Slow Cooker Time!! Macaroni and Cheese

I got this recipe from one of my mom’s cousin’s daughters at a wedding shower over 11 years ago. (My mom’s cousin, Hope, is a regular reader of this blog. Hello, Hope! This is from Lindee!)

I’ve changed a few things from the original recipe–adding the Cajun seasoning and recommending that you use whole grain pasta, but everything else is the same. I believe that in the dictionary, under “Comfort Food,” macaroni and cheese is the first item listed.

Crockpot Macaroni & Cheese

3 eggs

1 large can evaporated milk

1 1/2 C. milk

1 t. salt

3 C. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 C. butter, melted

8 oz. macaroni, cooked al dente & drained (preferably whole grain)

1-2 t. Cajun seasoning (optional)

pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in order listed. Pour into a greased slow cooker. Cook on low for 3 hours.

Simple Advent Sandwiches: Part 3 Spiced Up Grilled Cheese

I love grilled cheese sandwiches. This is an extra-special recipe for them. You can make the spread a day or two in advance, and then making the sandwiches is all that simpler!

Spiced-Up Grilled Cheese

For the spread, blend together the following:

1 6-oz can tomato paste

3 T. chopped canned chipotle chilies (If you opened a fresh can, put the rest of the can in a zip-lock bag and freeze it for later use.)

1 T. molasses

Spread on 12 slices of bread, sourdough preferred.

On top of half the bread, place the following (divided, of course):

18 oz. extra-sharp cheddar cheese, thinly sliced

4 plum tomatoes, cut into 1/4” slices

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1 C. fresh cilantro leaves

Top with remaining bread, sauce side down. Spread butter on both sides of the sandwiches and grill on a griddle or non-stick pan until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes per side.

Simple Advent Sandwiches #2

This is one of my favorite sandwich recipes because it is so easy to make. It reminds me of pimento cheese, without the mayonaise and pimentos, and the only way to serve it is grilled.

Southwestern Cheese Sandwich with Secret Vegetables

Combine the following:

4 oz. shredded sharp Cheddar

1 C. shredded zucchini

1/2 C. shredded carrot

1/4 C. finely chopped red onion

1/4 C. salsa

1 T. pickled jalapeno pepper (optional)

This filling may be made in advance. Assemble and heat sandwiches as follows:

Divide filling between 4-6 slices of bread and top with another slice of bread. Cook in a panini maker (a George Foreman grill makes a great impromptu panini maker) or on your stovetop like a grilled-cheese sandwich.

Cheesy Pan Bread

This bread is excellent served with a soup. The tomato soup recipe I posted yesterday is a terrific choice.

If you’ve never made yeast bread before, this is a good way to start. Yeast bread may be a little scary, but it is forgiving. If you find you’re called away during the rising process, just deflate the dough (Some recipes say “punch it down,” but I think that’s a little too violent; it’s bad for the gluten.) cover it, and stick it in the refrigerator. When you return, take the dough out of the refrigerator, deflate it, and continue the process. (If you leave dough in the refrigerator all day or night it will probably just rise as much as it needs to and you can go on to the next step.)

Cheesy Pan Bread

Bread:

1 3/4 C. warm water

1 T. sugar

1 T. yeast

2 T. oil (I use olive oil.)

1 1/2 t. salt

1/4 C. milk powder (If you don’t have milk powder, substitute milk for 3/4 C. of the water, as called for above.)

3 C. flour–plus a little more to get the mixture to the right consistency. I use at least 1 C. whole wheat flour.

Mix the water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl until the yeast dissolves and the mixture bubbles.

Add oil, salt, milk powder and flour into the yeast mixture and stir for 150 beats (or thereabouts). Add enough additional flour to make a very soft dough. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk or a finger inserted in the dough causes the dough to sigh and leaves an indentation. (If the indentation fills up, the dough is not finished rising yet.) The length of the rise will depend upon the climate of your house.

While the bread is rising, make the toping.

Combine and cook in a little pan:

3 T. fresh minced onion

1/4 C. melted butter

1/2 t. paprika

1/2 t. oregano

1/4 t. celery salt

1/4 t. garlic salt

Once the bread has risen, deflate it and put into greased pie or cake pans. Spread with topping. Sprinkle bread with 1-1 1/2 C. shredded cheddar cheese. Prick with a fork. Let rise 30 minutes. If you are in a hurry, you don’t have to let it rise, but it is better if you do. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes.

Beer and Cheese Batter Bread

The type of beer this bread calls for is nebulous, but whatever type you choose should have a good flavour–although, honestly, if it’s summer and you bought cheap-old beer for the slugs, you can use a bottle of that (or can, I’m guessing) here.

(Do you know what I mean about beer for the slugs? One way to catch slugs–if you have this unfortunate problem in the summer–is to bury small cups or containers level with the soil and then put a few inches of beer in them. The slugs smell the beer and come running. Well, running for slugs. Then they drown in the beer. It works so well, I think slugs from all over the neighbourhood come out for the treat. Sorry if this grossed you out and now you don’t want to bake at all.)

This bread is really easy and it can bake while you make the rest of dinner or do the laundry or try to figure out why your daughter is crying.

Beer and Cheese Batter Bread

2 C. all-purpose flour (Feel comfortable substituting at least 1/2  C. whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour here.)

1 C. whole wheat pastry or white whole wheat flour

1 T. sugar

1 t. salt

1 T. baking powder

12 oz. beer

1 T. dijon mustard

1 C. grated cheddar cheese

1 T. butter

1 t. sesame seeds

Heat the oven to 350. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the beer, mustard and cheese. Stir until mixture forms a batter. Spread into a 9’/5′ loaf pan. It will be rather rough on top; that is OK. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until light golden and firm to the touch. A toothpick inserted in the center will come out clean. Brush the top with butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cool on a rack.

Potato Kale Soup with a Fancy Cheese

I freeze kale in the summer. In the winter, the freezer is a picture of a pig in a kailyard. (I learned from Laurel’s Kitchen that “Northerners, Scottish or not, have a special fondness for kale because it grows bravely all winter, surviving even snow and frost to provide its goodness when nothing else is fresh. In fact, the Scottish word for kitchen garden is “kailyard.”) There’s a lot of recipes out there for soups with kale in it, but this is one I go back to year-after-year. You can use fresh or frozen kale for this recipe.

Kale is so good for you. It has tons of calcium, vitamin A, iron, and fiber in it. It’s considered a super vegetable, nutritionally, not in the comic books, so I’d heartily recommend learning to eat it.

This soup is a good way.

Potato Kale Soup with a Fancy Cheese

2 T. butter

1 1/2 C. finely chopped onion

1 garlic clove, minced

7 C. chicken broth, or vegetable broth, or whatever broth you have (probably not fish broth, though)

4 C. coarsely chopped, peeled potato–any type, but a waxy type such as Yukon Gold is best for this soup

1/2 t. salt

1 bay leaf

6 C. chopped kale, which is about 3/4 lb. if you’re using frozen kale. Use the stems, if you want; they’ll get tender while they’re cooking.

1 t. dried basil

9 T. (2 oz.) yummy cheese like Gruyere, or a less fancy cheese such as Swiss

Melt butter in a Dutch oven. Add onion; cook 8 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in broth, potato, salt, kale stems (if using) and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until the potato is tender.

Stir in kale and basil. Cover and simmer until kale is tender. Discard bay leaf. Partially mash potatoes with a potato masher until thick and chunky. Serve in bowls garnished with cheese.

It’s easy to adapt this to a vegetarian or vegan diet by using vegetable stock and no cheese or soy cheese.

Makes: 6 servings

October Soup #1: Vegetable Cheese Soup

I have a large collection of cookbooks. Some I reference weekly. Others are oddities I pull out for party tricks. Others are pieces of my own personal history.

Last October, when I visited my grandmother for the last time, she told me I could sort through her small cookbook collection and take the ones I was interested in. One of the ones I chose had been a gift to Grandmama from my own mother. It was a cookbook called Encoure! Opera: Organization of People in Ellendale for the Restoration of the Arts. This cookbook had been an early 1990’s fundraiser in Ellendale, North Dakota, to help raise money to restore the town’s opera house. My mother had purchased it while my family lived in Ellendale, a small (population under 1,600 in the 2000 census) town in southern North Dakota.

Compilation cookbooks made for fund-raising are always interesting (if you’re interested in seeing how America cooks) and sometimes distressing (if you’re interested in seeing how America cooks). Many of the recipes in books like this call for assemblage–a can of this soup or vegetable, a jar of Cheeze Wiz, instant pudding, etc. This may be fun and it may be tasty, but I don’t really consider it cooking and it doesn’t usually fit how my household eats.

However, other recipes call for whole foods and require cooking–and there’s a number of well-known contributors: Barbara Bush, Lady Bird Johnson, Phil Jackson, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter (someone obviously hit up the presidents or their wives), Bob Hope, and regional celebrities of that time and generation. (It has been almost 20 years…) I also recognize some community names from my time in North Dakota, and its bittersweet, as some of them, particularly one woman from my family’s church, passed away since then.

I look for ways to adapt assemblage recipes into whole foods recipes, and I did that to one gem from this book this week. Originally from Beryl Ginsbach of the Ellendale Historical Society, I tossed out the canned cream of chicken soup and American Cheese and added milk and cheddar cheese instead.

It’s a delightful, vegetable-y, fall soup.

Vegetable Cheese Soup, compliments of North Dakota

In a large Dutch oven, saute in 1 T. butter or bacon fat, 1 chopped leek (onion may be substituted), 1 diced green pepper, 3 stalks celery, and 2-3 carrots. (Vegetables should measure about 1 C. each).

Add 1 quart chicken or vegetable broth.

Add 2 diced potatoes. (About 2 medium potatoes, preferably red-skinned. Peel them if you wish.)

Add 1 bay leaf.

Cook for 20 minutes, or until tender.

Add 1/2 lb. chopped broccoli, 1/2 lb. chopped cauliflower, and 3 C. whole milk. (If you must use skim, which I really don’t recommend, add a bit of cream to thicken it out.) Heat, but do not boil or the milk will curdle. Add 1/2 lb. cubed cheddar cheese and heat. Salt and pepper to taste. The amount of salt you use will depend on the state of the stock and your own preference.

Enjoy! This soup is delicious the next day, too.

Vegetable Gratin

As a member of a CSA, I regularly receive odd combinations of vegetables–and in quantities too small to make conventional recipes for specific vegetables.

So, tonight I tried this recipe that called for three pounds of root vegetables. I included kohlrabi and fennel with the roots (turnips and potatoes). If I would have had some, I may have included radishes, beets, parsnips, or maybe winter squash.

My combination was delightful, however. All three of us had seconds–and the addition of one fennel bulb was not overpowering.

3 pounds assorted root (or other!) vegetables, peeled (if necessary) and cut into 1/8 inch slices

3 T. oil or butter

1 C. thinly sliced onions, shallots, or scallions

1 1/3 C. milk, divided

3 T. flour

1 1/2 C. cheese (Gruyere, cheddar, or whatever you like)

1 T. chopped fresh thyme or 1 t. dried thyme

1/2 t. salt

1 C. breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 400. Grease or oil a 9/13 baking dish.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook vegetables in water until barely tender, about 5 minutes.

Heat 2 T. of the oil or butter in a saucepan. Add shallots or onions and cook until light brown, 3-4 minutes. Add 1 C. milk and bring to a simmer. Combine flour and the remaining 1/3 C. milk in a small bowl to make a smooth paste; stir into the hot milk and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce bubbles and thickens, 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in 3/4 C. cheese, thyme, salt and pepper.

Combine the breadcrumbs, 3/4 C. cheese, and 1 T. oil in a bowl.

Layer the vegetable slives in the prepared baking dish. Pour the cheese sauce over the top and top with the breadcrumb mixture. Bake the gratin until bubbling and golden, 30-50 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before serving.