Macaroni & Cheese

Yes, I have heard of the Pioneer Woman.

I have nothing against her. She's probably really cool. But the recipes ... I don't know. I think I'm intimidated. And we'll talk about the butter chicken someday. Today we're going to talk about macaroni and cheese.

I'll grant that the blue box is rather underwhelming. Am I right? But sometimes you want Mexican food, and sometimes you want Taco Bell. Everyone knows they're not the same, but they both have their place in the world. Although, I'm actually a white-shells-and-cheddar type of girl.

First, I didn't use whole milk. I used skim. And margarine. And some regular mustard. And broccoli. Because I wasn't about to have dinner without some vegetables.


I'd make it again ... maybe for someone else. Because for a party, homemade macaroni and cheese sounds so. Can you imagine showing up to Thanksgiving with this? What? You don't have macaroni & cheese at your Thanksgiving dinners?

Weird.

Birthday Cupcakes

Gratuitous cupcake shot!!


These were for my coworker's birthday. I know she likes chocolate and ... chocolate. The sprinkles were a risk I was willing to take.


Who doesn't like sprinkles?

Chunky Monkey Cupcakes

Banana. Peanut butter. Chocolate.

Our neighbor gave us this book, the Cake Mix Doctor. I say us, because seriously, do you think the mister doesn't benefit? It's a great book, if you want/need a souped up dessert. The good doctor has a website, too.

And in this case, gave me the right proportions to turn a plain white cake mix into banana cupcakes!

There wasn't too much banana called for in the recipe. But believe me, they were certainly banana-y.

As for frosting, I made peanut butter frosting with some leftover chocolate chips. Which came out looking like cookie dough, confusing everyone at the event. Oh well. I didn't hear any complaints.

Ice Cream & Cake

For his birthday, my lovely husband likes ice cream cake. He's a summer birthday, just about the time of year that ice cream is necessary.

A couple of years ago, I spent an amazing amount of money on a ridiculously small ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. The girl at the counter kindly offered to write on it, but who knows where the writing would have gone, and how small it would need to be!

I was kind of sour on the whole thing. (At the time I did not know that Albertson's sells them, but there are only two of us anyway so a cake is bound to last.)

Then Real Simple comes along with blah blah making an ice cream cake is so easy! And you know what? It is. And it only cost around $8, all things considered.

Step 1: Bake the cake. I used a regular chocolate mix in my 9" springform pan. The springform is key, because it makes for easy assembly.

Step 2: When the cake is cool, unhinge the cake and split it. Take off the top half, and rehinge the pan around the bottom half.

Step 3: Set some ice cream out to soften. Spread it to the edges of the pan on the bottom half of the cake. You might want to consider melting a light layer of chocolate on the bottom half of the cake so it doesn't get soggy while you're adding the ice cream, but it's not really necessary. I used almost a whole carton of Breyer's chocolate, minus an enormous glop on the floor. Whoops.

Step 4: Drop the top half of the cake back in, and throw the whole thing in the freezer. No need to cover it, although you might want to later if it's going to be a while.

Step 5: Frost the cake however you see fit. I just did the top with some plain buttercream so I could leave the sides of the pan on in the freezer.


A funny thing to notice: the cake shrinks way more than the ice cream will in the freezer. You could always cover that up with frosting. Don't worry; the cake and frosting doesn't get weird when it's frozen.


I'm not a big fan of ice cream cake. I don't like the ice cream melting and making the cake all soggy. But it's honestly just like Baskin Robbins. So plan ahead and experiment with your own ice cream cake.

Baklava

Guys, I hate baklava.


Just so you know.

Yes, the knife was standing up on its own.

Pho Weekend

I couldn't tell you what I've been so busy doing lately, but it seems like time has been going a lot faster (despite the longer daylight hours). It was busy time at work, so there was that. Then there's the whole ... I don't think my cooking has been as good as it was before. Kind of a bummer.

In one weekend I,

• Slept. I earned it.
• Made english muffins. They were only OK. Stupid whole wheat flour.
  
• Went to Tuesday Morning. I've heard about that store for years, and finally went. That place is cracked out and I will not be back. I thought I'd pick up a mandoline on the cheap; the only one they had there was $80. I got mine from Target for $9.
  
• Did my shopping. There was a lot to do.
  
• Attempted to finish my wedding scrapbook. If only I could be more decisive on paper. The scrapbooking aisle(s) are just way too overwhelming.
  
• Started my container garden. No more 1" pots sitting in front of the window! Now I have an array of 6" pots seeded and tomatoes started again.
• Ordered some bookshelves I've been meaning to order for, oh, maybe a couple of months. Crate and Barrel had the ones I wanted for $139 each, plus delivery. I found them on Overstock.com (not exactly the same, but so close I had to put them side by side to tell the difference) for $80 + $1 shipping. Win.
  
• Ran. For the first time in over a week.
  
• Vacuumed the whole house, scrubbed the floor, and cleaned. I feel so much better.
• Visited Food 4 Less for the first time ever, despite our old apartment being just blocks from one. It was FUN. I don't think people there have ever seen anyone actually say "ooh!" out loud when looking at the spice shelves.

It's been a cool summer. The perfect weather for pho, actually.

I don't usually have meat bones sitting around, so I boiled some giant fatty chunks from the roast leftovers. And, I didn't have nice little spice baggies for boiling, so I dumped the spices in two coffee filters and tied them off with thread. Luckily they didn't explode, and the chunks didn't melt! It even got a little frothy on top, which seemed to be a good sign since the sites I looked at online complained about it.

I boiled the chunks and packets for an hour, meanwhile slicing the roast (cold, straight out of the refrigerator) with my shiny new mandoline, chopping up the green onions, and softening the bean strands.


True story: as I was chopping the green onion, I kept looking at the little white bulbs. Ultimately I picked the three most viable-looking (green tops left, and longish roots), came running upstairs, and stuck them in deep holes in an unseeded pot. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that they'd grow again. Husband didn't find any of this peculiar.

English Muffins

One time, I saw this utterly ridiculous video on the internet of a man who made a full-on meal in a hotel room from ingredients available at the corner store. I don't know if I buy the whole thing but it did make me stop and think ... are English muffins really that easy to make?



Sure, with a lot of time and patience. We usually buy whole wheat English muffins, so that's what I made. And truthfully, they are easy to make. But, as you can see, I wasn't very patient and had the heat on too high.

Maybe next time I'll try it on the iron.