Move Over Betty!
I was in a MAJOR baking mood last night! I ran to the grocery store after work to pick up the necessary ingredients for dinner and baking.
For dinner we had a salad and homemade macaroni and cheese:
Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before we dove in! It was VERY yummy!
Recipe*:
8 oz elbow macaroni (dry) - I use the large elbow macaroni
4 TB butter, divided
3/4 c. bread crumbs
1 TB flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1 1/2 c milk
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Cook the macaroni in a pot. Drain well and place back into pot to dry. Make sure that the macaroni is dry otherwise the sauce won't be thick.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2-quart casserole dish and place the dried macaroni into casserole dish. In a small sauce pan, heat 2 TB of butter over medium heat. Add the bread crumbs and toss until all bread crumbs are coated. Set aside.
In a medium sauce pan, melt remaining 2 TB of butter over medium heat. Add the flour, salt, mustard powder and pepper. Stir constantly. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Cook until the mixture thickens slightly and is smooth. Remove from heat and add cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Pour the cheese sauce over the macaroni. Top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbly and the crumbs are golden brown.
Hubs and I LOVED this recipe! Here are a few changes we made/will make:
Next I made homemade cinnamon rolls! Whilestalking catching up on my favorite blogs I came across this recipe that Stephanie over at Live.Laugh.Love had posted. The recipe is from Our Best Bites and holy moly are these heavenly rolls delicious! The best part about this recipe- it is very easy!!!!
* Recipe is from Penzeys Spices Summer Catalog (unfortunately they are no longer showing the summer catalog)
** Be sure to follow her tip on using dental floss to score and cut the cinnamon rolls. It really works and makes life so much easier!!!
For dinner we had a salad and homemade macaroni and cheese:
Recipe*:
8 oz elbow macaroni (dry) - I use the large elbow macaroni
4 TB butter, divided
3/4 c. bread crumbs
1 TB flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1 1/2 c milk
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Cook the macaroni in a pot. Drain well and place back into pot to dry. Make sure that the macaroni is dry otherwise the sauce won't be thick.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2-quart casserole dish and place the dried macaroni into casserole dish. In a small sauce pan, heat 2 TB of butter over medium heat. Add the bread crumbs and toss until all bread crumbs are coated. Set aside.
In a medium sauce pan, melt remaining 2 TB of butter over medium heat. Add the flour, salt, mustard powder and pepper. Stir constantly. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Cook until the mixture thickens slightly and is smooth. Remove from heat and add cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Pour the cheese sauce over the macaroni. Top with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbly and the crumbs are golden brown.
Hubs and I LOVED this recipe! Here are a few changes we made/will make:
- We mixed cayenne pepper in with the bread crumbs to give it a kick (loved it)
- Next time we might add a dash of the cayenne pepper to the actual sauce but didn't think of this until after we had poured the sauce over the macaroni
- Next time we will grate our own combination of cheese (maybe throw some pepper jack cheese into the mix). I think it will enhance the dish by using fresh cheese versus packaged shredded cheese.
- We ran out of bread crumbs so we used panko bread crumbs. It was good but maybe a little too crunchy.
Next I made homemade cinnamon rolls! While
Ready to go into the oven
After they came out of the oven
Hot, gooey and iced......ready to eat! Of course, since these little beauties are calorie free {I wish}I felt the need to double the recipe for icing. You only live once!
If you have not tried this recipe I HIGHLY recommend you go now over to Our Best Bites and get this recipe!** Super easy and soooooo yummy! I took these beauties into work this morning and have received so many compliments on them. Several guys have asked for the recipe to give to their wives. lol Oh and since it is Friday it would be perfect for the weekend! Saturday or Sunday breakfast anyone?!
Lastly, my Hubs requested some chocolate chip cookies. Of course I couldn't say no to that request! Would you all like to know my super secret chocolate chip cookie recipe!? Are you in suspense yet?!?
Go purchase a bag of Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate chips. Turn the bag over and follow the recipe on the back of the bag (leave out the salt, leave out the nuts and substitute Crisco Shortening for the butter). TA DA!!!!! Super yummy, gooey chocolate chip cookies!
Hubs asked for BIG chocolate chip cookies. Apparently the first batch weren't big enough.
Attempts #2 and #3 at making BIG chocolate chip cookies! The third attempt seemed to satisfy him. He might as well have asked for a cookie pie. Oh and then that little stinker complained that he needed a bigger bowl glass for his milk because he couldn't fit his cookie in the glass to dunk it! He's lucky I love him! lol
Well, that concludes Laura's Baking Extravaganza! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!! :-)
* Recipe is from Penzeys Spices Summer Catalog (unfortunately they are no longer showing the summer catalog)
** Be sure to follow her tip on using dental floss to score and cut the cinnamon rolls. It really works and makes life so much easier!!!
Comments
Kraft has this new homestyle macaroni that sounds just like what you made. I tried it out because I won it in a giveaway and it was delicious :) I'd like to try and make it healthier though.
Hope you have a great weekend!
And your choc chip recipe cracks me up! Do you remember that episode of Friends where Phoebe is talking about her Gma's secret recipe?? (And it's the NT recipe? LOL) So funny.
The macaroni and cheese look delicious and the cinnamon rolls look DIVINE!! I am going to have to try them :)