Mrs. McHugh’s Down Home Macaroni & Cheese

I have always been in love with food, so when I was in the middle school, it came as no surprise that I spent all my free time in the Home Economics room. Mrs. McHugh was the teacher for home economics and was the best teacher I have ever had. Now, many many years later, my younger neighbors who are now in middle school, have her as their teacher for home economics. But now, the name of the class is Top Chef and everyone wants to take it. She has one of the best macaroni and cheese recipes, and I have making it over and over again for my neighbor when I babysit.

The recipe I am about to post, includes Velveeta….which I and not a fan of…ever, but I love this recipe

Ingredients-

1/4 cup of butter or margarine

1/4 cup of flour

1 teaspoon of salt

2 cups of milk

1/4 lb of velveeta cheese, cut up

8 oz of shredded cheddar cheese (about 2 cups)

2 cups of cooked & drained elbow macaroni (about 8 ounces)

3 tablespoons of bread crumbs (panko or italian)

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit

2. In a large stockpot, bring water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon of salt

3. Add elbow macaroni to the boiling water and cook, stirring occasionally for about 8 minutes (read package if using different pasta for cooking time)

4. Once pasta is cooked and drained, start roux for the cheese sauce

5. In a separate large sauce pan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter over low heat

6. As the butter is melting, add in 1/4 cup of flour and stir constantly until flour is cooked (roughly a minute or two- do not want to over cook the flour, because it will have a burnt flavor)

7. To the flour and butter, add 2 cups of milk and stir with a whisk until it has thickened

8. Add in the velveeta and cheddar cheese to the sauce and stir with a wooden spoon until all the cheese is melted

9. Pour cooked macaroni into the cheese sauce and stir until all the noodles are covered in cheese

10. Pour the macaroni and cheese into a 1 1/2 quart baking dish and sprinkle the 3 tablespoons of bread crumbs mixed with 1 tablespoon of melted butter on top- this creates a nice crust on top

11. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are golden brown, and the cheese is bubbling

Enjoy!

XOXO

Simple Shaved Cucumber Salad

Our good family friends have a garden, and we have been getting lots of fresh, delicious vegetables from them. Tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, you name it!

So this week for dinner, I made a side dish using a large cucumber, half a red onion and shaved parmesan cheese. And that’s it. Only three ingredients- what’s better than that! Here it is:

Ingredients-
Large cucumber
Half a medium red onion
Parmesan shavings (to your liking)
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

1. Peel the skin of the cucumber ( in other dishes, I love leaving some skin on, but because we are shaving the cucumber, the skin is too tough)

2. Shave the cucumber with the peeler- I made long shavings (as you would when you shave cheese)

3. Slice the red onion very thinly, and add to the cucumber

4. Shave parmesan cheese over the cucumber and red onion

5. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle salt and freshly cracked black pepper on top

6. Toss it all together and enjoy!! It’s that simple

Fried RIIIIIICE

I am obsessed with Benihana’s fried rice. I have YET to master the recipe, but I have one that isn’t that bad- its my go to when I need a fried rice fix. Here it is:

Ingredients-

2 cups brown rice

A quarter of a bell pepper ( yellow, red, orange, green), chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped

2 clove of chopped garlic

1/4 cup of frozen peas

1 egg (beaten)

1/2 tablespoon of sesame seeds

soy sauce

1. Cook rice according to box instructions

2. Melt tablespoon of butter in a sauce pan over low heat

3. Add carrots, and allow to cook for 5 minutes (they take the longest to cook)

4. To the carrots, add chopped bell peppers and garlic and cook for another few minutes

5. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the beaten egg and scramble along with the vegetables

6. Add the brown rice to the vegetables & egg, along with a 1/2 a tablespoon of sesame seeds and a few dashes of soy sauce (more or less depending on what you like)

7. ENJOY!!

xoxo

Baked Onion Rings….YUM

Tonight I was in charge of making dinner for my younger sister and I. Something I have no problem doing because I volunteer to cook dinner all the time. I’ve been wanting to make onion rings for awhile now, and for some reason when I REALLLLLY want to make them, we never have onions. Of course. This time I made sure my dad got a bag of onions at the grocery store.

So when my parents told me dinner was up to me, I immediately texted my sister and said ill make pasta (cooked pasta, tossed it with homemade pesto, frozen peas, and sausage…came out delicious) and ONIONNN RINGSSSSSSS! (these were even better).

We are an italian family, so we have an insane amount of polenta, or ground cornmeal on hand at all times. I decided to use that as my coating, along with flour. This recipe is so simple, anyone can do it with their eyes closed. Here is how I did it:

Ingredients-

1 large onion

1 cup of polenta (cornmeal)

1/2 cup of flour

2 cups of buttermilk

4 egg whites

1. Cut ends of the onion, and slice the entire onion ( 1/4 inch thick)

2. Place onion rings in a deep dish and pour the 2 cups of buttermilk over them (make sure the rings are covered with the buttermilk). Let this sit for 15 minutes.

3. While onions are bathing in the buttermilk, pre-heat oven to 425 degrees

4. Mix the cup of cornmeal with the 1/2 cup of flour, seasoning with salt and pepper

5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the 4 egg whites

6. Grab a large cookie sheet and grease it

7. Take the rings out of the buttermilk, place in egg whites and then the cornmeal mixture. Coat completely and try to get excess mixture off and place on the cookie sheet.

8. Once all rings are coated with the cornmeal mixture, place cookie sheet in the oven for 20-25 minutes, flipping rings halfway through.

ENJOY

xoxo

Today’s Creation- Potato Salad

I am a lover of all things BBQ. The food, the fun, the friends, you name it, I love it. My family is really into BBQs and every summer as long as I can remember, we throw BBQs for all our friends and family. I live on a dead end, so all my neighbors are really close with each other. When we have a last minute BBQ, they are the ones who come over for food and beer.

To me, the food is the best part. We always have your staple dishes. Hotdogs, Hamburgers, macaroni and cheese (baked, in this case. A family favorite), potato salad, macaroni salad and watermelon. But we also have new dishes we like to swap in sometime. Either a panzanella salad, which is chopped vegetables tossed in a mustard vinaigrette, or a staple dish with a twist. In this case, a twist on potato salad.

The other night I made dinner for my mom and I (My dad was traveling for work and my to sisters were out of town with friends). I love being in the kitchen and coming up with things on the fly. I made chicken as the protein. I marinated it in homemade pesto, and grilled it. And I had two sides to go along with it- quinoa and potato salad.

For the potato salad, you make it as you normally would. In my case, because it was only my mom & I, I only used three yukon gold potatoes. I cubed them up, so they were roughly the same size, and threw them into a pot of boiling water. While they were cooking, I started to make the dressing for them. My mom & I wanted something lighter than the usual dressing on potato salad.

I grabbed mustard (yellow and dijon), garlic, honey, olive oil, parsley and salt & pepper.I also grabbed an onion, but that was to be tossed into the salad, not for the dressing. I combined everything in a bowl and set aside until the potatoes were done.

To tell if the potatoes are done, all you have to do is stick a knife in the biggest chunk, and if it goes through easily, then they are ready! So once my were done, I drained them into a colander, placed them into a bowl with the chopped up onions and tossed them into the dressing. I wanted to put the dressing on when the potatoes were warm, because the flavors absorb better. And thats it!

xoxo

Roasting Vegetables

Roasting vegetables is probably the easiest thing to do. It takes little to no time, and I like to make roasted vegetables when I make some kind of protein- chicken, beef, fish etc. This is a dish I like to call- put it in and forget about it. All you need to do is set the oven to 400 degrees and toss the vegetables in olive oil and salt & pepper.

Wondering what vegetable to use? ANYTHING! Any and all vegetables are great roasted. When I am home with my family, my dad cut carrots, parsnips, and turnips into half inch pieces and tosses them with olive oil. Sometimes he will use acorn squash, beets, or asparagus. It all depends on what you are in the mood for or what is in season. Going to the local farmer’s market during the summer and fall is the perfect place to get vegetables. But when I am at school, I tend to roast asparagus.

The prep time is under 10 minutes, which is perfect for a busy college student. So this is what I do:

-Wash a pound of asparagus

– Cut the ends off (roughly an inch or two to get rid of the white on the ends)

– Pat dry (IMPORTANT!! otherwise oil will not coat it)

– Lightly drizzle the asparagus with olive oil (A lot goes along way)

– Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

– Spread asparagus out so it is one even layer

– Place in a preheated oven for 25 minutes