Mac and Cheese (with broccoli)

I know what you're thinking- another mac and cheese? Well this is mac and cheese, with Beecher's Flagship Cheese Sauce. If you haven't had Beecher's mac and cheese, stop and book a flight to Portland go mosey on over to Beecher's. If you're a cheese hound you will probably find yourself suddenly overwhelmed, if you are lukewarm about cheese (like me) you will be amazed and a little weirded out by all the cheese products. You can even watch them make cheese!

It's not a ground-breaking recipe by any means, but the addition of chili powder is a welcome change. I added broccoli so as not to feel so depressed about the amount of cheese + pasta consumed. Also I used a gruyere from Whole Foods and it was the smelliest gruyere I have ever used! I had to use a outdoor micowave at work. beware...

Baked Mac N Cheese and Roasted Potato Leek Soup

I really liked mac and cheese, but I'm really picky about what kind I like. I like the mac and cheese from Napa Valley Grill and even the Kraft blue box... I'm kinda on the fence about Trader Joe's boxed mac and cheese. This is a good make-ahead recipe for baked mac and cheese for when you have guests coming over- assemble the day before and bake when ready. It's from the great Barefoot Contessa.



This roasted potato and leek soup is so good. I really like roasting vegetables- you don't have to stand there watching it and the veggies come out with a completely different flavor! This also had a bunch of arugula blended in so it had a peppery kick to it.

I definitely burned the crispy shallots, but for what I paid for them I used them anyways. They are a really really good addition to the soup and would be great in sandwiches, salads etc.

Lion's Head Cassarole and Potato and Cheese Pierogi

Sorry about the photo- I couldn't quite figure out how to make it look appetizing.

I don't particularly care for meatballs, especially Italian meatballs (sorry!), so I was surprised when I liked a lion's head. It's slightly crispy (if you don't steam it) on the outside and so juicy and soft, not the hardpacked Italian version. I made the version that's all meat because I didn't have tofu, but the tofu one is way better. It's a lot softer. I don't know how to cook Asian food, unless it's fried rice. I really have no idea what the spices look like or what they're called or what flavors go with what so I'm really thankful for Taiwanese bloggers who post recipes like this because without them I'd be lost.


Pierogi is like a dumpling and I love dumplings, all shapes and forms. I've only had them from Traktir, a great Russian restaurant in West Hollywood, CA. I looovveeee their pierogi, but it's pretty expensive for the amount they give you and I can probably eat two platefuls so I thought it'd be a good idea to make them at home. I got the recipe here. Again, the addition of sour cream is unexpected and thankfully I couldn't taste it in the dough. I am going to need to work on making pierogi. My dumplings were not the silken, plump half moons at Traktir, mine were lumpy HUGE ovals- some of which blew up while boiling. I didn't make the sauce- I couldn't bring myself to use all that butter and sour cream.

Potato filling. I added a LOT of dill to this after the photo because it was bland.

Fresh pasta dough for cheese and mushroom ravioli

Pasta dough work station.

I found a pasta maker at TJ Maxx for $16 and I had to buy it. It rolls out dough to 6 different thicknesses and does 2 different cuts (fettuccine and angel hair). I've always wanted to make fresh pasta because it's one of my favorite foods. I used this recipe for the cheese ravioli. Although by the end of it, I had no energy to make the fresh tomato sauce so I used Trader Joe's basil marinara.

The dough, resting.

Some of the comments mentioned that it was bland so I added some white mushrooms and a lot of fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, chives) and extra garlic. I didn't think that this would make so many ravioli, but it did. AND I had leftover dough so I made pasta. This made several meals.

Trying to place small amounts of filling on the pasta. I should've put half of what I thought would fit (based on the width of the pasta that I rolled out).

Covering the filling.

Sliced (with a pizza cutter) with the air pinched out.

I was going to shape them nicely into squares, but then realized I put way too much filling in so I kept the large ravioli as is. (Note the enormous ravioli at the bottom of the photo.)

My large, irregularly shaped pasta.

I used leftover dough to make pasta when I ran out of the ravioli filling.

Oof, these were hard to pull apart the next day- definitely go heavy with the olive oil if you are making enough for leftovers. The taste is completely different from boxed pasta. It's really silky (and I used all purpose flour! It's probably even better with european 00 flour, it's ultra ultra fine) and very egg-y. So eggy that it was almost like egg pasta. This is not an everyday recipe. It took awhile to roll out each sheet and fill them, pinch all the air out and then slice them, but for a special occasion or for an empty day, very much worth the effort.

Also, you can definitely make these without a pasta roller, but I hope you have strong arms and a whole lotta time to roll out the dough.

Mac N' Cheese (with Bacon!)

Taking a great recipe and making it more awesome. Bacon can do that to food. Recipe adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chucks-Favorite-Mac-and-Cheese/Detail.aspx

Added about 10 strips to bacon, 4 more oz. of elbow macaroni and adjusted the rest of the recipe to fit the extra macaroni added. Instead of using bread crumbs I decided to go with the lighter, Japanese bread crumbs: Panko.


Also used Tillamook Extra Sharp Cheddar. Freshly grated by hand:


Here it is after going into the oven! SO MUCH MAC N' CHEESE.


Nom nom nom.

Scallops and Gougeres

I was craving some scallops so I picked some up from the frozen aisle at Trader Joe's. I used this recipe for Butter-Fried Sea Scallops with Thyme and White Wine. This was my first time cooking scallops and it turned out very well! I was really scared of overcooking them, but they had a nice crust on the outside and were very tender. There are only a few ingredients and it took less then half an hour to make. I put a little bit more white wine in and served it over some pasta.


After some online searching... I've realized what's wrong with my camera! It can only macro-focus starting at 10 cm from the subject )= omgz. So don't get a nikon coolpix s560 if you want to take pictures of things up close.


Next up is a SUPER DELICIOUS recipe from David Lebovitz. I haven't made my own ice cream yet, but when I do I will buy his book! I was craving some Brazilian cheese bread (not sure what it was called, wikipedia thinks it is Pao de quijo) so I used David's recipe for Gougeres. I used parmesan and it was SO EFFING GOOD. I want to try a different cheese next time with some different herbs because these were mild. Gruyere and thyme?



They cooked perfectly, no problems puffing at all. They were crisp on the outside, and a soft eggy texture on the inside. Also, if you don't have a Silpat yet you should get one because it is the best silicon baking mat. I got mine from amazon.

This is me trying to get a CLEAR photo of the inside. )=