Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese ... Michelle's find ...

Creamy Baked Macaroni and Cheese

 

 

A baked mac and cheese recipe that is rich and creamy but can be made ahead of time and thrown in the oven when guests arrive.

4.55 from 613 votes

Course: Holiday, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: macaroni and cheese

 

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

 

Servings: 8 servings

Calories: 538kcal

 

Author: Marianne

Ingredients

·       16 ounces macaroni

·       ⅓ cup butter

·       ⅓ cup flour

·       ½ tsp white pepper

·       ½ tsp salt

·       ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper

·       3 ½ cups 2% milk

·       8 ounces medium cheddar cheese shredded

·       8 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese shredded

Equipment

·       3 Quart Baking Dish

Instructions

1.            Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

2.            Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni, cook for 8 - 9 minutes. Strain and set aside.

3.            In a heavy-bottomed large pot over medium heat, melt the butter.

4.            Sprinkle the flour, white pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper over the melted butter, whisking until smooth and the mixture has thickened slightly.

5.            Stir in the milk ½ cup at a time ( feel free to eyeball it ), only adding the next half cup once the previous one has been incorporated entirely.

6.            Add all of the medium cheddar cheese and half of the extra sharp cheddar cheese, stir into the milk/flour sauce until melted. Stir in the macaroni.

7.            Pour into a 3 quart baking dish. Top with the remaining extra sharp cheddar cheese.

8.            Bake at 375 F for 30 minutes.

 

 

Insta Pot Cafe Rio Sweet Pork

 Instant Pot Cafe Rio Sweet Pork—make your favorite restaurant’s sweet pork at home with just a handful of ingredients. This pulled pork is perfect over salad, rice, tacos, burritos, quesadillas or on a toasted bun

Instant Pot Cafe Rio Sweet Pork

Are you a fan of the sweet pork at Cafe Rio or Costa Vida? If you don’t know what I’m talking about Cafe Rio is a restaurant that is sort of like Chipotle, only better. They are famous for their sweet pork salads which contain a fresh flour tortilla, cilantro lime rice, beans, romaine lettuce, sweet pork, cotija cheese, lime, guacamole, fried corn chips and their famous house dressing, a creamy tomatillo ranch. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Now you can easily make the sweet pork at home and it tastes almost identical to the real thing! You can make all the fixings for the Cafe Rio style salads or you can just serve this meat over a taco. That’s how I enjoyed it and it was the bomb! I loved the sweetness paired with a freshly baked tortilla (I find these in the refrigerated section of the grocery store), garden fresh tomatoes, chopped cilantro and a generous dollop of full fat sour cream.

This recipe is a bit unique because you pressure cook twice. The first time you pressure cook to get the pork shreddable. Then you pressure cook the second time to infuse all the flavors into the shredded pork. The second pressure cook time is only 5 minutes and luckily the pot comes to pressure really quickly. Since the pork is already shredded you can use a quick release the second time around.

Make your favorite restaurant’s sweet pork at home with just a handful of ingredients. This pulled pork is perfect over salad, rice, tacos, burritos, quesadillas or on a toasted bun. 

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Ingredients

·       2 1/4 cups Coke, divided (not diet)

·       2 1/2 pounds pork shoulder, trimmed of excess fat and cut into quarters

·       1 1/4 cup brown sugar, divided

·       1 tsp garlic salt

·       1 (4 oz) can green chilies

·       1 (10 oz can) red enchilada sauce

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Instructions

1.    Pour 1 ½ cups of Coke into Instant Pot. Add in the quartered pork, ¼ cup brown sugar and garlic salt.

2.    Cover and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 60 minutes. When the time is up let the pot sit there for 15 minutes and then move the valve to venting. 

3.    Discard the cooking liquid. Shred the meat. Keep the meat in the Instant Pot.

4.    Add ¾ cup Coke, 1 cup brown sugar, green chilies and enchilada sauce to a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into the Instant Pot. 

5.    Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 5 minutes. When the time is up you can use a quick release or a natural release. Remove the lid.

6.    Use tongs to serve the pork on top of salads, rice, burritos, tacos, quesadillas etc.

I made this today at Curtis and Sarah's house.  Found it on the internet ...

365 days of. SLOW  + PRESSURE Cooking (Karen)

Cherry Chocolate Chip Muffins

 Cherry Chocolate Chip muffins

Cherry Chocolate Chip Muffins     Bake 350 for approximately 20 minutes

This recipe will make 18 muffins.

2 cups flour

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/2 cup veggie or canola oil

2 tsp almond extract (or vanilla)

1 cup fresh cherries cut in half 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Oprah’s Favorite Brownies from Baked Bakery NYC

Oprah’s Favorite Brownies from

Baked Bakery NYC

 

Recipe from: Baker By Nature

 

11/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons Hershey’s Unsweetened cocoa

11 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 teaspoon espresso powder (I omit this)

11/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

5 eggs. at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 9 x 13″ baking pan with butter or cooking spray, then line parchment paper and butter or spray that as well.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and cocoa powder, set aside.

 

In a heat proof bowl put the chopped chocolate, the butter and the espresso powder, place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the butter and chocolate are melted and well combined and smooth.

 

Turn the heat off and leave the bowl over the water, add both sugars and whisk until combined. Then remove the bowl from the water and let cool to room temperature.

 

Once chocolate mixture is room temperature, 3 room temperature eggs and whisk until combined. Add the last 2 eggs, whisk until combined, then whisk in the vanilla extract.

 

DO not over-beat the batter or the brownies will be cake like and not fudgy.

 

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture, with a rubber spatula fold the flour mixture into the chocolate, until just a bit of the flour is visible.

 

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, ROTATE the pan after 15 minutes, then bake for another 15 minutes.

 

Bake only until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs attached. Let cool on a wire rack.

 

Then remove from pan, cut into squares and enjoy!

My friend, Candice Wendt is trying to cook less meat and more plant based food, though who is to say meat is not plant-based, now that I think of it. 

Still, I, too love the recipes that are based on vegetables.  

Here are 29 Best Vegetarian Recipes to scroll through, from COOKIE+Kate: Celebrating Whole Foods.

Arta

Velvet Torte

 

David Camps had a chocolate attack and said that he knew if I had been there, I would have been able to help him get through it.

Here is a recipe that will take care of all chocolate attacks in the world.  

What  you will need to have in your home first is the callebaut chocolate which you can buy at Superstore in the bulk bins.  Just do it.  Have some at home and then make sure you have the other ingredients.  This is what  you do the day before.  Then the day of, follow this recipe, David Camps and you will think that I was there

VELVET TORTE

4 C chocolate cookie crumbs (Oreo-type)
5 T unsalted butter,
10 oz (280 g) semi-sweet chocolate, preferably Callebaut, finely chopped
1 ¼ C (300ml) whipping cream
1 large egg
1 egg yolk

Combine crumbs with the melted butter and press into a tart pan with a removable bottom. Cover sides and bottom of the pan. Bake at 350 for 5 min. Let cool. Makes one 11 in. tart shell.

Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Heat cream in a pot until almost boiling (look for bubbles on the edge of the pot). Immediately pour cream over the chocolate and let sit two minutes, then whisk gently to mix and to ensure that all the chocolate has melted. Lightly beat the egg and egg yolk then stir into the chocolate. Add to cooled tart shell. Bake at 350 for 15 min. Remove from oven – at this point the tart will not appear set or firm. It will set as it cools. Refrigerate to store, serve at room temperature.

NB: a 400 g box or Oreo cookie crumbs = 3 ½ C – this is enough for the shell. Still use 5 T of butter.

A tart pan with a removable bottom (NOT a spring form pan) is needed for this. But BEWARE how you handle the pan – the bottom is not secure. I use a small wooden board to transfer the pan to and from the oven. 

To serve the tart push the bottom of the pan up and place the tart still on the bottom on a nice plate. I usually beat the leftover whipping cream with a little vanilla and wee bit of sugar to dab on the top. Superstore sells the Callebaut chocolate in nice small nuggets in the bulk section. This tart will serve 10 – 12 people. It is very rich- serve very small wedges!

Miso Chicken

 Photo Credit: ANN STRATTON

Glen told me that he had a recipe for Miso Chicken and that it was delicious, worth making many times.  Perhaps he will put that recipe up here.

Epicuious has an excellent recipe for that at this spot: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/miso-chicken-238345

We used a different recipe, I think from the NYTimes but I can no longer access it-- too many tries this month.  At any rate, I think any recipe will do.  I thought about trying it because we have large amount of Miso in our kitchen. 

Arta