Macaroni and Cheese

Now I am usually a serious fan of the 'purple box' mac and cheese, but this homemade recipie might turn me off boxed stuff forever. It's from America's test kitchen and for once I pretty much followed the recipie.

1 lb elbow macaroni
4Tbs butter
5Tbs Flour
3 12oz can evaporated milk
2 tsp hot pepper sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
8 oz extra sharp cheddar (about 2 cups)
5 oz jack cheese (about 1 1/4 cups)
2 oz deli american cheese
bread crumbs
chicken, brocolli, green onions

1. cook pasta al dente, around 6 min, drain, cool and reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water.
2. Melt the butter and add flour to make a roux cooking until light brown, stirring constantly. Add the evaporated milk, hot sauce, mustard and keep stirring and bring to a simmer until it feels like it is starting to thicken. remove from heat and stir in teh cheese and 1/2 cup pasta water until melted.
3. combine pasta and cheese in a large bowl, adding chicken and veggies as desired.
4. pour into an ungreased 9 x 13 pan and top with bread crumbs if desired. Cook 20-25 min at 350 or until bubbling around edges and golden in the middle.

Delicious!

Cake Cake and Cake

Heather and I made a wedding cake for Rebecca and Keith. It was really 2 cakes, well, 4 cakes. A "grooms cake" carrot with green coconut on top made into a farm scene and a traditional three tiered cake of yellow cake with apricot jam and buttercream, chocolate cake with butter cream and carrot cake with cream cheese icing. A lot of work, but so worth it. We also used Royal icing and fresh flowers to pipe decorations. I'll just post the recipies here. If you do go to make a wedding sized version (we did 14" 10" and 6" tiers) email me and I'll give you hints as to what we learned about very large layers.

Altitude adjustments are indicated in italics for those of you at SLC elevation.

Carrot Cake (from Paula Deen)
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar ( less 2 Tbs)
2 tsp baking soda (less 1/8 tsp)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 c vegtable oil (add 1 1/2 Tbs)
3 cups grated carrots

Grease and flour a 9" pan. (we used a healthy coating of crisco and flour) Combine the dry ingrediants and then add eggs and oil. mix well. Add carrots. and mix well. Cook at 350 until a stick inserted comes out clean or internal temperature reaches 200F. Allow to cool in the pan a few minutes and then loosen and turn out onto a rack to cool.

Classic Yellow Cake (from Cakes from Scratch in 1/2 the time)

3 eggs
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 c whole milk

Grease and flour pans. beat butter until fluffy, then add sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes. add eggs beating well after each addition. add vanilla. Sift dry ingrediants onto a sheet of wax paper. alternate adding dry ingrediants and the milk beating well each time. Bake at 400 until a stick inserted comes out clean.

Chocolate Cake (from Cakes from Scratch in 1/2 the time)
2 eggs
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 c flour
2 c sugar
1/2 c cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c whole milk
1/4 c veg oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 orange
water

sift dry ingredients together into a large bowl. add the eggs, oil, milk and vanilla mixing well after each addition. Melt the chocolate in the microwave. Juice the orange and then add boiling water to make 1 c liquid. combine Orange water mixture with melted chocolate. Add orange chocolate to batter and beat well (it looks like it's not going to work when you first add it,but just keep mixing.

Buttercream icing (from google)
the crisco helps the icing to whip as well as melt at a higher temperature, making it ideal for summer weddings.

1 c butter
1 c crisco
8 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c milk (we used less!!)

Beat butter and crisco until fluffy, gradually add powdered sugar, beating continually, add vanilla and milk as needed to achieve desired consistency - you can't over mix this one - the more you beat the lighter it gets!

Cream Cheese icing (from Paula Deen)
2 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 lb powdered sugar (about 4 cups)
1 tsp vanilla

cream creamcheese and butter, add sugar and vanilla. This icing is delicious, but very liquid-y and will NOT pipe for designs.