Magazine/Cookbook Monday: Slow-Baked Mac and Cheese

Happy Monday! And my second official Magazine/Cookbook day! awhoohoo! This week I wanted something easy because I was focusing on cupcake making.... more on that later ☺... So I picked a recipe from a cookbook that I have had for awhile but have actually never used, "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two" by Beth Hensperger. It has lots of yummy ideas for crockpot recipes. I selected a mac and cheese recipe because my fridge runneth over with cheese right now. The recipe calls for shredded Italian fontina cheese, I had left over shredded Italian four cheese blend which I figured would work just as well so I subbed it in the recipe. My total prep time was about ten minutes and that included precooking the macaroni noodles. Not bad! The mac and cheese cooks relatively fast compared to most slow-cooker recipes, it was completely done in about two and a half hours. As far as taste goes, it was probably about an 8 out of 10. I think that if I had used the fontina cheese it would have been more flavorful. I also added in some spices as the recipe only calls for ground black pepper, I put in some oregano, and a sprinkle of chili powder. I wish I had some fresh oregano to sprinkle on because that would've been amazing! Maybe mix in some chopped baby tomatoes too... Next time! And there will be a next time because all in all this was a good basic mac and cheese recipe and so easy to throw together. So yes, 8 out of 10 and it's a keeper. What did you cook today? Anyone else trying out some yummy or not so yummy cookbook recipes? Feel free to share! Have a wonderful first day of the week!

Slow- Baked Mac and Cheese

Recipe Courtesy of "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two"

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups milk

One 12 oz can evaporated milk (I used skim, evaporated milk keeps the egg and milk from curdling)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled to room temp

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups (12 oz) shredded cheese (I used an Italian blend, recipe calls for Italian fontina cheese)

1/2 pound elbow macaroni or mini penne tubes, par cooked and drained (this means cook them for about five minutes until tender but not completely cooked)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Spray the inside of your slow-cooker with cooking spray or grease it with olive oil. Combine milk, evaporated milk, eggs, butter, and salt in slow-cooker and whisk until until smooth (or you can use an immersion blender to do the whisking for you).

Add the shredded cheese (not the Parmesan) and macaroni, sprinkle with black pepper (and whatever other spices you want to use). Stir gently with a spatula to coat evenly.

Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top. Cover and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, reduce the temperature to LOW and cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until custard is set in the center and the pasta is tender. The macaroni and cheese may sit in the cooker on the KEEP WARM setting for 30 minutes before serving. Before dishing it up, I sautéed some bread crumbs with olive oil and sprinkled them over the top to make it a little fancier.

Serve and enjoy! '

Mouthwatering Monday

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Spirals

Happy Weekend! Today I not only want to share a super yummy recipe, but I also want to share a new website I found that I absolutely love, supercook.com. It is an awesome recipe search engine where you enter in what ingredients you have on hand, and which ones to exclude (for example if you just ran out of milk) and then it searches for recipes based on those ingredients. Seriously, try it out... it rocks! So, I had five egg yolks left over from a failed attempt at making divinity candy, when I put egg yolk into supercook's search engine I got back a BUNCH of recipes. I chose one for a basic sugar cookie, and from there I got creative. Recently, I was perusing one of my fave blogs, "the girl who ate everything" and saw her recipe for cinnamon roll cookies. It's made by rolling out sugar cookie dough and sprinkling it with cinnamon sugar, rolling it up, and topping with a delicious looking cream cheese drizzle. I didn't have any cream cheese on hand, but I was inspired by the idea of filling the dough and rolling it up. I chose to use my sugar cookie dough to make peanut butter chocolate chip spirals. It was pretty much an experiment, but oh man, it turned out well! Einstein would be proud... actually he probably wouldn't be... but he would be enjoying a delicious cookie... anywho, I digress. These cookies turned out deliciously! They are a little strange shaped because I didn't chill the dough long enough so when I cut my slices it smooshed down. I guess patience really is a virtue... and one that I don't have... Next time I am going to slice them into bigger, thicker slices (like the ones on girl who ate everything), and i will stick them back in the fridge if the dough is too soft. That being said, what these cookies lack in the looks department, they make up for in the flavor department! They are sugary and peanut buttery and chocolatey and good! I hope you like them too, and don't repeat my mistakes.... it really is worth it to wait for the dough to chill a longer time... cause pretty cookies are fun! Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Spirals

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups sifted flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs, or 4 egg yolks

1 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Sift together 1 1/2 cups of flour with baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, beat butter until light and creamy, gradually adding sugar.

Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add milk and vanilla.

With mixer on lowest speed, gradually add the sifted flour mixture and enough of the remaining 1 1/4 cups flour to make a workable dough.

Chill the dough for at least 2 hours or for up to 24 hours.

When the dough is chilled, put dough onto a big piece of plastic wrap, roll into a rectangle about 1/4" thick.

Melt chocolate chips ( I used the microwave). Using a rubber spatula, spread chocolate over cookie dough rectangle.

Warm peanut butter in microwave for about 20 seconds, until it is a bit liquidy and spreadable. Spread peanut butter over chocolate.

This part is a bit tricky... roll dough up into a log shape. The dough gets tougher to roll as it warms up so try to do this part quickly. Mine obviously was not a perfect log and I kind of had to piece it together in some places... but it still tasted good!

Freeze dough for about an hour or until solid enough to cut.

Using a very sharp knife cut dough into 1/2 inch slices (I cut mine a lot thinner but wish I had made them bigger) and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. Bake in a preheated 400°F oven for 9 or 10 minutes or until cookies are lightly golden.

If desired, top with a drizzle of melted chocolate. Yum!

Fill in the Blank Friday

Happy Almost Weeekend! Time for another Fill in the Blanks Friday! This one is all about TV. It was a little tricky for me because usually my TV is just on Food Network in the background while I work on something else... I added in the last question in honor of my love of Food Network... link up and enjoy!

1. My favorite current TV show is I have been watching Anthony Bourdain on No Reservations a lot lately. He is so witty and I love to see all the crazy places he goes to and foods he tries.

2. The TV character I can relate to most is hmm... this is a tricky one... maybe Bettie Suarez on Ugly Bettie cause I went through a super awkward stage where I didn't fit in at all and unfortunate things were always happening to me... luckily I grew out of it... mostly ☺ .

3. My life is like (fill in with TV show and why).... Maybe Paula's Home Cooking... because I too believe everything is better with a little butter!

4. My all time favorite TV show is Friends. Hands down. Always puts me in a good mood!

5. A TV show that is ridiculously stupid, but I continue to watch is The Real Housewives of New Jersey on Bravo... they are super obnoxious but for some reason it just sucks me in every time it's on...

6. My favorite TV couple is Stacy and Clinton on what not to wear... ok so they aren't technically a couple but they are so funny together... love it!

7. One TV episode I could watch over and over again is the Friend's episode where they have Thanksgiving and Joey gets a turkey stuck on his head, gets me every time!

8. My favorite TV channel is FOOD NETWORK! Like I said, it is almost always on in the background. The only show I don't really like is Good Eats, too scientific for me.

Your turn! Go visit my good friend Lauren's blog and link up your own Fill in the Blank Friday.

Squash Blossom Quesadillas

Happy Thursday! Today I am going to share one of my favorite Mexican recipes. It is so simple but the flavors are AMAZING. If you have never tried squash blossoms or fresh made tortillas, prepare to have your taste buds do a little dance! Homemade tortillas are so easy and taste a thousand times better than store bought. All you need for flour tortillas is white flour (or whole wheat), some type of fat (olive oil, butter, shortening), baking powder, salt, and water. You don't even need a tortilla press, just use a rolling pin! I have experimented with all kinds of fats to make the masa (dough) for tortillas, this time I was inspired by a recipe in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food to try olive oil. The tortillas turned out great, light and fluffy, just like flour tortillas should be! The squash blossoms imparted a beautiful delicate flavor that perfectly accentuates the slight saltiness of Mexican cheese.

These quesadillas will change the way you think of quesadillas. The typical American quesadillas stuffed with yellow cheese and oozing grease do not even compare to these. In Mexico, you don't see yellow cheese quesadillas, they always use white cheese such as Queso Oaxaca (my favorite, kind of similar to mozzarella) or Queso Fresco (slightly salty and crumbly).

Squash blossoms are just coming in to season and can be found at farmers markets and local Mexican grocery stores. If you grow squash (or pumpkins) in your garden you can pick the blossoms and use them. To prepare them, take off the spiny green outer calyxes, clean blossoms by swishing them around in a bowl of water then shake them dry. You can use the whole blossom! Some people remove the inner stamen (long yellow pointy part) I just chop it up along with the blossoms and use it as I see no difference in flavor with or without stamen. Squash blossoms do not keep long so pick them or buy them the same day you plan to use them. I served my quesadillas with a side of simple corn and black bean salad and some avocado slices. Enjoy and get ready to never buy store bought tortillas again!

Tortillas

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

2/3 cup water

Mix dry ingredients together. In a small bowl, mix oil and water, gradually add to dry ingredients, mixing with your hands.At this point the dough shouldn't be too wet (sticky) but not crumbly either. If it feels too sticky or wet, add a bit more flour. Too dry? Add a bit more water. This is a learning process, practice makes perfect!

Knead dough and allow to sit for one hour (I sometimes skip this step and they still turn out okay).

After dough has rested, seperate into about 10 small balls. Cover with a damp towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes to half an hour.

On a non-stick surface sprinkled with flour, roll out tortillas, using a floured rolling pin, to about 10 inches in diameter. If the dough is sticking to everything, sprinkle on more flour. I usually roll one ball out, cook it, then do another one. Just easier for me...

Heat up a griddle over medium high heat, add a bit of butter so the tortillas don't stick and put a tortilla on the HOT griddle, cooking about one minute on each side until it starts to puff up and you see little brown spots forming. Remove from heat and wrap in a thick towel or put in a tortilla warmer.

*Hint - if you are going to use these right away to make quesadillas I would recommend not letting them get very brown because they will continue to cook as you cook the quesadillas, make sense?

Now on to the quesadillas...

Squash Blossom Quesadillas

Adapted from Food Network recipe

Ingredients

Olive oil, for cooking

1/2 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

15 individual fresh squash blossoms rinsed and cut in half

1/2 cup chicken stock

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 (10-inch) flour tortillas

1/4 pound white Mexican cheese (queso oaxaca or queso fresco work well), grated or shredded

Directions

Heat a large saute pan with a little oil and saute the onion, and garlic for 5 minutes, until the onions have become translucent. Then, add the squash blossoms and simmer with chicken stock until flowers have wilted and stock is pretty much evaporated. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside to cool.

To compose the quesadilla lay the 2 of the tortillas on a flat surface. Distribute the cheese equally on both tortillas. I like LOTS of cheese! Then, spread 1/2 of the squash blossom filling over the cheese. Cover with more cheese and the other tortilla, place on heated griddle on nonstick saute pan with a little oil, and cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Try not to flip until cheese has melted a bit or they tend to come apart .When nice and golden brown on each side and cheese has melted, remove and cut into quarters.

These are sooo good! With the extra tortillas I made quesedillas with sliced avocados in between and quesedillas with corn in between. Also delicious!

¡Buen Provecho!

(Bon apetit in Spanish)

Whisked Away Wednesday: Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Time for another Whisked Away Wednesday! What is it about miniature anything that just charms me? Mini muffins - love them, miniature horses - so cute! Tiny pumpkins in the fall - Yes please! I could go on and on... basically take anything normal sized and make it smaller and i will like it. So, when I passed by my favorite farms stand the other day and saw little crab apples, I wanted some, I wanted lots... but usually crab apples have a very sour taste. However, these crab apples are succulently sweet with a flavor similar to a Fuji apple. I bought a bunch, well, at 75 cents a pound, I bought a bit more than a bunch... So I have been snacking on these cute little fruits for the past few days and today decided it was time to try them in something baked. I whipped up a batch of my favorite apple cinnamon muffins using my giant muffin tins (good contrast to the mini apples, no?). They were great! I realize that it probably doesn't matter that I used tiny apples, regular size apples work just as well... in fact, I threw in a regular size apple too, but the mini apples are just so fun! And cooking should be fun! I have made these muffins before and they are always delicious, mist and cinnamony with a crispy brown sugar strudel crust. This time I had to do things a little differently than normal. As you may have noticed, in the ingredients picture I have powdered sugar... the recipe calls for white sugar. Let me explain, I didn't actually use powdered sugar, but last time I went grocery shopping I grabbed powdered sugar instead of regular sugar. I only realized my mistake when I went to put the sugar in these muffins and had already taken my ingredients pics. So I subbed 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup splenda for the white sugar. And guess what'? They still tasted amazing! I actually think I like them better this way than when I have made them with all white sugar. The brown sugar gives them a deep, warm flavor. I hope you enjoy them! Happy baking!

Cinnamon Apple Muffins
Recipe Adapted from cooks.com





Ingredients



1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup brown with 1/4 cup splenda)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup milk (I use soy)
1/3 cup oil
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 cup finely chopped apples








Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon in medium bowl. Add all remaining ingredients. Stir just until flour is moistened.







Spoon batter into muffin liners or greased muffin tins filling almost to the top.


Brown Sugar Topping
In a small bowl mix together 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tbsp. butter, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle over muffins.


Bake 18-23 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes.

Enjoy! Feel free to add a link to your Whisked Away Wednesday recipe in the comments section!

I also posted this recipe on Real Food Wednesday and No Whine Wednesday and Works for Me Wednesday.