Pimento macaroni and cheese

kids, lunch, sides, supper 6 Comments

I love the simplicity of this one-pot macaroni and cheese; however, after 20 hours in the car with Kiddo (who, by the way, was a car-traveling champ) in the last four days I wasn’t really feeling the urge to watch the pot as closely as I would need to in order to avoid a boiled-over-milk scene on the stove.

I also had some pimentos that had ripened in the garden while Kiddo and I were gone.

So I crossed my fingers and totally made up tried this — and it worked!

Pimento macaroni and cheese

Ingredients

  • 3 Tbsp. all purpose flour
  • 3 Tbsp. butter
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. dijon mustard (optional)
  • 1.5 cups dry pasta
  • 2 cups shredded cheese
  • 3 fresh pimentos, peeled (like this, only tiny), seeded and minced

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. In a heavy, oven-safe sauce pot melt butter till foam subsides, then add flour and whisk until fully combined; add milk while whisking and turn off stovetop heat
  3. Stir in salt, mustard, dry pasta, cheese, and pimentos; cover pot and place in oven
  4. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through; top with additional cheese and uncover for the last few minutes if you so desire

That’s it!

Fritatta

baking, breakfast 3 Comments

When we signed up for our CSA this year we knew we weren’t veggie-adventurous enough for the produce share, so we went with the meat and eggs option.

Eggs. Oh my moly the eggs. The EGGS! They are so good but they are taking over my house. It’s like kale, but the carnivore version.

In an attempt to use up some a bunch of them at once I came up with this ridiculously easy little number. It was SO quick, and crazy filling with all the protein in there.

Fritatta

Ingredients

  • 1 pound breakfast sausage
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • 6-8 eggs
  • Salt and pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Brown sausage in a non-stick skillet, crumbling as you go; drain out grease
  3. Sprinkle in cheese
  4. Beat eggs and add some salt and pepper, then pour over sausage/cheese mixture in the skillet; adjust amount of eggs for size of your skillet, obviously
  5. Bake at 350 for about ten minutes until eggs are set in the center. Breakfast is served!

Southern style green beans

sides 4 Comments

When I was 14 and babysitting for a family in town the mother called home around 4:00 in the afternoon and asked me to cook some fresh green beans for supper. I immediately called my mother and asked her exactly how to cook them. “For today?” she replied incredulously.

Fast forward ten years (or so… ahem) to the first trip The Yankee and I made together to his homeland of the frozen tundra Detroit area where I ordered green beans at a restaurant. What arrived on my plate was something bright green and very crunchy. They were, er, not my favorite part of the meal. Mine start cooking by noon for supper that night. 😉

Southern style green beans

Ingredients

  • Green beans from last year’s garden (they’d been frozen; I try to avoid the BPA in canned ones)
  • A slice or two of bacon or pork jowels
  • Olive oil
  • Chicken broth from the freezer
  • Garlic
  • Salt

Instructions

  1. Pick a heavy-bottomed pot and pour in enough olive oil to cover the bottom; use that to fry a couple strips of bacon or pork jowls
  2. When the bacon is cooked through toss in a couple handfuls of fresh green beans, a clove of garlic, a sprinkling of salt and enough chicken broth to cover the beans; cover pot with lid and gently simmer… for a long time

Ingredients

  • Green beans from last year’s garden (they’d been frozen; I try to avoid the BPA in canned ones)
  • A slice or two of bacon or pork jowels
  • Olive oil
  • Chicken broth from the freezer
  • Garlic
  • Salt

Instructions

  1. Pick a heavy-bottomed pot and pour in enough olive oil to cover the bottom; use that to fry a couple strips of bacon or pork jowls
  2. When the bacon is cooked through toss in a couple handfuls of fresh green beans, a clove of garlic, a sprinkling of salt and enough chicken broth to cover the beans; cover pot with lid and gently simmer… for a long time

– See more at: https://oneparticularkitchen.com/2010/08/13/southern-style-green-beans/#sthash.82WD34zf.dpuf

You can also add some red pepper flakes and or some Worcestershire sauce into this if you’re so inclined. It’s pretty fabulous.

This is easy, right? And of course you can control exactly how cooked they are this way.

Now if only I could get the Yankee to try them….

Craisin peach crumble bars

baking, breakfast, dessert 5 Comments

Ohhhhh my moly.

If I were the demanding type I’d demand that you make these immediately. I’m not, of course so I’ll just strongly suggest it.

The peaches are so good this year and I bought more than I’ll ever be able to eat, so I wanted to some up with something to do with them. This is based on the apple crisp recipe, but with more of the crumble part so that you end up with a crust. It is OH so good.

Craisin peach crumble bars

Ingredients

  • 2 medium-to-large peaches, chopped
  • 1/3 cup Craisins
  • 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
  • 2 Tbsp. sugar
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tsp. vanilla
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F and chop the peaches, then put them in a saucepan with the Craisins, cornstarch and sugar. Bring it all up to a nice bubble and let it cook till it thickens, then set aside
  2. Cream butter and sugar, then mix in remaining ingredients — it will look coarse like a crumble topping
  3. Take two cups of crumble mix and press into a greased 8×8 dish and bake till it’s lightly browned, around 10-12 minutes, then spread fruit mixture over crust. Sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture over the top and bake till that’s lightly browned, about another 15-18 minutes or so

Fast and good! How can you beat that?

Cornstarch: your friend in the garden

tools 101 Comments

Just like last year, I planted a bunch o’ tomatoes in the garden in the back yard. Unlike last year, my tomatoes this year came under attack (ATTACK I say!) by bugs. First it was worms (tomato worms? Hornworms? I don’t know. Icky worms). Then came the stinkbugs. All my tomatoes were being eaten and rotting before they even started to ripen and I hadn’t gotten a single tomato for me to eat.

I wanted to evict the bugs, for sure, but I didn’t want to do it with a bunch of chemicals — sort of defeats a large part of the purpose of growing them in the back yard, you know?

Enter: cornstarch. Seriously! Now my garden looks like this:

I use a powdered sugar shaker full of cornstarch to cover the leaves, the tomatoes, and the ground around them. The plants look ridiculous, sure, but guess what? The tomatoes are MINE again!

I’m not sure exactly why this works, honestly — I don’t know if it kills off the bugs or if it just keeps them away; as long as I’m the only one eating the tomatoes, I’m good. It even deters Vinny the squirrel a bit which is an unexpected bonus. A quick wash in the kitchen sink removes all the cornstarch and I’m good to go. Tomato sandwiches for everyone! 🙂