Baked Mac and Cheese

                                             

Everyone needs a good homemade Mac and Cheese recipe. I made this in under 15 minutes, then just threw it in the oven to bake for about 30 minutes. Pretty easy and delicious. This is what I think of when I hear baked Mac and Cheese.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups shredded cheese of choice (I used sharp cheddar)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 8 oz of elbow macaroni 
• Ritz crackers (1/2 sleeve about)

Put your pasta on to boil.

Prepare cheese sauce while pasta is cooking.

Melt butter over medium high heat in a large skillet.

Add in the flour, cook about a minute until well combined.

Slowly add in the milk, while stirring constantly. 

Roux should be thickening up as you're adding the milk. 

Reduce the heat and add in the cheese. 

Season to taste.

By now your pasta should be cooked to al dente. 

Drain the pasta, shaking off excess water. 

Add pasta into the cheese sauce, and stir so all the pasta is well coated.

Transfer into a baking dish.

Crumble Ritz crackers on the top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, until crackers are golden brown. 

Since I made this at the beginning of the week, I've literally been dying to make this again. I've been refraining all week, but you better believe tomorrow (Saturday) I'm making a bacon jalapeño baked mac and cheese. Fall is coming and I just want to make some yummy comfort foods and start the hibernation process. Cheers!

Buttery White Wine and Garlic Steamers

                                                 

Made steamers for the first time ever last week. Sort of perused different recipes to get some ideas, then made up my own. They were absolutely spectacular. I was very proud of myself- and I think we devoured like 2 huge bags of steamers (just me and Mike). Served with a loaf of fresh crusty bread to soak up all the amazing broth! This is summer time in New England. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 bags of steamers ( I think they were 1-2 pounds each)
• 3/4 stick of butter
• 1/2 onion diced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 cup white wine
• 1/3 cup fresh chopped basil
• juice of 1 lemon

Soak the steamers in cold water for 30 minutes prior to cooking. This will help remove most of the sand. 

After the 30 minutes, remove from water and give them all a good rinse off. We don't want to be eating a bunch of sand.

In a large skillet melt the butter over medium high heat. 

Add in the onion and sauté for a minute. Then add garlic. Sauté another minute or so until fragrant. 

Add in the steamers, then throw in the white wine and lemon juice.

Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Give the sauté pan a little shake and make sure all of the steamers are opening. 

Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Discard any steamers that haven't opened. 

Garnish with chopped basil and serve with fresh crusty bread. 

The night I made these we had somewhat of a New England feast: Lobsters, steamers, corn on the cob and bread. It was my first time making both lobsters and steamers- and I think that I did extremely well. Me and Mike devoured pretty much everything I made. I feel like I need to cook seafood more often. It can be a little intimidating I must admit though, I totally rocked this one! Cheers!

Avocado, Bacon and Egg Breakfast Sandwich

                                                

I made this beautiful creation for the whole fam damily this morning, and they were a huge hit! So decadent and filling though. The kids could barely finish half, which was understandable. Mike and I could barely finish ours but we persevered. It was totally worth it. Something about bacon, egg and avocado. Its a winning combination.

Makes 4 sandwiches

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 toasted everything bagels
• 8 slices of bacon
• 4 fried eggs
• 1 avocado sliced
• 4 slices of american cheese

Build your sandwich on top of the toasted everything bagel. 

Egg, cheese, bacon then sliced avocado.

ENJOY. I know you will. 

What can I say. This is the breakfast sandwich of champions. I'm going to call it the Mumma sandwich from now on. Cheers!

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie

OK- Lets talk about the easiest chicken pot pie you will ever make. The filling is made right in the cast iron skillet, then just throw a crust on top and bake it. This is my go to pot pie recipe my friend Laurel gave me a long time ago. I've adjusted it a little over the years, but the premise is the same. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup Bisquick 
• 1 small onion diced 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon chicken bullion
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups cooked chicken
• 1 can of corn drained
• 1 cup diced potatoes (cooked)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peas and carrots

For the Crust:

• 2 cups Bisquick
• 1/2 cup water

In a large cast iron skillet melt the butter over medium high heat.

Add in the onions, bullion, salt and pepper, and sauté for a minute or two.

Add in the Bisquick and stir until bubbly. 

Slowly add in the milk and water, letting the roux thicken up while you're adding it in. 

Reduce to a simmer and add in the veggies and chicken. 

Stir to combine, season to taste. 

Remove from heat- set aside. 

Make the crust: 

Combine the additional Bisquick and water, until a dough is made.

Roll the crust out and place on top of the filling in the skillet. 

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

UPDATE: Laurel suggested using milk in leu of water for the crust- will be trying this tonight!

And here you have it. Feel free to make the filling in a regular pan and then transfer that into a 9x13 baking dish if you prefer. I really liked doing it this way, because it was one less pan for me to clean up afterwards. We always serve our chicken pot pie with chilled cranberry sauce on the side. Cheers!

Mini Cheddar and Beef Quesadillas with Black bean and Corn Salsa

This was last weeks "Taco Tuesday" installment. Man were these good. As I was making these mini quesadillas I thought of how I can't wait until football season starts up again so I can make these for a crowd. Even though I don't like football, I love making game day food and pickies (as we call them in our house).

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 package soft taco sized flour tortillas
• 1 package shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 package fajita seasoning
• 1 pound ground beef
• olive oil
• 1 can corn
• 1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 2 limes
• 1/4 cup chopped chives or green onions
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon honey

In a skillet brown the ground beef. Drain the excess fat add 

2 tablespoons of water and the fajita seasoning. Stir to combine. 

Arrange taco shells on a work surface and build your quesadillas. Add a little cheese then some beef and then a little more cheese. Fold in half. 

After you have prepared all of the quesadillas. Heat up a griddle to 350. 

You can also use a skillet. Cook quesadillas about 2-3 minutes on each side until 

golden brown and cheese is melted. 

Serve with toppings of your choice: Lettuce, tomato, olives, sour cream, guacamole. 

To make the salsa, in a mixing bowl combine the corn, drained and rinsed black beans, juice of 2 limes, chopped cilantro, chives, honey, cumin, salt and pepper. Stir to combine. 

Eggplant Pizzas

Sorry for the picture quality, and lack of picture directions. I was on vacation when I made these guys for our Meatless Monday. So all I got was a picture of the finished product. These were delish. The kids loved making them- and wished I had brought more toppings than just the cheese. Next time I'll let them pick from a variety of veggie toppings.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large firm eggplant
• 1-2 cups prepared tomato sauce
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella
• olive oil
• italian seasoning
• salt and pepper 

Slice the eggplant into about 3/4 inch thick slices. Arrange on paper towels and sprinkle with salt. This will extract some of the moisture and bitterness from the eggplant. 

After about 30 minutes you can blot the eggplant slices dry with paper towels. This will remove the bitterness and excess salt.

Arrange eggplant slices on a baking sheet, brush each slice with olive oil and sprinkle with italian seasoning.

Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes. Don't bake to long that they become to mushy.

Remove from the oven and top with sauce and a generous amount of shredded cheese.

Place back in oven under the broiler for about 3 minutes, until the cheese is melted and golden brown.

I will for sure be making these again. This was the "cheat" version of the recipe I read. The original (see below), gives directions on how to make your own tomato sauce and what not. Since I was on vacation when I made these I took the easy way out. Check out both and see which one you'd like to try. Cheers!

Adapted from: Eggplant Pizzas

Spicy Italian Crescent Ring

This was a fun Saturday night dinner to make with the kids. It's easy enough to prepare, and pretty delicious as well. I served this with steamed broccoli and potato salad. It was the perfect combination of flavors and textures. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cans of refrigerated crescent rolls (8oz each)
• 1/2 cup roasted red peppers from the jar (well drained and sliced)
• 8 slices provolone cheese, halved 
• 1/3 pound sliced hot salami
• 1/4 pound sliced ham
• 1/4 pound sliced sweet capocolla 
• 1/2 cup banana pepper rings from jar (well drained)
• pepper
• sesame seeds (optional for garnish)

Unroll both cans of dough, and separate them into 8 rectangles. 

Arrange them so the bottoms slightly overlap making a sun shape.

Arrange the drained and sliced roasted red peppers around the ring.

Top the peppers with half of the cheese.

Layer the salami, ham and capocolla slices over the cheese.

Arrange the banana pepper rings on top of the meat.

Finally, add the rest of the cheese on top.

Fold each of the rectangle dough pieces up and over the ring, and tuck the dough underneath to secure it. Some of the filling may show. Sprinkle with pepper and sesame seeds.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top.

We ended cutting into ours and putting it back in the oven, the underneath was a little doughy and undercooked from it all being bunched up under there. So you may need to bake a little longer, or slice then return to the oven like we did so the heat can get under and in-between each slice. Cheers!

Adapted from: Spicy Italian Crescent Ring