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.

Chicken Pot Pie

I was craving Marie Calendar's chicken pot pie so I thought I'd try to make it myself. I found a recipe from Ina Gartan, a food genius. I saved time by chopping up the vegetables the day before. I didn't have peas (darn) so I made it with potatoes, celery, carrots and green onions. I also saved time by using boneless/skinless chicken breast and pan-fried it and used Trade Joe's chicken broth. Annnndddd I used store bought puff pastry (I love puff pastry). I cheated my way through this recipe and it was SO GOOD.

Here's the roux. There's a lotta butter in this (I skipped the cream and used 2% milk instead, I figured there's enough fat in this recipe).

Ingredients chopped and ready to go! I par-cooked the potatoes and blanched the carrots (I wanted them to be slightly crunchy).

I made 2/3ish of the recipe and I made enough for four small ramekins and...

I still had enough for an 8" cake pan.... I don't have any pie pans (yet).

Look at that!!!! It was so good! The double whammy of chicken broth and chicken bouillon really make a difference in this recipe. I also ended up using the same pan for frying the chicken and the roux and I think the fond gave it some extra depth. It was very chicken-y.... and delicious.... and disappeared in 1.5 days!

Meatloaf

I've only had meatloaf a few times in my life and they were very greasy, bland or overly-salty. I was craving meatloaf for some reason so I dug up two recipes: this one because there's ground turkey in it and this one because it seemed like a good basic meatloaf recipe.


In the second recipe you'll note that you have to make a "well" around the meatloaf and you need to drain the grease TWICE. Aghh... which is why I used ground turkey instead. I followed the basic onion, garlic, celery, eggs and breadcrumb formula, but I made up my own tomato-y recipe. I had leftover tomato paste so I used about 5oz of that, then 3 tablespoons of sriracha, some Trader Joe's marinara sauce to thin it out a bit, and then a few healthy dashes of soy sauce and a tablespoon of brown sugar.


I think the most important part of meatloaf is the mixing. I didn't mix it very well and had some chunks of turkey in there. Also I didn't have anything to drain so YAY for ground turkey. It was still a moist meatloaf too without the added fat.

*I made the meatloaf on my day off and had lots of natural light to take the photos in. What a big difference!

Fancy Dinners

Earlier tonight I had a really fancy, delicious "Rustic American" inspired dinner at my friend David's (yes, homemade!). The three courses included: mushroom soup, pot roast (not pictured), and some kind of apple tart with salted butterscotch ice cream. I have to give him major props on presentation--that's something I need to work on... after I get my recipes down. Take a look (but seriously, these pictures do not do the food enough justice):

Mushroom soup. Corn foam in the yellow--yum! Black mushroom in the middle, dill on the side.

Pie-like crust filled with apple chunks/topped with thinly sliced apples (made into a flower/circular pattern). Salted ice cream out of focus on the bottom left corner. All from scratch ingredients!

And here come the drinks, as promised. I brought some white wine and champagne to bring to the dinner party to try out some stuff I learned in bartending school, etc.

WINE COOLER

Recipe: wine glass, fill halfway with white wine, fill with 7up or Sprite. Add lemon twist.
(I think the original recipe calls for 3/4 glass white wine and fill with 7up/Sprite, but I like my drinks a bit more on the sweet side.)

CHAMPAGNE (Sparkling Wine) SORBET

Recipe: wine glass, add two generous scoops of raspberry sorbet, fill halfway with champagne
Swirl and smash the sorbet until you get an icy/slushy consistency that looks like this:

This one I'll have to give credit to a Pan-Asian fusion restaurant in Berkeley called Unicorn. I got the idea of mixing the two from this restaurant about two years back, and since then I've been narrowing down better sorbets/champagnes over time. Last time I used Cook's champagne... dis-gus-ting! Cook's is a no-no. Try Ballatore! It might not be a champagne per se, but it's yummy (sweet, of course) and close enough to champagne.

Note: Bottle says sparkling wine, not champagne. It's perhaps sparkling wine but to me it's still champagne-esque. There's probably a whole convention of champagne-snobby folks who will say otherwise, including the reasons behind the name difference here. Pretty interesting to keep in mind, so we'll keep the two names separate for technicality's sake.


Sorbet used: Ciao Bella from Andronico's. Apparently "lampone" is Italian for "raspberry".


What a way to have fine dining in your own home!

The Ultimate Reuben Sandwich

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, I bought some corned beef with a mission in mind: the ultimate Reuben sandwich. Unfortunately I couldn't find corned beef in the deli-sliced meat section, so I thought, well why not make it "from scratch"? Cheers to first-times; it turned out DELICIOUS. Feast your eyes:




















If only I could transmit smells through pictures... the aroma of corned beef is heavenly. It's also surprisingly simple to make, inexpensive, and yummy! Impress your friends; here's a try-it-yourself recipe:

Ingredients (Makes about 8 servings.)

• 1 package (3 lb.) corned beef brisket
• 1 loaf sliced Russian rye bread (or any variation of rye)
• 1 16 oz. jar sauerkraut, drained
• thousand island dressing (or substitute with mayonnaise)
• 2 tbsp butter, or to taste
• 1 package sliced swiss cheese (muenster cheese works well too)

Directions

1. Place corned beef in a pot, submerge with water. Bring to a boil.
2. Turn down heat to low-medium and cover with lid. Let simmer for another 3 hours. This will make the meat very tender. Add water as necessary to keep meat submerged.
3. When done, the meat should come apart very easily/should be able to easily poke into the meat with a butter knife. Remove from water and let drain and set/cool for 20 minutes. This will help the meat solidify and make it easier to cut thin slices.
4. Heat a pan to medium heat, and melt butter. Place two slices of bread onto buttered pan, and place cheese on bread to melt while over heat. Heat until bread is toasty and browned.
5. Assemble sandwich with sliced meat, thousand island, and sauerkraut to your liking!

For the budget-conscious: all the ingredients cost a little under $25. A Reuben sandwich ranges from $6-$10 (save two to three times the eating-out cost!), and deli-sliced meat will probably cost you at least $15 more.

What's more: save the broth you cooked the corned beef in and use it to make SOUP!

Ingredients

• 5 potatoes
  
• 3 carrots
• 1 cabbage head
  
• 1 onion

Peel, wash, and dice ingredients to your liking and toss it in the broth. Add water and salt as necessary. Voila!--a hearty soup to serve with your sandwich.