Baked Macaroni and Cheese

We were both feeling sick and looking for some comfort food that was not just chicken noodle soup. So once again I consulted by favorite foodie Alton Brown and found just what I was looking for Baked Mac and Cheese

The first step was to make a roux. Now again I tried to make a roux before when I was making Rachel Ray's Mac and Cheese and it ended badly with a bunt and runny mess. The roux starts by mixing butter and flour and not very much of each. One valuable lesson of cooking I have learned is "Mise en place, "when you get all your ingredients out and measured before you start cooking. This is especially important when you are cooking something like a roux that requires constant attention. So I was ready with all my ingredients ready and by the stove and I got out my trusty Dutch oven, melted the butter and then whisked in the flour for 5 minutes. If you stop whisking the flour will burn.
After the base of the roux was made I added milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika and allowed it to simmer for 5 minutes. Then I added in an egg which at first I thought was weird but helped to bind the mac and cheese together. After the egg was added finally I stirred in the cheese and then added the cooked macaroni. I poured it into the baking dish and then added more cheese on top.

For the final step I sauted some Panko breadcrumbs in butter and then spread them on top. After baking for 30 minutes and letting it rest for 5 minutes the result was a some really really tasty comfort food.

Glazed Carrots

We have really enjoyed watching Good Eats by Alton Brown. It is a food science show that show how to turn ordinary recipes into really well... good eats. His show on carrots showed a great way to make glazed carrots. As Brian is not a big veggie eater I am always looking for tasty way to prepare them.

The first step is to peel and cut the carrots in the even pieces so they can all cook at the same time. Then we sauteed them in butter, salt and ginger ale. The ginger ale is the base of the glaze and adds a sweet element with out being too sugary. The carrots cooked for about ten minutes and then we added chili powder and cooked in some more until the ginger ale turned to a glaze. They were so tender and sweet and we served them along side Shake and Bake chicken.

Slow Cooked Korean-Style Short Rib Soup

In love with our slow cooker and how it allows us to create great meals with not a lot of prep we turned to Food Network Kitchens to find a new recipe. I stumbled upon Short ribs. I have always wanted to cook short ribs but never knew how and the Korean flavors and ingreatands looked really good. First I placed the short ribs in the crock pot and then created their braising liquid; chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, ginger, Korean red chili paste, sesame oil, garlic, and the white part of green onion. I was excited for dinner even as I made the broth because I know it would be so tasty with all of these flavors.



About 30 minutes before the ribs were done we made the rice noodles and prepared the garnishes which entailed grating carrots, slicing cucumbers, tearing cilantro leaves from stems, cutting the green parts of the onion and slicing limes. We served up a rib still on the bone and served it over noodels with the braising liquid and the garnishes you wanted. The ribs were so tender and the flavors were really rich.

Celebration Dessert

For dessert at the celebration dinner I made Coconut - Lime Cupcakes. When I first got my cupcake cook book as a wedding present these were the first cupcakes I made. This was pre blog. The first step in making the Coconut lime cupcakes (CLC) is to make a normal vanilla cupcake with coconut extract instead of vanilla extract and shredded coconut. Then after the cupcakes cool you core out the middle in order to create a pocket for the lime curd. I used a paring knife and cut in a circular motion. The tricks are do not great too deep of a pocket and do not cut your hand.


Cored out cupcakes half with lime curd.

To make the lime curd requires the zest of two limes and there juice as you can see by the picture below cutting, zesting and juicing require several kitchen tool. I think whisked together the lime juice, sugar, egg yolks butter and zest over low heat. The result something delicious. I then filled the cooled cupcakes.


Next step making the coconut buttercream. Now as I stated I had made the cupcakes before and the first time I made them the buttercream turned about perfect. The last two times I tried to make buttercream Christmas cupcakes and Chocolate cupcakes the buttercream turned out really thick and has the coistnacy of butter with a bit of vanilla floaoring. The cupcakes I have made since then I have either made a different icing or used store bought :( But today I wanted to try my hand a buttercream. This time I made sure the butter and and egg whites were at room temperature. The first step of a successful buttercream is combining the egg whites and sugar together in a bowl over a pot of hot water and stirring like crazy until the sugar is totally dissolved. I made sure not to skimp on the timing of this step and that the sugar was very warm to the touch.

Then I poured the mixture into our electric mixer and stirred on high for 6 minutes. I made sure the mixture was forming stiff peaks. Then I added the butter in slowly, two pieces at a time and made sure they were well mixed in. This process took a while because you use 16 pieces. At the end of this process I had created a perfect buttercream. Creating a buttercream is tricky and requires finesse but in the end it is well worth it and taste way better then store bought icing.

After the icing was made i added in coconut extract and put it in a piping bag and then iced the cupcakes with swirls of icing and dusted them with coconut. Delicious.

Celebration Dinner

After a very busy season on campus I had my students leaders over for dinner to celebrate all the hard work we had put in and Brian and I planned a great menu.

Pork Paillards with Sour Cream-Paprika Sauce from a previous blog post.
Ugly Ducking Salad - Aarti Party ( a new show on food network)
A dessert ( See next blog post)

Brian worked on the pork while I tackled the salad




The ugly duckling is called such because it contains celery root, possibly the ugliness vegetable I have ever seen. It reminds we of a Mandrake, from Harry Potter. Celery root is actual celery but grow to be the root from the the green stalks.

I started the salad by making the dressing. The first step, shelling the pistachios and then toasting them. I should have bought pre-shelled pistachios because I had the shell over 30. The toasting only took a few minutes and I could tell that they were done when you started to smell very tasty.

I then placed the pistachios in a blender with garlic, lemon juice, hot sauce, oil and hot water, to help with the break down of the nuts. The result was a really really thick brown sludge, which was not very appetizing or dressing like. So I added more water and oil until the paste thinned. I then prepped the rest of the salad, spinach apples and the celery root. The spinach was prepacked and Andrea, one of my students, helped me cut the apple. Then I turned to the celery root. Celery root browns very easily when exposed to air like potatoes or apples. I peeled the celery root and then grated it. It took a long time to grate that very large celery root and eventually Joel, another student took over and finished the job. He grated at a much faster rate. Then i toasted it all together and dinner was served.

Pulled Pork with Root Beer Sauce

Well is has been a long time coming. After we got back from the cruise we took the summer off and just tried not to use the stove or oven much as it makes our place too hot. My work is really busy at the beginning of the school year so I was excited when I had the brainstorm to use the crock pot . I turned to my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and found Pulled Pork with Root Beer Sauce.

In the morning I cut the fat of the pork roast and then seared in in a skillet. I was a bit tricky as I maneuvered the 3 pound roast on its side with tongs to get the complete sear. I then plopped it in the crock pot and cut up some onion and garlic and added the root beer. Then I set i to low and let it cook for 8 hours.



Right before the roast was done we made a sauce with root beer and chili sauce, which looks like ketchup but has more of a kick. We let it simmer for 30 minutes until it reduced from 3 cups to 2 cups. This is always hard to gauge for me. I always think it is reduced enough and then when I pour it into a measuring cup it is usually not even close to the correct amount. This time was no exception and required that we pour the sauce from measuring cup and back into the pan at least twice.



After the meat was finished we transferred it to a cutting board and used two forks to shred it. I was so surprised how easily it fell a part. We served it up on hamburger buns with the sauce. Yum !