cheese…
and annies is with ‘good’ ingredients i believe. organic whole wheat and organic milk and whatnot…
1 cup heavy cream
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped, young, tender Kudzu leaves and stems
1/2 teaspoon salt
Ground pepper to taste
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1 nine-inch unbaked pie shell
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cream, eggs, kudzu, salt, pepper, and cheese. Place in pie shell. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until center is set.
*Note: To spare the expense, you could just use the whole grain Dijon and omit the whole and ground dried mustard seed.*
Pour peppercorns onto a medium sized plate. Roll the medallions sideways on the peppercorns to create a coating on the sides of the filet.
The filet can be cooked anyway you prefer. With Filet Mignon, a higher temperature-shorter cook time is best to seal in the juices. I like to sear both sides on medium high heat on a well-preheated saute pan for a minute or so and then finish them in the oven while I complete the sauce. Baking it also helps the filet absorb the peppercorn flavor.
Speaking of the sauce:
Melt the butter over medium heat and add cream. Continue on medium heat and bring to a slow boil. Stir in 3 tablespoons of the Dijon, Mustard Seed, Ground Mustard and salt. Return to a slow boil, then reduce heat and simmer until thickened. Give it a taste and add additional Dijon or salt to your liking. Make it pretty strong since the meat absorbs much of the bite to it.
