Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Tina, over at Mom's Crazy Cooking, has invited me to be a part of her first Crazy Cooking Challenge.  This is a new challenge that will allow us all to find a recipe that a fellow blogger has shared with us in Blogland and give it a whirl.  All of you, our readers, will be able to read the posts and vote for your favorite!  How cool is that?  (My post #20...  just sayin')  I'm really excited to see what everyone comes up with -- our theme for this month is one of my most favorite foods ever!  Macaroni And Cheese!  YUM!

I have scoured the blogs to find the ultimate macaroni and cheese recipe and I think I found the perfect one at Ezra Pound Cake!  Macaroni and cheese is a staple at my house and it is almost always made from scratch.  The recipe I found is similar to the way I usually make it -- it starts with a roux -- but it takes it a step further and instead of serving from the stove top as I do, it includes a trip through the oven to take it over the top!  It also uses ground dry mustard which is something I typically avoid.  My husband isn't a mustard fan so I usually just skip it even though every mac&cheese recipe calls for it.  This time, I used it, and he is so glad that I did.  It's wonderful!  So is the blog that I found this recipe on, by the way.  Its author, Rebecca, is so much fun to read and has great recipes to share!

The only modification that I made to Rebecca's recipe is that I doubled the amount of pasta it called for.  And I didn't include the optional hot sauce.  I may do that next time but this time it was for my kiddos so I was nice...

I don't know about you, but anything that starts with this makes me weak in the knees.  Am I the only one?  Sorry, but a plate of extra sharp cheddar shredded to pieces thrills me!

This is a bowl of the seasoning used in the dish.  Yum!  Fresh garlic also makes me happy!

Like I said, this recipe starts with a basic roux -- butter + flour + milk + heat = thick, bubbly white sauce.

I added all of those awesome spices to the thickened white sauce and stirred them in.

And then the cheese!  Not just the cheddar above but also Monterrey Jack and Parmesan.  Sooooo good!

Once it's all mixed together and heated well, it turns into this amazing cheese sauce!  And you can see all of the gorgeous flavor in it from here. 

I mixed that awesome sauce with the cooked pasta and poured it into a buttered casserole dish.

I topped it with some extra cheese and placed it in the oven for 25 minutes.

This is it!  Don't you want to dive right in???

We did!

And did it again!

Be sure to check out the other blogs participating in this cool challenge and don't forget to vote!

Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of my favorite comfort foods!  Since you can see lots of veggies in it, I don't let it make me feel too guilty.  I am so excited to have a guest post over at Alli-n-son's today.  Be sure to jump on over there to learn how to make this awesome dish.  Her blog is wonderfully funny and helpful!  She just added to her family with a gorgeous baby boy so take some time to explore and coo over some of her sweet photos!  You'll enjoy her take on parenting and life with a side of chocolate!

Guest Post - Frying Pan Pot Roast

Hello!  I am the other half of the Cake Dish family.  I thought that I’d take a few minutes to write a “guest post” so I could share a quick and easy twist on traditional pot roast.

It’s easy, relatively quick, and very tasty.

You need two ingredients:  a roast and 2 cans of Progresso French Onion Soup.  I normally use a chuck roast.  Any roast that will fit into your pan will work, I suppose, but the first time I ever made this dish I used a chuck roast and it’s always been good so I’ve never tried any other cut.  However, the roast in the pictures does represent a major change for me, because it is not your typical grocery store chuck roast.  It is all-natural, grass-fed beef from Wilkerson Farms in Willow Springs, NC.  Also, it is bone-in….most grocery store chuck roasts are boneless

I let the meat sit at room temperature for about half an hour or so, so that it isn’t very cold going into the pan.  Season it just like you would a steak, but be careful if you use seasoning salt.  The soup will add sodium, so I normally go heavier on pepper and lighter on salt.  When you’re ready to start cooking, put a little oil (I use canola) into your pan and turn the heat to med-high.  Once the oil is hot, put the roast in and sear it for just a couple of minutes on each side.

It won’t take long before you have the outside browned.  When you do, open up the cans of soup, and pour them over the roast.  After the soup is in the pan, drop the heat to low and cover.

After about half an hour, you need to turn the roast.  It’s a big cut of meat, and it isn’t easy to turn it without spilling the soup.  Be very careful.  Usually, I use two forks for the turns:  One to start lifting it, and the other to “catch” it while it drops back into the soup. 

From this point, all you have to do is continue to turn the meat every half hour or so.  In about 3 hours (depending on the size of the roast), it will be fork-tender and the soup will have reduced to a dark, savory gravy.  Delicious!

By the way….the bone-in aspect of this particular roast didn’t last very long.  The second time I turned this roast the bone came out clean as a whistle.

Normally, I make potatoes, carrots and onions to accompany this dish.  There are two ways to prepare them, but both methods start with simply cutting the veggies into bite-sized pieces.

Once that’s done, you can simply add the veggies to the soup/roast mixture if your pan’s space allows.  If you have a “normal” frying pan, be careful.  Everything will fit, but turning the roast can become especially tricky.  Also, you have to be careful with the timing.  If the veggies stay in the soup mixture for more than 20 or 30 minutes, they can turn to mush.

The other option (and the one I usually choose) is to roast the veggies in the oven.  After slicing them, I put them into a bowl and coat them with a little olive oil (just enough to cover all the veggies with a light coat).  Then, I add salt and pepper and put them on a cookie sheet (actually a Pampered Chef bar board) and roast them at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes (the timing depends on the size of your bites).

To serve, I place the roasted vegetables in a bowl and place the roast on top of them, and then pour the gravy (by the end, you can’t call it soup anymore) over all of it.  The roasted veggies keep their texture, but the flavor of the gravy still comes through.  It’s very tasty and very easy.  Enjoy! 

Linking Up At:
Full Plate Thursday
Turning the Table Thursday
Thrilling Thursday
Chic & Crafty Party
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I'm Lovin' It
Tasty Thursday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Tasty Tuesday

Sausage & Zucchini Pasta Sauce

Growing up, I had a friend whose family would order junkyard pizza.  It was a pizza with every conceivable topping on it.  Now this was just not something my family ever did -- everyone had too many topping they didn't like and we could have never agreed on what to include or exclude...  I was shocked when I finally got brave enough to try a slice.  It was delicious.  Everything worked together even when they didn't work alone.

We don't order too much pizza these days, but the junkyard concept comes into play at our house still.  It's usually a last minute meal and it starts when I look in the fridge and pull something together.  It happened the other night and I thought I'd share the yummy results.
 

I opened the refrigerator and discovered that I had the following leftovers already cooked -- 2 large sausage links, 3 grilled chicken tenders and a bowl of spaghetti noodles.  Hmm... what could I do?  I grabbed a couple of large zucchinis and half an onion and a can of diced tomatoes and got started. 

I sliced the chicken tenders and sausage links on the diagonal -- just to make them look bigger and strech it a bit.  I do this often and it helps us use less meat and still feel satisfied because it looks like there's more meat there.  It works for us :).  I then sliced the onion and zucchini up very thinly.  I heated a few tablespoons of olive oil in my skillet and added the meat and onions, along with 2 cloves of freshly pressed garlic.  I stirred this around until the onions became almost clear.  I then added the zucchini.  I sprinkled on salt and freshly ground pepper and bruschetta seasoning.  I get this seasoning in its own grinder bottle from our local Italian food supplier and it's the Cannamela brand.  So delicious!!!  Once the zucchini were just softened, I added in the can of tomatoes.  I kept stirring this all together and let it simmer for a few minutes.  I tasted it a few times while simmering and adjusted the seasoning as needed.

I ran the cooked pasta under warm water from the faucet until they were warmed.  I put some noodles on each plate and topped with the sauce.  It was delicious.  Even the kids cleaned their plates.

Do you ever just throw things in a pan and see what happens?

Linked up at:  Nap Time Creation's Tasty Tuesday
Works for Me Wednesday -- say a prayer for Kristen, the hostess, as she's in the hospital this week :(
Sugar and Dots' What I Whipped Up Wednesday
Paisley Passion's Thrilling Thursday
The Frugal Girl's Chic and Crafty
Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin It
Mom's Crazy Cooking's This Week's Cravings