A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Purist Macaroni & Cheese: THREE ingredients

"Mom's Extra Sharp Mac and Cheese" (Click to be linked)

Ran across this recipe when I was searching for a new baked Mac & Cheese recipe to play with. I was intrigued by the lack of a huge list of ingredients or odd spices.  It's simple: macaroni, milk, and cheese. That is LITERALLY macaroni and cheese. I happened to have all three ingredients so I had it in the oven in the time it took to pre-heat the oven.

I admit I was tempted to add salt, pepper, butter, garlic, any number of little extras but I really wanted to see how it would come out just as written. GREAT!, would be the answer to that.  There is no need for salt because of the salt in the cheese, extra would have, in fact, made the dish too salty.  And as for other seasonings, they have their place but not in this particular version of purist Mac & Cheese. I was quite content with the recipe as is, savoring the dimensions of the lovely sharp cheddar on my pasta.

One note about the photos:  I impatiently took the pics (so I could chow down!) pretty quick out of the oven, but within 15 minutes the rest of the milk soaked into the pasta so that it was creamy without being runny.   

The funniest part, to me, is that when I gushed about this recipe to Auntie Miranda, she said "Um. Yeah. That's exactly how your Grandmother taught me to make Mac & Cheese, long before the boxes."   Proof that what once was old is new again! 

Click on the link above for the rest of the details of the recipe.

 

 

Appetizers with Style: Christmas Tree Veggie Plate

My friend, Jennifer, sent me a pic of the appetizer plate she made for a Christmas work party. I LOVE this!  What a great way to turn a simple veggie tray into a festive wrok of art!

It's as straight-forward as it looks: She halved one broccoli spear, leaving about 3 inches of "trunk" and then laid in bite-sized floret bites to form the tree itself.  Next she decorated with yellow pepper slices for garland and then added cherry tomato ornaments. The final touch is a treetop star cut out of yellow pepper using a small cookie/hors d'oeuvre cutter.

Thanks for sharing, Jenn!

 

 

 

Good & Good For You: Sweet Baked Acorn Squash with Apple Butter

The most simple recipe ever and Gene and I both loved it. That's saying a lot for Gene because he barely tolerates acorn squash...so when he says "Yeah, that'll work" I know I've hit on a great recipe! 

Auntie's Fruited Salad with Orange Marmalade Vinaigrette

 

Isn't Auntie Miranda's salad for Dexter Dinner Premiere beautiful?  I'll let her tell you in her own words how she did it from the email she sent me explaining the PERFECT dressing:

 

"On the salad dressing - I knew that I was going to put mandarin oranges in the salad - so I did a Rachel Ray trick when I made the dressing (at home).  I started with a couple of tablespoons of orange marmalade and melted it in the microwave.  I added about a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.  I added about a quarter of a cup of EVOO....and here's a trick I learned from Ann the other day.  Rachel always whisks her EVOO in - but I'm like Ann.  When I do that I never get a very good emulsion.  So I put it in the jar and shook it up and it emulsified in no time.

 

You can change out the marmalade to match whatever fruit you're going to put in your salad - strawberry, pineapple, grape, etc.  I just like a little sweetness in the dressing if you're going to put fruit in the salad."

Thanks Auntie!

The One Perfect Pancake of my Lifetime of Making Pancakes (And it's Whole Wheat too!)

 

This post supported by Detox Diet and Reader's Digest.

Isn't it pretty? All perfectly rounded, sitting just inside the inner rim of the place, the perfect golden brown. Okay, that's one perfectly round pancake I've made in 40 years of cooking! Usually, no matter how hard I try to spoon the pancake mix or twirl the pan all chef-like there's always one edge that sort of globs out all retarded and freakish-looking.  One.  Out of 40 years. 

I can live with that. 

This pancake has a hidden secret.  It's actually good for us!  Eating healthy has become a journey for me over the last couple of years. As in so many things in my life where instant gratification is is never realized, I finally realized that pursuing healthier habits in all parts of my life are about baby steps, not about throwing out the old and emerging from my bed a new person on a designated day. (Which is usually how I'd try to do it in the past.) I'd start a new "diet" by saying to myself at bedtime "Tomorrow I will start eating only healthy wholesome perfect foods and exercising for one hour and do it every day for the rest of my life."  Waking up in my new frame of mind, I would be that perfectly perfect wholesome creature up until about 10 seconds after my first breakfast before I had my Hobbit second breakfast of a slice of processed cheese and a Coke.  C'est la vie. Literally, that is my life!

Review: Peeled Snacks Dehydrated Fruit

 

 www.peeledsnacks.com

 

 I was asked to review a new dehydrated fruit snack called "Peeled Snacks" so at our last Knitting Party I set out two bowls of fruit.  "A", the Peeled Snacks and "B" from a bag of Sun-Maid dried fruit I usually keep on hand,  I marked neither with brand names let people snack on them throughout the evening, along with our normal appetizers and beverages. I only asked that at some point they try fruit from both bowls.

As the party broke up, I asked each of the eight people (plus Gene and myself) what they thought of each.

Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

 

Nothing says summer like tomatoes off the vine...and I couldn't wait so I actually pay way too much for vine-ripened tomatoes at the grocery but they were worth it!

Good & Good For You: Blood Orange & Lavender Olive Oil Muffins

 

My sweet tooth has been acting up a bit lately. No matter how much I try to feed it broccoli, it screams for sugar. I hate it when it gets cranky, but I will persevere. I'm a firm believer that I can eat healthy AND still satisfy my sugar cravings. My sweet tooth demanded orange: Orange martinis?  Orange jelly candies?  Orange Cake?  What we compromised on, my sweet tooth and I, was a batch of these delicious and good-for-you blood orange and lavender olive oil muffins.  Sweet, but not too sweet, and a treat without being empty calories.  With the addition of the whole wheat pastry flour, these muffins are a little heavier, a little more toothsome than so-called muffins that are really fluffly cupcakes masquerading as breakfast food.  More than breakfast, these are a fruity, flower-scented snack, that also contain a serving of good daily fat, for tea time or any time of the day I need a pretty little pick-me-up. 

This post supported by Healthy muffin recipes

A Spring Classic: Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

 

I've lost a little over 20 lbs since I've been following the "Glenna's No Crap" Diet, which is a combination of all the best nutrition information I know and no, you guessed it, crap.  Basically, I'm cooking from scratch and looking at every label. If I don't know what an ingredient is I set it aside.  For convenience sake this leaves me eating a lot of cottage cheese or natural peanut butter and homemade bread if I'm not in the mood to cook but, luckily, I'm usually in the mood to cook from scratch. This week, my craving has been for broccoli soup.  I love broccoli soup when I'm out at a restaurant but there's something about that too bright orange color that hints at some not very natural ingredients...so I made my own.

One of the simple tricks to this soup is something I learned from Auntie Miranda:  if you want a cheddar flavor in something, the sharper, more flavorful the cheese you use the less it takes to give you the medium cheddar flavor you're looking for. Good advice, Auntie.

 

Eating for Anemia: Crockpot War Eagle Mill 7-Grain Hot Cereal & Berries

 

After a recent lab test, I was informed that I am slightly anemic.  While I will be taking iron and B vitamin supplments, I can also help restore my body's levels through practicing good nutrition.  This is great motivation to follow through on one of my goals this year (and always) of eating more natural foods and less processed junk.

When we hear the term "anemia" most people automatically think iron supplements, and while those often are the treatment, there are actually two kinds of anemia: iron deficiency and red blood cell deficiency.

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