baked mac and cheese with broccoli

I got a sweet mac and cheese cookbook in December, and I finally made a recipe from it tonight! the book is: Macaroni & Cheese by Marlena Spieler.

As usual I made some modifications. I ended up using all 4 burners at a time and a lot of pots and pans to get this one done. It's not actually that simple, but super worth it. Her recipe is called "Yankee Doodle Dandy Baked Macaroni & Cheese" and I took a tip from the bottom and did a broccoli addition.

Here's the basics:

Under cooked one box (12 oz) shell pasta and set aside. It's find if it cools off.

Grate a buttload of cheese. I went with 14 ounces of Grafton Cheddar, 6 ounces of Cabot Monterey Jack, 3 ounces of crumbled chevre (the recipe calls for blue cheese crumbles, but I'm not a blue cheese fan, so I went this route instead) and half a cup of parmesan (I bought the grated kind cause I was lazy.

also cut up a head of broccoli into little florets. bowl water and cook the florets for about 2-3 minutes and then drain. they should be bright green. set aside.

in a pan melt 3 tablespoons of butter and saute half an onion and 2 cloves of garlic (all chopped) for a few minutes (they don't need to be super cooked, just good and aromatic.)

Then split the cheese into two bowls. 3 ounces of cheddar, 3 ounces of jack and 2 tablespoons of parm in one bowl. All the rest of the cheese in the other bowl (this bowl with a ton of cheese, including all the goat cheese, goes in the sauce).

Now you have to make bechamel. Heat 3 cups of milk (I used 2%, but whole is also good. But no skim. It needs fat!) until they are hot (but not boiling). in a separate large saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter, when it is melted sprinkle 3 tablespoons of flour into it. mix and let cook for 1-2 minutes and don't burn it!!! then add the hot milk to the butter flour sitch. Add a bay leaf. cook while stirring for about 7 minutes so it starts to thicken. Don't boil though! use a whisk to stir/delumpify.

take the bechamel off heat. stir in 1 tablespoon of dry mustard and 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, a sprinkle of salt, and a liberal amount of cracked pepper. take out the bay leaf Now add the big bowl of cheese to the bechamel and stir. Now add the garlic/onion/butter mixture, stir that in too.

melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the same pan you already did the garlic/onions in. add 1 cup of plain breadcrumbs and combine with the butter over heat.

Now you can put it together! It's kind of like a lasagna. The recipe calls for a 1.5 qt pan (basically a loaf pan) which I think is way too small. I went with a 3 qt casserole and that fit perfectly.

sprinkle some of the cheese from your reserve bowl on the bottom of the casserole. then add 1/3 of the pasta. Then add 1/3 of the cheese sauce. then add some broccoli. then add more pasta, then more sauce. Repeat. I only had enough broccoli for 2 layers. I made the top layer broccoli though, and then on top of the top broccoli layer I sprinkled the rest of my reserve cheese, and then topped it all with the buttery breadcrumbs.

Put it in the oven at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes. We served it with kale salad and rolls. good combo.

here's a look in reverse:

creamy beet surprise! pasta

In the usual "oh man it's Tuesday night and we just got all these new vegetables from the farm share we better eat *last* week's vegetables" scramble, I made this tasty pasta.



I started out with a mirepoix in butter. onion, carrot, celery, half a stick of butter. OK fine, a whole stick. Then garlic. Then I wasn't sure what my next move was. I we had beets, so I diced those fine and tossed them in too. Next up? some heavy cream. Or maybe it was half and half. And some milk. and some nutmeg. I let it reduce for serious. And then added a whole bag of spinach (chopped first - the leaves are big!). And then, I wasn't so sure about it, but I went for it, and added a bunch of cheddar cheese. I was worried it would overwhelm the sauce - but actually it was delicious. I cooked it over some delicious cavatappi (a gift from chloe)...



It was darn tasty.

party food

gina marie and sarah elisabeth had a housewarming to welcome their new roommate, emily, and her cat, bartlett. Some food was made in this process.

sarah elisabeth made some pasta salad. she didn't have enough dressing, so sarah emily brought her some. so nice! Here is what was in it:
1.5 diced farmshare cucumbers
1.5 diced tomatoes from vermont
some chopped scallions
1 diced red pepper
1/2 diced yellow pepper
bag of fusili, cooked, drained, and then rinsed with cold water to cool it off
about 1 bottle of newman's own olive oil and vinegar salad dressing
then you toss is (I do it with my hands!)



emily made peanut noodles. secret recipe. looked like it involved peanut butter and scallions. They were *really good*.



kristen had bought some little mozzarella balls and left them at our house. perfect! we also had some leftover basil. I bought the snazzy heirloom cherry tomato mix at whole foods, added some olive oil and pepper... and voila!



and in motion...



gina made cole slaw. hopefully she will share her special recipe with you on this blog? it involved farmshare cabbage!



This is some salad dressing I made. it involves aged white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, and grey poupon. and a little squeeze of lemon.



the dressing was to go on this salad. the salad included farm share lettuce (2 kinds), farm share cucumber, tomatoes from vermont and scallions.



gina made *really* good guacamole too, but I don't have a picture of that.

cheesy creamy greens on pasta.

oops.

OK, I forgot to take pictures, sorry. But this is good.

I was at a board meeting for the EMA Fund recently, where I am on the board (and where gina marie and sarah emily have both volunteered. If you want to volunteer, or give us money, you should let me know!) At this board meeting the host made us some food. It was *really* good, and I had to have the recipe. So, Erin Kate gave it to me (apparently it originally appeared in an Oregon newspaper in the nineties? sure!), and I made it for an EMA fundraising meeting that was at my house last night. Erin Kate had made it with spinach, I made it with chard and kale, since that what was looking less than stellar from the farmshare. I actually also had a lot of collard greens, but I was too afraid that I would try it and they would be tough. You can't really "wilt" collards.

OK, so here's what I did:

Melted 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter over medium heat in large saute pan; added 6 or 7 cloves of finely chopped garlic and cooked it for 2-3 minutes.

Since I wasn't using spinach, I had to prepare my greens. I stripped the rainbow chard and the curly kale leaves off of their stems (I used a knife for the chard because it was so old and wilty, but the kale I could just sort of pull off.) I had just a little more than one farmshare bunch kale, and probably half a bunch of chard. Sorry I can't be more specific - maybe 12-15 stalks total? possibly more? I don't think it matters. once stripped, I chopped the greens into spinach leaf size pieces, and dropped it into the saute pan with a little salt.

then I covered it, and started working on the salad. I let it go maybe just a little longer than I should have. I stirred once. I think you want to cook it until just before any of the greens start to brown.

Next I added a medium sized container of heavy cream to the greens. I simmered that on medium high for about ten minuted. Then I used my immersion blender to coarsely chop the mixture in the saucepan, and to spray creamy greens all over myself!

Finally I added some more salt, several solid twists of the pepper grinder, and the juice of half a lemon. I also grated some fresh nutmeg (I had never tried this before. it is awesome. this is clearly the secret to yummy cheese sauces) and added an extra-large pinch of that.

When my 1.5 lbs of whole wheat penne finished cooking, I combined it with the sauce and some olive oil in bowl. et voila! came with salad of freshness from stone soup farm, and yummy onion dill bread, also from the farmshare.

I think this would be good on rice too.

late night hungry (peas, cheese, noodles)

I got home from Portland Pride tonight and was lazy for a good long time because I had eaten around 4:30. Eventually I decided to get off my ass and make something to eat. While I was in Portland I had purchased a half pound of Maine's award-winning cheese: City of Ships from Hahn's End. I wanted to eat a little of it.

I put some water on and cooked up half a box of elbows. I melted a third of a stick of butter on medium heat and then put in two handfuls of frozen peas. I stirred a bit until the peas seemed mostly unfrozen. Then I crumbled up just a little of the cheese (3 tablespoons?) and dropped it in with the peas and butter. I stirred constantly with a wooden spoon until the cheese melted. Finally I added about half the drained elbows into the saucepan with the peas etc, tossed, and added some salt and pepper.

mild, satisfying, yummy.

penne with sweet pepper sauce and sweet italian sausages

This is another of my dad's old standbys. He actually used to make this at his restaurant. I made it more than a week ago, but I will try to remember the details.

To start off, bought some *sweet* italian sausages at the whole foods. Usually I get little ones - but these were twice the size! I put them in a frying pan with the heat on low. I turn them every 5 minutes or so. I later learned from Kristen that slicing them into quarters lengthwise cooks 'em faster and more evenly. gonna try that next time.

gina marie sliced a whole yellow onion and we also sliced (into long medium strips, not chopped) 2 red, 1 yellow, and 1 orange bell peppers. We added this along with a lot of chopped garlic into a big saute pan with some olive oils and put the heat on low.

once the peppers had softened I seasoned with some thyme and a little pepper. then I added half a can of low-sodium chicken broth and brought it just to a simmer and then turned the heat back to medium. I let that simmer until the broth had reduced a bit and added 1 can of diced tomatoes.

continued to let this all cook on medium low. towards the end I added half a stick of butter to the sauce. just let it melt and stir.



when my sauce was the consistency I wanted, I added some chopped fresh basil at the very end. The following pictures were to document my basil chopping method Stack up some leaves, roll them, then slice the roll-up:



Then I served it over whole wheat penne. (I made too much penne - one box would have cut it - also, generally I wouldn't use whole wheat for this -but it's better for you!) Also, served with parmesan.






Kristen made it awesome by bringing us her favorite bottle of french red. Excellent!




Vegan options: use vegetable broth, veggie sausages, no butter at the end

minimal minestrone. as in, where's the broth?

I decided that I wanted to make minestrone soup. I was having an unknown number of people over to play games, and I have never made minestrone soup. So I found a recipe, and then didn't follow it. yay! The recipe, like most of them, came from allrecipes. The original is at: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Corrigans-Minestrone/Detail.aspx
It involved a lot of chopping. Luckily, I had help. and lots of potatoes and carrots. yay farmshare!

I chopped 4 big carrots and sarah emily chopped 4 big potatoes. We also chopped a yellow onion and a lot of garlic, I don't remember how much. We put that all in a big pot with some oil oil and started sauteeing.

Then I added a can of tomato paste, a can of red beans (kidney?) and white beans (canellini maybe?) and a can of corn from gina marie's cubpoard. then I stirred. then I added a can of vegetable broth and a 1.5 quarts of water. and then some more water. (another two cups?). This soup ended up suffering from a lack of broth, so I think it would have been appropriate to add even more water at this point. maybe in total 2 cans of broth and 2 quarts of water.




I am trying to remember what spices I added, but since this was 10 days ago, it's hard. I remember that I had fresh oregano, I think, and gina marie chopped that, I think, and we added a lot of that. also salt and lots of pepper, and I bet I put some dried basil in too, because that's yummy. I think probably whatever you like works well. at that point I think it looked like the picture to the left.

I let it simmer for about 45 minutes at this point - I wanted to make sure the potatoes were nice and tender. I added some more water too.

Finally, I added a package of whole wheat elbows and cooked it for another 15 minutes or so. Then Mark stirred.

Then people ate lots of it with crusty bread that Lyssa and Max brought, which was excellent. And then there was very little broth left, and it looked like the picture to the left. Luckily though, people brought more food to the potluck, so the joy did not have to end!

Kristin brought yummy salad with special candied nuts and amazing brusselsprouts, as demonstrated below.


The salad is a little blurry, but it had amazing nuts and was pretty colors and very tasty. and she did not bring it on a pink plate. I just only have pepto pink plates because that's what I got from my grandma when she moved to Cali. the brusselsprouts were seriously to die for. so good. am I spelling brusselsprouts rung? blogger is upet with my spelling.

There was also a serious desert option, which was insane because we were all so full and had played celebrity, mafia, and I think something else too, before we even got to desert. also there was cider and whiskey. obvi. I bought Jim Beam for the occasion even though I'm not supposed to be spending money.

Christopher, in a moment of devious awesomeness, made a blackberry thingy (crisp? buckle? compote with topping?) in the casserole that I made blueberry buckle in to take to his potluck and then left the dish at his house. so we took matching pictures. except we didn't have vegan condoms this time. c'est la vie. it was yummy. but not vegan because he used strawberries and cream instant oatmeal packets for the topping. which I think is hilarious.



There was also leftover pumpkin chocolate chip squares, but you'll have to get that recipe in another post!

meat sauce for spaghetti. like bolognese. but different

So I made my spaghetti sauce for the first time in two years last night - it came out pretty good I thought! Could have used some more kick, but overall, it worked out. I make a lot so that I can freeze more than half of what I make and then thaw it out of nice little meal appropriate containers when I'm ready. It tastes better after it sits around for awhile anyways.

Here's my recipe. I'll try and take some pictures next time I thaw...

Go to Super Stop & Shop and buy all the cans of tomato products you need for cheap
Go to Whole Foods and buy 1 to 1.5 lbs organic grass fed not-too-lean ground beef. the 90% lean stuff is not juicy enough. And I'm afraid of beef that's not all yuppie and expensive.

This is totally my dad's recipe. He taught me to cook it, and mine will never be as good as his.

Brown the beef all by itself (no oil or anything) in the bottom of the big pot you're going to make the sauce in.
When the beef is half way to brown, add 1/2 a big or 1 small chopped yellow sweet onion. stir it up.

Add some salt and cracked pepper. be liberal.

When the meat is all cooked through (all brown, no pink) add about 1 teaspoon of finely chopped or crushed garlic (usually about 3 cloves in the garlic press) and keep sauteing.

Stir and then immediately add 2 tablespoons of dry basil, 1 teaspoon dry thyme and 1 teaspoon oregano. Don't brown the garlic! turn down the heat a little to avoid this.

after about 4 minutes with the garlic and spices in there, return the burner to high heat and add 2/3 cup of red wine and cook it on high for 2-3 minutes to burn off the alcohol.

Reduce the heat and add a regular-sized can of chopped tomatoes and stir,

add 2 regular-sized cans or one of the mega cans of tomato sauce (plain tomato sauce made by Heinz or whatever that comes in a can, no fancy jars or ragu necessary.) Add one little can (a little more than 2 tablespoons usually) of tomato paste and 2 large bay leaves and stir.

Sometimes at this point I add a little water by running the same half can of water through all the cans of tomato sauce of used and stirring that in. reduces waste, helps cleaning, and adds a little liquid.

Reduce heat so that the sauce is simmering but not boiling - no big bubbles. Leave it for 1/2 an hour to to 2 hours. I think at least an hour is ideal. Then you can eat it on pasta! Freeze the rest unless you're eating it tomorrow, in which case put it in the fridge. the more days on, the better it will be.

toast, hash browns, and big plans

So last night at just before 11pm gina marie and I rolled up to Super Stop & Shop to buy cans of things. I managed to buy only *1* item requiring refrigeration because I am classy. And that item was crescent rolls that come in that little metal & cardboard cylinder, again, because I'm classy.

The reason I bought crescent rolls, and a whole bunch of cans of tomato products, is because I am gearing up to make meat sauce for spaghetti and to make beef stew. I've decided that if I go to Whole Foods and buy organic, grass-fed, insanely expensive beef, that I will not get mad cow disease, and I will be able to make yummy food that lasts awhile. I love making food that tastes *better* the next day.

It's really not so in line with the macrobiotic plans, although it is all dairy free... but I don't know how to make any really good vegan soups, and I miss this stuff now that it is getting cold. Any recipes for vegetable soups (including stock and stock recommendations) especially soups with beans and lentil soup, are much appreciated.

In the meantime stay tuned for the beef stew experience and results (the secret ingredient is tomato paste) and for the meat sauce (the secret ingredient is...my dad's recipe?).

The other exciting thing about Super Stop & Shop was that they had my whole grain raisin bread! I had been looking for it for ages since they stopped carrying it at Whole Foods, and I had despaired and all but given up. But now, glory be, I had yummy whole grain raisin toast with earth balance this morning.

And then I got to work and had hash browns from burger king. gross, but satisfying in that oily potato way, but still gross.

pasta sauce with red wine

Today I made some rotini and I made some sauce with whatever was left in the fridge. It came out pretty good!

some olive oil in a saute pan
1 very pungent yellow onion (they were crying in the dining room), coarsely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
I put that on low heat, onions first, then garlic.

EDIT: Then I added a big handful of pine nuts. This is key!!!

Then I chopped a little red pepper that I had from the farmshare (the garlic is from the farmshare too) and dropped that in.

Next I chopped up some farmshare kale that had been sitting in the fridge for awhile and put that in. Then I put the water in.

Then I realized that spices are good, and I added salt, pepper, oregano and garlic powder.

Then I went into Susan's cupbard and got a can of no-salt-added diced tomatoes and put that in too. At this point we are on medium heat.

once the pasta was in the boiling water, I took the $4.99 bottle of chianti from Trader Joe's that we were drinking and added a whole bunch to the sauce. Then I turned the heat up to medium high so that it would bubble and burn off the alcohol, drank some more wine, and drained the pasta (which was not quite al dente, but turned out fine).

once the sauce had bubbled viciously for a few minutes I turned it down to a simmer and added just a little more oil and let it thicken for a few minutes. Then I put the rotini in a white bowl and poured the sauce on top and stirred. It was good!

We followed it with mint chocolate chip ice cream (excellent) and Benedictine Liqueur (weird).