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Stove-top Bacon Mac and Cheese

Stove-Top Bacon Mac and Cheese

I’m a sucker for mac and cheese. As a kid, I think I consumed a lifetime’s worth of Kraft, only to learn that the blue box was not true mac and cheese. There are people who actually make it from scratch. And come to find out, it’s not nearly as hard as it seems to make.

In fact, when I was in high school, I remember cooking my first real batch of mac and cheese by lamplight in the middle of winter at a camp. Despite feeling very rustic, the combination of cheese, milk, and pasta was enough to hook me into trying it again on my own. I’ve made baked mac and cheese, but this time, I was up for stove-top, without the crunch, but with the bacon.

Stove-Top Bacon Mac and Cheese

Gather
1/2 pound bacon, cooked crispy and diced
8 oz of radiatore pasta, cooked and drained
1 cup of shredded mild cheddar cheese
2 cups of milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon mustard powder
1/4 medium onion, diced

In a large pan on medium-high heat, cook bacon and onions. Once bacon is crispy, remove both bacon and onions from pan, place on a paper towel to absorb oil, then dice. Set aside.

Drain bacon fat from pan, then add butter, flour, and mustard powder. Cook on medium heat under browned and becomes a paste. Slowly add milk, mixing to combine. Cook for another 6-8 minutes, or until it starts to thicken. Add cheddar and cook another 5 minutes, making sure all cheese is melted.

Cheese mixture should be thickened, but still stirrable. Fold in bacon and onions. Then fold in pasta, one third of the pasta at a time until evenly coated. If sauce is too thick, add a 1/4 cup of milk, stir, and cook for another couple minutes. Serve, adding salt and pepper to season as needed.

October 17, 2014 by Roni

Food, Sweet

Easy Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa

Pumpkin Spiced Hot Cocoa. Yum. It’s what most New Englander’s consider the start to fall. We’re obsessed.

Falling leaves, cooler weather (sweater weather, to be exact), makes me want everything pumpkin. Bring on the cookies, pies, breads, whoopie pies, and lattes. Which is why when I was craving a hot cocoa and pumpkin at the same time, I decided this was the best way to get my fix.

I’d love to say I spent hours on this one, but honestly, I was just in the mood for something with a pumpkin spice taste, without having to leave the house. I also recently learned that there is a spice blend called pumpkin spice. Could it make fall any easier? So what did I do? I decided to take it for a spin.

The pumpkin spice seasoning is basically a mixture of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice. All you need to do is add a 1/4 of a teaspoon of pumpkin spice seasoning to hot cocoa and you’ve got yourself some pumpkin spice hot cocoa. Too easy!

Easy to Make Pumpkin Spice Hot Cocoa

Gather
1/4 tsp pumpkin spice seasoning
Water
Swiss Miss or other powdered hot cocoa mix

Combine hot cocoa powder with pumpkin spice seasoning. Add hot water, stir and enjoy. Add water to hot cocoa mix directions.

October 16, 2014 by Roni

Food

Garden Vegetable Soup

Turns out it’s flu season. I probably should have seen the signs when people were starting to sniffle. But I’ve been running around so much that I haven’t given myself the chance to recognize that I should be prepping by body for flu season (eating more vegetables, taking vitamins, using hand sanitizer like it’s my lifeline).

So when the flu snuck up on me, well, Andy came to the rescue with the entire produce aisle to make soup. And it wasn’t just vegetables he like, he even went and bought a leek (I think only so he could make puns, like “there’s a leak/leek in this bag.” Funny, honey.)

Anyway, turns out this was super easy to make, and although we might have lost some ingredients from the supermarket to the house (bacon, fresh parsley, and a potato magically disappeared), it was a delicious vegetable soup.

Garden Vegetable Soup

Gather
2 medium leeks, chopped, white part only
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped into rounds
1 large potato
2 quarts of chicken stock or vegetable broth
1 28-oz can of diced tomatoes
1 8.5-oz can of whole corn kernels, drained
1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
1/2 tablespoon of dried parsley
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
Ground sea salt, to season

Heat the olive oil in large, heavy-bottomed stockpot over medium-low heat. Once hot, add leeks, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Sweat until they often (about 8 minutes). Add carrots and potatoes. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the stock, increase the heat to high, and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, add the tomatoes, corn kernels, and black pepper. Reduce the heat to low. Cover, and cook until the vegetables are fork tender (about 25 to 30 minutes). Remove from heat and add dried parsley and lemon juice. Taste, and add sea salt as needed.

Serve with saltine crackers. Soup can be refrigerated and later reheated.

October 15, 2014 by Roni

Food

Chicken Parmesan Pizza

chicken parmesan pizza

You ever can’t decide between two different meals, then take the plunge and say, “I’ll just have both”? Well, that’s kind of what happened here. You see, I really wanted to have Chicken Parm, and Andy really (and I mean REALLY) wanted to have pizza. So much so that he was about to speed dial Domino’s, and I was already pulling out the bread crumbs for my half of the meal.

So we put our heads together and brainstormed. . . and then we compromised. Why not have Chicken Parmesan Pizza? Well, besides the excess of calories, and the amazing amount of carbs ready to be ingested with such a meal, we dove head first into making what we hoped (and what became) a very delicious meal.

Turns out that it’s not that much harder than making chicken Parmesan, the only difference is instead of serving it with pasta or a side dish of veggies, it’s coming with bread.

Chicken Parmesan Pizza

1 ball of pre-made, uncooked pizza dough
1 large chicken breast
Canned garlic and herb pasta sauce
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
Fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Panko bread crumbs
1 egg
Dry Italian herbs
Olive oil
Fresh basil, diced (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.

Cut chicken into three flat pieces, but cutting it into thin stripes. In a bowl, whisk eggs. In a second bowl, place 2 cups of Panko bread crumbs and 2 tablespoons of dry Italian herbs, mix. Dredge chicken in eggs wash, then place in Panko mix and coat chicken. In a medium skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat. Place chicken in pan and cook through until breadcrumbs are browned and chicken is cooked through, about 6-8 minutes total (4 minutes a side).

Remove chicken from pan and after letting it cool for a few minutes, cut chicken into strips, or about 30 pieces total.

While chicken is cooking, roll out pizza dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until dough is hard to the touch but still spongy.

Spoon pasta sauce onto pizza dough, enough to evenly coat the dough. Top with diced chicken, the top that with mozzarella cheese. Add about a 1/4 cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese and place in oven. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Remove from oven, top with basil. Serve and enjoy.

October 7, 2014 by Roni

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