Macaroni and Cheese

UltimateComfortFood Macaroni and Cheese

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2 cups shredded cheese…throw some sharp cheddar in there so it’s not too bland
1 egg…preferably from my chickens…I’m being over run with eggs here
1 cup sour cream
2 cups small curd cottage cheese…never use large curd for anything…it’s gross
garlic…as much as your rommates or husband will allow you to put in
salt and pepper to taste
8 ounces of pasta…I prefer rigatoni, as it holds the cheese in there so well…mmmmm

preheat oven to 350
cook pasta according to package
mix together: sour cream, cottage cheese, egg, garlic, salt and pepper
add cheese, mix
add cooked pasta, mix super well
pour into a 2-quart baking dish
bake at 350 for 30 minutes

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

Baked Italian Macaroni and Cheese

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Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 60 min
Serves 8

Ingredients

• 16 ounces Mueller's Elbow Macaroni
• 8-10 slices bacon
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 5 cups half and half or milk
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded Fontina cheese
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup Italian-flavored dry bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Cook and drain pasta according to package directions.
3. Cook bacon in large saucepan over medium heat until crisp. Remove and crumble. Set aside.
4. Pour off all saucepan drippings except 1 tablespoon. Stir in garlic. Cook and stir until tender.
5. Gradually stir in milk. Beat in eggs & Italian seasoning.
6. Cook and stir until hot & slightly thickened.
7. Stir in Cheddar & Fontina cheeses. Cook and stir until melted.
8. Stir in Parmesan cheese, pasta and bacon.
9. Spoon into a lightly greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Top with bread crumbs.
10. Bake 40 minutes, or until hot. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Pizza & Dough

I found this recipe through momadvice.com.

I feel that I have 'cheated' a little bit since this recipe calls for the use of a bread machine and some of my readers will not have bread machines. My advice, if you are looking for a bread machine, is to first look for one at a thrift store, they should have outlets available for you to plug in a try out the machine. Otherwise you can look for a local Italian grocery store who may sell fresh dough (locally, Cantoro's Market, 7 and Middlebelt), or you could pick up frozen pizza dough at any grocery store.

Most of the ingredients you should already have in your cupboards.
Ingredients: water, corn meal, olive oil, flour, onion powder, garlic powder, yeast, salt, baking powder and sugar (in the blue lidded container).

First I placed all of the dry ingredients into my bread maker.

Followed by the water and the olive oil.

The dough setting on my machine takes an hour and forty minutes... so plan well in advance.

This dough recipe claims to be a knock off of Pizza Hut's... I haven't eaten at Pizza Hut in years (and I didn't order one for a side by side comparison) but my husband (who prefers Jett's) said that this pizza had "great taste!"

The dough batch is enough for two medium pizzas, or a large pizza and bread sticks.

Toppings Side Note: I've made a few home-baked pizzas in my day, and so I've learned that a single (15-ish oz) can of pizza sauce can cover 3 pizzas. When I first open my can of sauce, I divide it into thirds and freeze the two remaining thirds for later date pizzas.

I also decided to shred my Mozzarella on the larger shred side of the grater. I used 2 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese on my pizza- and trust me, it was plenty!!!

We have purchased pre-made pizza dough from Cantoro's Market (really yummy) and just spread our toppings on top and baked the pizza. This Pizza Hut clone's recipe calls for parbaking the crust for 10 minutes BEFORE adding the sauce an toppings. PARBAKE: to prebake. Who knew?

Side Note: When rolling out/stretching out your dough, use floured hands and a floured surface... and if your dough is sticky, coat it will more flour.

I decided to only bake a single medium sized pizza (since it is just the three of us) and I packed the second half for the freezer! (We'll see how that turns out... my plan is to let it thaw in the fridge over night before I make my next pizza.)

This is what parbaking did to my crust. (If you peek at the upper right section of my crust you can see my 'crust band-aid,' my husband found a You Tube video on pizza dough tossing (as if...) and you are supposed to spread the dough out on the backs of your hands with your knuckles... again, who knew?)

Then I layered on our toppings, 'his and hers' style (I'm the Feta and tomato half :) ).

After baking our pizza for 10-15 minutes, this is what was pulled from the oven. Delicious!

Thick and crusty! The only thing that I'd do differently next time, is I would butter the crust edges a little bit before the final baking!

Recipe Recap: (baking temperature: 450*)
1 1/3 cups of water
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil (+ additional for parbaking step)
2 tablespoons of cornmeal
3 1/4 cups of flour (not bread flour, just regular flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon of onion powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of yeast

Chicken Parmesan Tutorial

Every once in a while I get in the mood for Chicken Parmesan... it is such a yummy and beautiful dish.

Ingredients: Chicken breasts, bread crumbs, Ranch salad dressing,* tomato sauce, pasta and sliced deli cheese (I prefer Provolone). *You can substitute a whipped egg with a little bit of milk instead of the Ranch salad dressing... but I don't recommend it (wink!!!).

TIP: If you are pulling your chicken breasts from the freezer, you can either allow them to thaw for 24-ish hours in your fridge, or you can place them in a Ziploc bag in a bowl of COLD water. Change the water every 15 minutes, and your chicken should be thawed within an hour. *Place a heavy object on top of the chicken to keep it submerged and equally thawed.

Place a healthy portion of bread crumbs and Ranch salad dressing in separate bowls. Keep in mind that there will be waste from both of these ingredients.

First, dip the chicken breast in the Ranch salad dressing- make sure to coat the entire breast well!

Then immediately dip the dripping with Ranch piece of chicken into the bread crumbs, and again, coat well.

Over low to medium heat, melt a little bit of butter or olive oil, and then add your crumbed chicken breasts. I place them top side down FIRST, since I only plan to flip them once.

Add a lid, and allow the breasts to cook for about 10 minutes. When the edges of the chicken breasts begin to turn white, carefully flip your chicken. *It may be tempting to flip the chicken with tongs- but I'd advise flipping gently with a spatula since the crusting can easily come off of the chicken. If you do happen to lose some of the crusting, don't worry! Cheese will cover any 'bald spots!'

Cheese! Glorious cheese!

Place a slice of cheese over each chicken breast after cooking for an additional 10-ish minutes after flipping. *Always check to see if your chicken is thoroughly cooked by cutting into a piece- and again, don't worry about the slice- the cheese will cover that too!

Serve over pasta mixed with tomato sauce and drizzle with an additional stripe of sauce!

Recipe Recap:
1 box of pasta
1 jar's worth of sauce
1 chicken breast per person being served
1-2 cups of bread crumbs
1-2 cups of Ranch salad dressing
1 slice of deli cheese per person being served
butter or olive oil to place in the pan

Alfredo Lasagna

Ingredients for Sauce (Tutorial)
1/2 C. Butter (aka: 1 stick)
2 Cloves Garlic (I use about 8)
2 C. Heavy Cream (16 ounces)
1/4 t. Pepper
1/2 C. Parmesan Cheese
3/4 C. Mozzarella Cheese (I use the fine shred variety for quicker melting!)

To Prepare:
Melt butter on medium heat. Add garlic, cream and pepper- simmer (5 min.). Stir often. Add Parmesan cheese and simmer 10 minutes. When sauce seems thick, slowly add Mozzarella cheese and stir until smooth.

Ingredients for the lasagna:
3-4 chicken breasts worth of shredded chicken
1 (16 oz) container of cottage cheese
1 (2c.) package of shredded mozzarella
9 cooked lasagna noodles
1 small package of fresh spinach leaves
1 batch of homemade Alfredo sauce (I actually use 1/2 a batch).

For the layering:
I spread a little bit of sauce on the bottom of the pan, then I layer lasagna noodles (cooked), then I mix 1/3 of the Alfredo sauce with 1/3 the container of cottage cheese, and I spread that over the noodles.

Next I spread a layer of shredded chicken across the Alfredo/cottage cheese mix. Then I place a thin layer of fresh spinach leaves on top of the chicken.

I finish out the layer but sprinkling 1/3 of the package of mozzarella cheese. Triple the layers and add Italian bread crumbs on top of the final layer.

Bake at 350* for 45 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered.

Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting and serving! Enjoy!

Cheesy Potatoes

Simple ingredients, yummy outcome... every time!

Seriously, shredded potatoes, chips, cream of chicken soup, sour cream and cheese- what's NOT to love?

Yes, I could have shredded my own potatoes, but this is an EASY recipe, so I began with a nice bag of Ore Ida's!

Kelly told me that it is better to have the potato shreds loose and not a big potatoey ice cube- so she will allow the bag to sit on her counter for about an hour before she begins making the dish. I however, chose to remove my shreds from the freezer the night before, and had them to defrost in the refrigerator over night.

Place your shredded potatoes in a large bowl, and add the tub of sour cream and the can of cream of chicken soup. Mix thoroughly!

Mix in the shredded cheese a little bit at a time, until the ingredients are thoroughly combined!

Note: I shredded cheese from a block. I have found that shredding my own cheese really does taste MUCH better than purchasing pre-shreds, plus... I am always able to shred 3-4 cups worth of cheese from a single 8oz block... an 8oz bag of pre-shredded cheese is only 2 cups!

Lightly spray the inside of a 9 x 13 pan, and evenly spread the mixture inside.

Next, take a couple of handfuls of chips, and crush them to smithereens!

Note: Can you tell that I used the Ore Ida bag to crush my chips in? Ziploc's often tear open when crushing items that will have sharp-ish edges. Some "Green" people will even save the thick plastic bags that cereal is kept in inside the boxes to use for future crushing!

Apply a thin layer of chip crumbs over the entire top to the mixture.

Bake at 350* for an hour, and enjoy!

What I love about this dish is that you bake it at home, and you can easily travel without fear of spilling the contents! Cheesy Potatoes are yummy hot and even once they have cooled to room temperature too! Maybe this dish could be passed at one of your next holiday gatherings!

Recipe Recap:

1 large bag of frozen shredded potatoes

2 cups of shredded cheese

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1 tub (16 oz.) of sour cream

Potato chip crumbs (at least 1 cup)

Alfredo Sauce

Simple ingredients, scrumptious results!

Ingredients include: heavy cream, butter, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, garlic and pepper.

NOTE: I am making a quadruple batch!

First, melt the butter in a stock pot, and then add the garlic and pepper.

Next, stir in the Parmesan cheese a little bit at a time- so it melts right into the butter! I stand at the stove and continuously stir.

Once you are confident that the Parmesan cheese has been thoroughly melted into the mixture, pour in the heavy cream. Keep stirring!

You will know that it is time to add the mozzarella cheese when the previous step begins to haze, letting you know that the cold cream's temperature has been raised. Slowly add the mozzarella, and stir for an additional 5 minutes!

Lastly, I prepare several meal sized containers for freezing!

Technically, I have made 4 batches simultaneously, but each of these containers holds just over 1.5 cups of delicious Alfredo sauce- plenty to feed between 4 and 6 people.

Making a single batch is just as much work as making several batches- but since this sauce freezes well, I plan ahead for several meals!

Recipe Recap: (single batch)

16 ounces of heavy cream

3/4 cup of mozzarella cheese -finely shredded

1/2 cup of Parmesan cheese

1 stick of butter

2ish cloves of garlic

a dash of pepper

My quadruple batch's estimated cost:

64 ounces of heavy cream- $6 (Costco)

4 cups of mozzarella cheese- $1 (self shredded a single brick)

2 cups of Parmesan cheese- $2 (sale at Super Kroger)

4 sticks of butter- $1.50 (Meijer store brand)

garlic & pepper- nominal

Total: $10.50/ 8 meals!

Chicken Chili

I have been serving this Chicken Chili to guests for years! Each time I make this recipe for a new audience I am asked for the recipe, but I have dodged and evaded actually sharing the recipe since my Chicken Chili is embarrassingly easy (and inexpensive) to make!!!

Simple, yet healthy ingredients allow my Chicken Chili to be quick to make, filling and delicious!

Ingredients:
2 cups shredded chicken.
2 cups of homemade chicken stock (or 2 cans)
3 cans of Great Northern beans (do not drain)
2 packages of mixed vegetables (or 3 cans- do not drain)
3 tablespoons of taco seasoning mix (or 3 packets)
6-8 cups of water (dependant on canned vegetable liquid)

Open and pour in the 3 cans of undrained Great Northern beans.

Add either fresh or frozen shredded chicken to the crock pot.

See how easy this is? Embarrassing!!! Add the vegetables.

Add the taco seasoning- you'll be amazed at how yummy this soup is!

Finally, pour your chicken stock and the 6-8 cups of water on top and give all of the ingredients a good stirring.

Keeping your crock pot on the low setting, cook your soup for 3-6 hours before serving.

Surprise, surprise... I LOVE to add shredded Cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream on top of my soup!

This soup wonderfully compliments a crusty bread and side salad! I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how filling this easy Chicken Chili is!

NOTE: The shredded chicken and the chicken stock for this recipe are from the chicken that I used for my Chicken Stock post. Half of the shredded chicken was used to make this Chicken Chili recipe.

Quiche

Cheddar and Bacon Quiche
3oz bacon bits
6oz shredded cheddar cheese
1 uncooked pie crust
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1c. half and half, although we will use whole milk

Preheat oven to 400*

Mix all ingredients (sans crust) well and place into the pie crust and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350* and continue baking for 35 more minutes. Let your quiche cool for about 5 minutes before serving.

Mashed Potato Soup

Each time that I make this soup, I break the process into two days. On the first day I prepare the potatoes. Normally I purchase 10 pounds of potatoes(the variety isn't really all that important, but I find the bigger the potatoes the less time it takes to peel them!), but this time I peeled 15 pounds because I was taking this soup to a party!

After I have rinsed and peeled my potatoes, I like to cut them into chunks so that they boil and cook faster. Large potatoes I slice into six sections and the smaller ones just into quarters.

Boiling potatoes is very easy, just fill the pot with water until your potatoes are completely covered with water. Keep in mind that the potato water likes to bubble over, so keep a close eye (I prefer to keep within ear shot) on your pot. I usually keep the lid offset enough to let a little bit of steam escape, and somehow this keeps my pot from boiling over.

While my potatoes were cooking, I peeled and shredded my 1 pound bag or carrots. It is FAR easier to shred long carrots than chubby/short baby carrots. And long carrots are less expensive too. ($.79/bag for long carrots vs. $1.39/bag for baby carrots.)

I was pleasantly surprised to receive nearly 4 cups of shredded carrot from just a single pound bag. I popped both of these containers into the freezer, even though one would be used the next day!

When my potatoes were done cooking (you can test their 'doneness' with a fork, if a fork easily pierces a potato they are done!) I drained all of the 'potato' water out of the stock pot. I reserved about 8 cups for use in the soup stock. (I let the potato water cool completely on my counter before I let it refrigerate overnight.)

Here are my two secret weapons for supremely yummy mashed potatoes... a block of cream cheese and a stick of butter!!! YUMM-O! I cut my cream cheese and butter into squares and then I mash them into my potatoes (hint: I mash my potatoes with the pot in the kitchen sink so that it can't accidentally slip off of the counter when I'm furiously mashing!)

I fill a 9x13 pan with mashed potatoes, and I will use the rest of the mashed potatoes as the base to my soup! (And yes, I like my mashed potatoes lumpy!)

After filling my 9x13, I still had 8 cups of mashed potatoes left over for the soup. I allowed both of these containers of potatoes to cool before I set them into the refrigerator overnight.

The following afternoon (day of serving) I put together the rest of my ingredients for the soup. On the far left is the 8 cups of potato water, I used 1 bag (even though 2 were pictured) of frozen corn, 2 jars of bacon crumbles(you could crumble your own), the small container of liquid is home made chicken stock, 8 cups of mashed potatoes, and 2-ish cups of shredded carrots.

I also shredded a block of cheddar cheese to use as a topping!

After your soup has had a chance to meld together (either on the stove top or in your crock pot) for about 2 hours, warm your mashed potatoes in the oven (30 min. at 350*).

Place a large scoop of mashed potatoes into the bottom of your bowl and add a ladle or two of your mashed potato soup on top. Add shredded cheddar cheese and a dollop of sour cream and... enjoy!