Bacon Mac and Cheese

Yo, yo, yo, I'm back and I'm sorry.  Life sorta grabbed me by the throat and shook me around for the past few weeks.

When I was a child, my mom was a real health nut.  We were the only family on the block to eat whole wheat bread, non-sugar cereals, homemade soups and sauces and very little processed food.  So, I spent my childhood craving everything I couldn't have.  Gimme some good old Wonder bread, processed cheese slices and a can of Pepsi and I would have thought I'd found nirvana.

One processed food item my mom did purchase, on occasion, was macaroni and cheese.  But, she bought the more fancy one that had the cheese in a prepared pouch that was already cheese-like, instead of the kind with the powdered cheese that you added water to.  I loved it.  It was something she might serve along side a hamburger patty and salad.

When I had kids, I bought the same type of macaroni and cheese and they scoffed.  They preferred the one with the powdered cheese, and, well, my high-flatulent palate could not handle such nastiness, so I pretty much stopped eating mac and cheese, until...I started making it from scratch.

This recipe is from the Pioneer Woman, but I do change some things in it, to make it more to our family's liking.

Bacon Mac and Cheese

4 cups macaroni noodles
1/4-1/2 of a red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 4oz can chopped green chilies
1 cup frozen corn
1 heaping cup of grated pepper jack cheese (I have substituted sharp cheddar for this and it's still good)
1 spoonful of minced garlic
1 cup heavy cream
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
4-6 stripes of cooked bacon, crumbled


Boil pasta until al dente.

In a large skillet (use cast iron if you can!) saute the onions, pepper, garlic and corn in some olive oil on medium heat for a few minutes.  Add chilies and stir.  Take off heat.

Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet.  Pour in cream and cheese.  Give it a good stir to let it all melt and get gooey.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add crumbled bacon and mix.  

You can serve this as a side dish, or a main dish.  Sometimes, I make it a little early in the day, and I cover the cast iron skillet with aluminium foil and keep it warm in the oven until dinner.  It does well as a left over for the next few days if you refrigerate the remaining amount.

Chorizo and Egg Hash plus- Cast Iron Love!

Y'all, I've had the most circuitous relationship with cast iron, it's bananas.  We did not use cast iron cookware in my home growing up.  My only experience with it was when I was cooking over an open fire at girls camp.  Honestly, I pictured it as the old-timey stuff people hung on a stick between two posts as some sort of mutton stew brewed above an open flame.

Then I married Wes. And, not only gained a handy-dandy husband, but gained a stockpile of cast iron cookware that he had acquired as a single man(?).

He had:

1 6 inch skillet
2 8 inch skillets
1 small dutch oven with no legs
1 small dutch oven with legs
1 large dutch oven
1 huge wok

No joke.  I was like, what the heck?  What do I do with all of this?  It seemed complicated (can't throw it in the dishwasher?  Can't even clean them with dish soap????).  So, I dealt with it by nicely stacking them in our cupboards and ignoring them.  Sorry babe. :(

I was young.  I was in my last year of college.  I could barely cook.  It makes sense.

Now, fast forward 20+ years, and I'm like, whoa baby, thanks for contributing all of this amazing cast iron to our family!  He's like, yeah, sure.  It's been here all along.  Glad you finally warmed up to it.  And, warm up, I have.

I have added a bit to our collection:

1 10 inch skillet
1 12 inch skillet- family size!
1 reversible griddle/grill
1 large enamel coated dutch oven

Except for the griddle/grill, and the enamel coated dutch oven, all of our cast iron is the Lodge brand.  Its great.  I love it.  As long as I do the simple (and frankly, easy) steps of keeping it clean, well-seasoned and used, it works super well and is quickly becoming my go-to cookware.  I get the most use out of the 10 and 12 inch skillets, with the large dutch oven (not enamel coated) coming in a close third.

So, with my newish passion for all things cast iron, it is easy to see why I've been giving a lot of cast iron skillet recipes a try at home.

This Chorizo and Egg Hash recipe is so easy.  So quick (30 minutes, start to finish) and tastes great.  My two kids gave it huge thumbs up last night, and frankly I was a bit surprised by their reactions.  Both of them are fairly adventurous eaters (Spencer told me last night he had caviar at a friends house after school and loved it?! European friend- fancy eaters.  At my house its popcorn after school, c'mon), but chorizo was new for them, so my expectations were on the lower end.  But, they both dug in and told me they loved it.  Awesome.

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic (I used a spoonful of minced garlic from the fridge)
1/2 package of chorizo (120 g)
2 potatoes cooked and chopped into bite sized pieces (I used russets and left the skin on- fiber!)
1/2 cup of fresh flat-leaf parsley
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a cast iron skillet (I used a 12 inch, could probably get away using a 10 inch) add olive oil and saute the onion and garlic for a few minutes.  Add chorizo and cook for 2-3 more minutes.

Add pre-cooked chopped potatoes (and a bit more oil if you think its needed) and cook for 5 more minutes.  Let the potatoes fry, so don't stir often.

Crack eggs on top and transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake for an additional 8-10 minutes until the egg white is set but the yolk is still runny.

Sprinkle with sea salt, black pepper and parsley.  Serve (we added a bit of ketchup too).

You guys, this is so good.  And, so easy.  Get yourself a cast iron skillet, season it up and get cooking.  You'll love it!!!

Oh, and thanks again Wes for bringing so much amazing cast iron to our marriage.  I'm endlessly grateful.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I grew up in a home where my mom always made our spaghetti sauce.  Not once did the likes of Prego or Ragu touch my lips during my youth.  Now, of course you might think it is simply too great a hassle to make your own spaghetti sauce, but trust me, once you have a delicious batch of the good stuff, you'll never go back.  Interestingly enough, Spaghetti is Alice's favorite dinner, but Wes' least favorite.  Wes doesn't like pasta much, so I solved this dilemma by buying a small spaghetti squash that I prepare and make available to him and he is quite satisfied.  I thought I'd throw out that option in case you have a family member who isn't a fan of pasta, or are trying to prepare meals in with a low carb option.  Also, I make a batch large enough that it makes a full five quarts and it can be used in the months to come.

Ingredients include:

4 large cans tomato sauce (ignore the tomato paste- I didn't use it.  You can use it though if you are running low on tomato sauce.  Just make sure you have enough tomato goodness to fill up your pot!)

2 reg. cans of diced tomatoes

4 packets of spaghetti sauce seasoning (I like Lawry's or McCormick's)

1 package of mild Italian sausage

1 pound of ground beef

1 small onion

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

oregano

basil

salt 

pepper

Dice up your onion and brown the ground beef and the Italian sausage in a large skillet.  Add garlic and let it all cook until the meat is completely done.

In a large pot, or dutch oven (I use a 7 quart Le Creuset and that is as small as I would go), pour all of the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and spaghetti seasoning into it.  Stir it all together.  At this point you can turn the burner on low/medium.  

Add 1 tablespoon of basil and 1 tablespoon of oregano to the tomato sauce.

Once the meat/onion/garlic mixture is finished cooking drain any excess fat from the meat mixture and add it to the dutch oven,  Stir.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Let your sauce simmer on the stove for an hour or so, stirring every so often. 

**tip**  If your children are opposed to "chunks" in their sauce (i.e. tomato chunks, meat chunks, etc...) grab an immersion blender and give the pot of sauce a good blend.

When you are all done you'll have 5 quarts of sauce that you can freeze for later use.

Fancy Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I'm not sure why I started calling these sandwiches "fancy grilled cheese", but whenever my kids ask me what we are having for dinner, and I say "fancy grilled cheese", they know exactly what I'm talking about and start reminding me of exactly how they like theirs to be made- sliced avocado, mushed up avocado, more ranch dressing, not too crispy, etc...

Even though I really do enjoy cooking and baking very much, there are days when I just don't have time in my schedule to spend more than 20 minutes on dinner.  And, it's those days that dinners often look more like sandwiches or spaghetti, than pot roasts or beef stroganoff.

Fancy Grilled Cheese:

Bread (any kind of bread will work, but I've got to suggest that a sturdier bread than sandwich bread is definitely my preference.  I usually have a loaf of Portland City Sour wheat bread (from Costco) on hand for making grilled cheese sandwiches, and it is perfect for this meal.)

Bacon- fry some up (usually 2 slices per sandwich) before you start constructing the sandwiches.

Avocado- one large avocado will be enough for 3-4 sandwiches

Cheese- I won't judge.  I love almost all cheeses (except American).  But, I strongly encourage the sharpest cheddar cheese you can handle for this sandwich.  If you have kids that only eat mild or medium cheddar, fine.  Make their's with that.  But, for you my friend, don't go any lower than sharp, and my recommendation is extra sharp.  Be a man.

Ranch dressing.

Salted butter.

Okay, you can grill these any way you'd like- in a frying pan, on your George Forman, on an electric griddle.  I do it on a cast iron griddle/fry pan that sits on two gas burners on my stove.  It looks like this:

I use the smooth side, not the grill side for these sandwiches. It works well and you can cook up to for sandwiches at time on it.

Construct sandwich by buttering first side of bread and lay it on warm/hot griddle.  Layer cheese, bacon, avocado and ranch dressing.  Then top to with another slice of bread, buttered on the outside.  Cook both sides until the bread is browned and the cheese it melted.  

Serve and enjoy!

Biscuits and Gravy

This meal is high on the rotation chart.  Biscuits are a quick bread, so they're quick and easy to make (although, if you accidentally substitute baking soda for baking powder they will be disastrous, trust me).

You may already have a favorite biscuit recipe that you are loyal to.  If you do, go ahead and use that.  We all have our favorite when it comes to baked goods.  If you don't have a favorite biscuit recipe, let me introduce you to mine.  It comes from a dear friend, Hildie, who is one of the best cooks I know.  She put it up on her blog years ago, and once I gave it a go I became a loyal fan of these biscuits.  Check it out here.

BTW, Hildie is totally hilarious, smart and talented.  IMO, her blog is a must read.  Also, she is as authentic and lovely in real life as she is online.

So, to go with the delicious biscuits, I make The Pioneer Woman's sausage gravy.  You can find that here.  Now, let me tell you that I do make two alterations to her recipe because it just tastes and works better that way.  First, I use whatever milk I have on hand (usually 1% or skim) because this household cannot have whole milk just sitting around.  A certain someone, who will remain nameless, has a crazy addiction to whole milk and we just don't buy it.  Second, her recipe calls for two teaspoons of black ground pepper.  That is a lot of pepper my friends.  I made it once this way and my non-spicy loving family couldn't handle the heat.  So, I cut it down to a 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and that is plenty.

This dinner can easily be served with a side of steamed veggies and you'll have rounded it out quite nicely.

Bacon, Egg and Cheese Quiche

Y'all, real men eat quiche.  Seriously, its so good, and easy to make.  I'm guessing a lot of you have never attempted making quiche because it is something you'd only eat at a fancy brunch or at your snobby aunt's house, but truly, it's not for the rich and famous, it's for the masses.  And, it's not "girl" food.  Geesh.

This recipe comes from King Arthur Flour.

First, make a pie crust.  Come on.  You can do it.

My favorite recipe is this:

In a food processor put the following:

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

Pulse to combine

While on, add 1 stick of unsalted butter (cold and chopped into small cubes).

Combine until the mixture is crumbly and course.  Then, while food processor is on add:

2-3 tbsp ice water

mix until the dough forms into a ball almost.  It should come together and be a bit on the sticky side.  Take it out and flatten the dough into a disc shape.  Wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Roll the pie crust out and form it to fit your pie pan.  No need to be overly fancy, but you can if you want!  Prick the crust with a fork 15 or so times and prebake the crust for 10 min at 375 degrees.

To make quiche filling:

3/4 pound bacon (I've used less before) precooked and chopped up

1 small onion

2 tbsp butter (or bacon fat)- this is for sauteing the onions

salt and pepper

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup milk

6 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar (or whatever kind of cheddar you like) grated

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Dice the onion finely and saute it until translucent.  Season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together the cream, milk and eggs.  Add to it the bacon, onions, cheese, salt and pepper.  Pour it into your prebaked pie crust.  Don't over fill.  If you have too much filling place the excess into small custard cups and cook those along side the quiche.

Bake the quiche for 40 minutes.  The edges should become golden brown and the center should feel just set.

Remove quiche from oven and let it cool on a rack.  You can serve it warm or room temperature.  Refrigerate leftovers.

Baked French Toast

This recipe is from The Pioneer Woman.

I acknowledge that this meal is not the healthiest of options.  It is a bit of a dessert-type meal.  But, I only make it once a month or less and it is undoubtedly a smashing success every time I do.  The greatest thing about baked french toast, besides how delicious it is, is that you can make it ahead (the night before, or the morning of) and then when it's time to pop it in the oven, dinner will be ready in just 30 minutes.

Baked French Toast

1 loaf of crusty sourdough or french bread (I've used both, and sometimes pugliese, and it all tastes wonderful).

8 eggs

2 cups whole milk (I use what's on hand- usually skim or 1%)

1/2 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp vanilla extract

For the topping (I usually make this right before it goes into the oven):

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of nutmeg

1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter cut into small pieces

To make:

Grease a 9x13 inch pan with butter, or cooking spray.  Tear or cut bread up into chunks and evenly distribute in pan.

In a medium sized bowl mix eggs, milk, cream, sugar and vanilla.  Pour over bread.  Cover tightly and put into fridge for several hours (or overnight).

To make topping- mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Add butter pieces and cut them into the dry mixture until it resembles little pebbles.  

When you're ready to bake, sprinkle topping on top of bread mixture and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  If you like it a bit firmer, with less liquid, bake for one hour.

Serve with maple syrup.

Pesto Chicken Enchildadas

This recipe is a perennial family favorite that I was introduced to by my dear friend, and fabulous cook, Christy.  Endless thanks dear!

Combine and fill flour tortillas with:

3-4 chicken breasts (or equivalent in chicken tenders) - cooked and shredded
4 oz cream cheese
1 T milk
1 T pesto (homemade is best, but jar is just fine. I use pesto from a jar)

Place in a 9x13 glass baking dish and cover with sauce:

Mixed together-
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz sour cream
1 cup milk
2 T pesto

Top with 1-1 1/2 cups of cheese (I used a combo of pepper jack and cheddar, but this can be up to you), chopped tomatoes (I omitted because a couple of my kids don't like tomatoes), and cilantro.

Cover with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Served with a green salad (romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese, sliced almonds and ranch dressing).

Serves 4-6


***most photos will be taken with an iPhone 6 because I'm busy and that's what's handy.