The other day I had a craving for macaroni and cheese – and not the stuff from the blue box. So I used an old recipe for white sauce and threw in some cheese (in this case
gruyere, cheddar and
parmesan) along with toasted bread crumbs on top. Delish! And fast.
Cheddar, gruyere and parmesan cheese and mac. Yum.
All purpose white sauce
- 2 T. butter or margarine
- 2 T. flour (all purpose)
- 2 cups milk (warmed)
- Salt (to taste)
- White pepper (to taste)
- Ground nutmeg
- Squeeze of lemon
- 10 oz. penne or other noodles
Other additions:
- Garlic (one clove, finely minced)
- Tabasco (just a few shakes)
- 1 T. Dijon mustard
Melt the butter on medium heat. When it bubbles gently, add the flour and stir well to combine. Cook the butter/flour mixture for about 1 – 2 minutes. Add the warmed milk and stir until it thickens. Add salt, pepper. If your sauce is bland, consider the lemon juice, garlic and Tabasco route (basic ingredients I use to “perk” up sauces).
Once your white sauce is made, add the cheese. Stir until melted.
- ½ cup gruyere
- ½ cup cheddar
- ½ cup grated parmesan
Note: you can use all gruyere (instead of the cheddar addition) if you prefer.
Pour over the pasta noodles and stir to combine. Pour into a casserole and top with toasted bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for approx. 30 minutes or until you see the mixture bubble vigorously.
Hashbrowns, eggs and cheese. A delicious combo!
It all started when my mother kept telling me how much people liked the funeral cake she served at a recent dinner. The first time I let it pass. Then later I just had to ask about the morbid name and why this dish was called such a thing. She said she didn’t know and that the recipe came from a family friend.
While researching funeral cakes online, I came across several recipes for funeral potatoes. Funeral potatoes are a staple in some religions and served at (you guessed it) funerals. The reason is because there are few ingredients – all readily available – which go together quickly and result in the perfect comfort dish.
When I thought about writing a post on the topic of “my favorite hashbrown breakfast casserole” I realized it’s my own version of funeral potatoes. And I laughed as I remembered that the first time I tried this dish I was at a funeral (but wasn’t really laughing then.)
My tradition now is a much merrier and happier one. I make this dish the night before Christmas and bake it the following morning as a warm-up for the gift unwrapping. It is a simple dish, but once your house begins to fill with the scent of cheese and potatoes you will feel a little more festive and a whole lot hungrier.
So whatever your reason for celebrating this season – from the team at Yummly.com – Happy holidays and best wishes to you and your family!
Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Add 3 ½ cups frozen shredded hash browns to an 8” x 8” pan. Drizzle ¼ cup melted butter over top.
- Bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Cool.
Mix together and pour over the baked hashbrowns:
Then top the entire mixture with:
- 1 cup grated cheddar
- ½ cup grated jalapeno cheese or Monterey jack
- Your choice of toppings*
Topping recommendations: diced ham, cooked sausage or bacon, diced tomatoes, red pepper, green onion and mushrooms.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.
Two layer cheesecake with cranberry orange compote
Growing up our Thanksgiving table was full of the usual items like turkey, gravy, stuffing and cranberries….from a can (insert sound of record scratching or nails on a chalkboard here.) If I close my eyes I can still see the indentations in the jelly-like stuff and the wobble every time someone bumped the table leg.
Although I actually admit to eating and liking the cranberry jelly then, I now find myself hoarding bags of fresh cranberries when they appear in stores. Well-suited to the freezer, cranberries are versatile (desserts, meat dishes) healthy and just plain delicious.
Below is recipe for cheesecake composed of two layers; one a traditional Philly cheese and the other a blend of sour cream and Greek-style yogurt. It’s the perfect carrier for the tangy, sweet cranberry orange topping. Enjoy!
Two layer cheesecake with cranberry orange topping
Graham cracker crust
- 4 T unsalted butter
- 3 ½ oz. graham crackers, crushed into crumbs
First layer
- 2 – 8 oz packages Philadelphia cream cheese
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
Second layer
- 1 1/4 cups sour cream
- 2/3 cup thick Greek-style yogurt
- 2 ½ tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cranberry orange topping
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoon water
- 1 t cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- ½ teaspoon grated orange peel
Preheat oven to 375. Finely grind the graham crackers in a food processor. Melt the butter and pour over the graham cracker crumbs. Mix thoroughly. Pour mixture into a buttered 9-inch springform pan. Beat the ingredients for the first layer together thoroughly. Pour over the base and smooth on top. Place on baking sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until just set. Set aside for 20 minutes to firm up.
Mix the ingredients for the second layer and spoon evenly over the first layer. Return to the oven for 10 minutes then take out and cool.
Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.
For the topping, stir sugar and water in medium saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium; add cornstarch mixture and simmer. Add cranberries, cook until beginning to pop, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Stir in orange peel. Cool completely.
Cheesecake recipe adapted from Fiona Beckett’s Cheese. Cranberry orange topping courtesy of Epicurious.
Basil
I spent the summer fixated on my herb garden or to be more precise, the basil growing in front and cordoned off with a small trench containing snail-discouraging material (ok, slug and snail bait.) Sorry if I just ruined the visual here but past experience has taught me this is one necessary step. And yes, I could eat them – the snails – since someone published an article about cleaning the pests last year but basil is so much tastier when it becomes PESTO!
By late August my work paid off and I had enough basil to start my annual pesto assembly line. First, I gently toasted the pine nuts so as not to burn them, and then set up the garlic, basil, nuts, salt, pepper, cheese and oil all in a line on my dining room table. I assigned a friend to be the food processing engineer and quality assurance taster (not too much salt or oil) and with a push of the pulse button we whirred our way to pesto production. While the entire process always seems a little labor intensive, most of the work is in the ingredient preparation stages. Once we swung into action the whole process took a fast hour to complete.
Many tubs of pesto – lodged securely in my freezer – later, we participated in the ultimate taste test. We whipped up a batch of fusilli pesto and marveled at the activity of the day. For me, it’s another annual food ritual which captures a bit of summer to save for a rainy, cold Northern California day (and yes, it DOES get cold in California!) Next up, chili and pumpkin ravioli – yum!
Pesto
3 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
2 oz. Parmigiano-Reggiano, coarsely grated (about 2/3 cup)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
3 cups loosely packed basil
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
With food processor running, drop in garlic and finely chop. Stop motor and add nuts, cheese, salt, pepper and basil then process until finely chopped. With motor running, add oil, blending until incorporated.
Cooks’ notes:
For pasta with pesto: put 2/3 cup pesto in a large bowl and cook 1 pound linguine or spaghetti until al dente, then whisk about 1/3 cup pasta cooking water into pesto. Add drained pasta to thinned pesto with salt and pepper to taste and toss well. Serve with additional grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Pesto keeps, its surface covered with plastic wrap, chilled, 1 week.
Fusilli Pesto and Tomato Pasta
The ultimate comfort – mac and cheese (with crab!)
Linguini with sweet Italian sausage
With October around the corner most think about Halloween, crisp days and leaves turning color. Me? I think it’s time to get off the grill, turn on the oven and turn to
comfort foods. And comfort foods mean things which are roasted, noodle-y or crisped (think
chicken pot pie,
mac and cheese or an apple crisp.)
If you ask your friends and family about their favorite comfort foods you’ll probably get a variety of answers or dishes. That’s because comfort foods usually have a sentimental or nostalgic appeal which is connected to a time in your past – most notably childhood. For me it’s less about my childhood (or I’d have to list things like Hostess Fruit Pies and Cheetos as my comfort foods – not that there’s anything wrong with that) and more about the time in my life I started to cook for myself.
Out of college and on my own I realized picking up the phone to order pizza or dragging myself to the campus food court was no longer an option. Spaghetti became my new norm with variations bordering on the simple to absurd (ok, the sauce was from a jar, but turning on the stove WAS involved!) Although spaghetti still appeals to me today I rarely eat it. I’ve moved on to more sophisticated – and international – dishes like tom ka gai (spicy and sour thai chicken soup) for under-the weather days and a decadent crab mac and cheese because the boxed stuff seems so bland without an extra handful of grated cheese :)
After all the savory here’s a sweet recipe to add to your list. The ingredients are simple but the result is a deeply satisfying dish – especially warm out of the oven with ice cream on top!
Apple Crisp
- 6 apples
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon clove, ground
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Topping
- ½ cup sugar
- ¾ cup flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter
- ¼ cup chopped nuts (optional)
Combine cinnamon, sugar and cloves. Set aside.
Peel, core and slice the apples*. Add the lemon juice, then the cinnamon & sugar mixture. Mix together and place in a 8×8 square pan. Crumble together the sugar, flour, salt and butter. Add the nuts and top apples with the mixture.
Bake at 375 degree for approx. 45 minutes or until the apples are tender and the top is browned.
*I use a vegetable peeler and then an apple slicer – much faster.
Rich, creamy burrata
At one of my favorite restaurants I’m often torn between wanting to share and being selfish. The object of my desire? The burrata cheese.
Burrata cheese is a close cousin of mozzarella (similar to buffalo mozzarella) and is apparently all the “cheese” rage these days. I guess it makes sense given that burrata is rich and creamy, difficult to find (due to a short shelf life) and the name means “buttered” in Italian. Anything with the word – or interpretation – of butter in it is a given for me.
So what’s the difference between buffalo mozzarella and burrata cheese? Buffalo mozzarella, also known as Fior di Latte, is made from water buffalo milk which is richer and higher in protein than cows milk. Burrata cheese is mozzarella with a center of cream and mozzarella which accounts for it’s rich and addictive nature. Although both are white in color and spongy in texture, to me burrata is the Cadillac of mozzarella. Or the cherry on top…or, well, you get the picture.
Burrata found it’s start around the 1920’s on the Bianchini farm in a town called Andria. It can be served adorned with basil, tomatoes and prosciutto or atop a pizza margharita in a melted state. Whatever the case, be forewarned if you decide to share. I’m told it’s never nice to elbow your guests at the table over the last piece of burrata!
Note: the burrata appetizer is NOT on the menu at my favorite restaurant, A Bellagio in Campbell CA, you have to request it!
