Easy Peasy Mac-n-Cheesy!

Giving a shout-out to this recipe, though I didn't follow it, I did learn some tricks! 

You'd think that, growing up in the South, I'd have learned how to make real mac-n-cheese at quite a young age, but I didn't.  I do, however, LOVE mac-n-cheese, and even the boxed stuff is okay on occasion.  This, is not that occasion!

This particular recipe is super easy and super tasty, so you really have no excuse to grab the box!

What you'll need   

Sharp Cheddar (shredded, 9 ounce bag)

Mild Cheddar & Monterey jack (about 9 ounces, I just used what I had left)
Spiral/elbow pasta (or mini shells, or penne, if you prefer)
Raw Baby Spinach (9 ounce bag)
1 pint half-and-half
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Cook the pasta to al dente  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_dente  While it's cooking, prep the spinach.  Now here's the trick.  You really only want the spinach blanched or wilted, you don't want it cooked all the way through.  So while the pasta is cooking, I set the spinach up in another pot.

Once the pasta is finished, I drain the boiling pasta water into the pan with the spinach.  Set the pasta aside and drain the spinach.  It will look like too much before it's cooked, and like not enough after it is cooked.  Don't worry, it'll be perfect, just set it aside :)

Now your pasta and your spinach are good to go.

Preheat the oven to 400.

Put 1 &  1/2 cup half-and-half in a sauce pan and set it to the low side of medium, you want to bring it up to a simmer.

While that's doing it's thing, put 3 tablespoons of flour into a bowl and add the nutmeg and the sweet paprika.  You could use regular paprika, or even smoky paprika, but for this dish I really prefer the sweet paprika.  Mix the dry ingredients, and then add the remaining 1/2 cup half-and-half.  Whisk it until it is well mixed.  If there are a few lumps, it’s okay, but they should be small lumps.  Once the milk in the pan has reached a simmer, add in a dash of olive oil, then add in the flour mixture and whisk until it begins to thicken (about 2 to 3 minutes).

Take the flour & milk mixture off the heat and begin to add in most of the cheese, slowly, mixing gently until it is melted. I sprinkle a handful at a time over the milk-flour mixture and stir in until melted. Reserve a portion of the cheese to sprinkle on top.

Spray your baking dish, or put a little olive oil in it.

Add the pasta and spinach to the dish and mix it up a little. 

Pour your cheesy mix on top, and then using a large spoon, poke into the pasta so that some of the sauce settles in.

I top with chopped bacon and more cheese.

Bake for about 30 minutes at 400.

Enjoy!

Christmas Mice

This is my absolute favorite Christmas Treat.  This is another great dish for kids to help you with, though fine motoro skills can be important for certain steps (and you do NOT want to start a holiday tradition of stress and frustration!), so be careful when assigning the different steps to your sous chefs.

Software:
Maraschino cherries WITH stems
White chocolate or almond bark for melting
Sliced Almonds
Red piping

Hardware:
Double boiler or similar setup*
Wax paper

*melting white chocolate in a microwave will work, but it is very tricky to get it right and you have to reheat it eventually and it starts to get grainy or lumpy.  If you don't have a double boiler, one large pot with a smaller pot suspended inside it will accomplish almost the same thing, though you do have to be careful cuz you are working with boiling water.  I don't have a double boiler, and worried about burning the white chocolate because my stove top is electric, so I used a glass bowl in the microwave, then set it inside a second glass bowl filled with hot water from the tea kettle.  This worked ok, except I think I might have nuked it a bit too much because it started to get chalky in some spots.  The key is to nuke for 10-15 seconds, then FOLD (not stir) the melty bits into the unmelty bits.

So here are the steps:
1. Drain cherries but do not remove stems
2. Melt white chocolate or almond bark
3. Grasp cherry by stem and dip into white melty stuff, but leave the tail red
4. Lay on wax paper with stem down to the side (like a tail!)
5. Dip second cherry and lay down
6. Return to first cherry you dipped and press in 2 almond slices to make ears and a white chocolate chip to make the 'face'**
7. Repeat steps 3-6 until all cherries have been transformed into an army of Christmas mice
8. Once melty stuff hardens, pipe on 2 little red eyes, and a nose if you're really steady with your hands.


** Depending on the temperature and humidity in your kitchen, you may need to dip several cherries and lay them down before returning to place the ears and noses.  They key is to do the ears/face when the white chocolate starts to get pretty stiff so they don't slide down, but before it hardens, so they still stick.

Be on the lookout for stealthy hands trying to steal your mice!

A Christmas Mouse striking a pose with a Peppermint Brownie

These mice have found their way into a box of brownies! Sneaky mice!

Christmas Mice also go very well with Haystacks

Easy Peasy: Little Cheesy

Yeah so, somewhere (probably on the internet) I read that "quesadilla" means "little cheesy thing".  Of course, now all I can find is that it means "cheese tortilla", which I guess makes sense, but isn't nearly as cute.  So here's your wiki-link for quesadilla.

Now this isn't really a recipe, so much as a sandwich idea.  Again, no rocket-science involved, unless you plan on making the tortillas and cheese from scratch, then yer on yer own (but I do hope you'll do a little guest-blog-spot and show us all the pictures!)

You Will Need:
Some Tortillas (make 2 tortillas per person, you'll probably have leftovers, but yummers)
Cheese (of the shredded variety, I used Cheddar and Monterey Jack, cuz they're deLISHus)
Some cooked chicken** (or ham, or yanno, what ever sounds good)
Some fresh, raw spinach (I use the baby spinach)
Some mushrooms
Any other kinda stuff you want to add :)





**I tend to cook large quantities of meat once a week, then use it throughout the week in various cooking endeavors.  This week it was chicken, I got the boneless, skinless tenders on sale.
On this particular occasion I cooked:

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenders
1 can consomme (found in the soup isle)
1 can water
Some garlic
Some turmeric
Some tarragon

Put it all in a large covered pan, on a low-medium-low heat for about an hour, maybe 45 minutes, check it with a meat thermometer to make sure you're reached an internal temp of at least 165 (f).  You can use it for all sorts of things :)


You will want to have all of your stuff prepped before you start cooking, because you will

1. construct one
2. begin cooking
3. construct another
4. flip the first, then remove
5. start cooking the second
6. construction the 3rd
7. etc and so forth, until you're done

So I shred the chicken with 2 forks then I chop the spinach (not TOO small) and slice the mushrooms (not TOO thick). 

So, at the begining, I probably should have asked if you have a George Foreman Lean Mean Grillin' Machine.    Yeah? Cool.  We love ours and use it for all kinds of deliciousness.  So then, carry on with the "recipe".  (If you answered no, skip to the end for a different technique).






So, if you're using a sandwich press or grilling type of device as noted above, plug that bad-boy in and then construct your quesadilla by covering only 1/2 of the tortilla, thusly:

1.  Cheese first, then chicken

2.  Then a layer of chopped spinach and sliced mushroom

3.  Then a bit more cheese to seal the deal





Fold'er in half and (using a largish spatula) transfer from construction site (plate) to cooking surface (grill).

While that one cooks, start constructing your next quesadilla.  Rinse and repeat until you have:

Then NOMZ.

If you don't have a grill, then you'll construct your quesadilla covering the entire surface, just be careful not to over fill.  

1. 
   
   Place your tortilla in the pan (hot, with just a SMIDGE of oil)
2. 
   
   Add layer of cheese other stuff, then a smidge more cheese
3. 
   
   Once nice and melty, flip HALF over onto the other half
4. 
   
   NOMZ