Classic Baked Mac n' Cheese

This recipe is a Robak family favorite and my number one comfort food. Depending on your cheese preference, you can substitute the sharp cheddar for any other hard cheese. We added some Dubliner (a sharp Irish cheese) to this batch, which was delicious. The real key to success is adding enough sauce. You'll want your noodles to be swimming in it, especially if you plan on re-heating the leftovers. So get saucy and have fun!



Ingredients:

• 1 12oz box of macaroni noodles 
• 1 large white onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 1/2 cups milk
• 12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese (roughly grated)
• 1 1/2 cup crushed croutons or bread crumbs
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Cook macaroni noodles as instructed on the package.
2. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Finely chop onion and garlic.
4. In a sauce pan, melt butter and add onions and garlic. Add salt and pepper. Sauté onions and garlic until translucent. 
5. Slowly stir in flour until all ingredients form a thick paste, add more butter if necessary.
6. Add milk to the saucepan, stir and heat until it simmers. Do not let it boil.
7. Remove sauce from heat, and slowly stir in cheese. You should have a nice thick sauce at this point. 
8. Pour noodles and sauce into a baking dish and top with croutons. 
9. Bake for about 25 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the croutons are golden brown.

Curried Chicken Lettuce Wraps

This summer, Parisa and I have been on a mission to be healthy and wrap something in lettuce. After much kitchen deliberation, we finally figured it out. These wraps are healthy, quick and tasty. The perfect summer lunch food. A cool glass of lemonade was all this meal was missing!


Ingredients:
2 cups cooked shredded chicken breast
1 1/2 cup cubed granny-smith apples
2 Tbs light mayonnaise
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 c walnut pieces
1 package bib lettuce
curry powder
salt and pepper
paprika



We cooked 2 chicken breasts by boiling them, and then shredded them to make about 2 cups of chicken.  When cooled, mix the chicken with mayo, apple slices, lemon juice, and walnut pieces, stirring to coat evenly.  Season the salad with curry powder, paprika, salt and pepper to taste.  You can add more mayo if desired, but we found that we only really needed 2 Tbs to give the chicken a good coating.

Bibb lettuce is a buttery variety that tastes great with curried chicken, and is plenty flexible for making wraps.  Remove the larger outer leafs from the head and wash, and then add a generous scoop of chicken salad to each lettuce leaf.  Roll and enjoy!

our first blog meal in Parisa's new kitchen!

Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

For Kristin's and our friend Katie's birthday last month, we had a little potluck in the backyard.  Both of them love carrot cake, and I love anything with cream cheese frosting on top, so I decided to try making carrot cupcakes for the first time.  I'm not super comfortable with baking cakes because I tend to improvise way too much, but I found this simple and flavorful recipe online:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/carrot-cupcakes-with-white-chocolate-cream-cheese-icing/detail.aspx

These little guys were not nearly as hard to make as I thought they'd be, and they were delicious!  The cupcakes were moist thanks to the pineapple, and didn't have that greasy texture that some carrot cakes have.  The combination of nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon complemented the carrots well, and the spices weren't overpowered by sugar.  They tasted so good, I had to make another batch a few days later when my sister came to visit.

I did make two alterations: I used pecans instead of walnuts, and made a traditional cream cheese frosting instead of a white chocolate cream cheese frosting (why mess with a good thing?)

Frosting Ingredients

4 oz cream cheese, softened

4 oz room temperature butter

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Blend in a food processor until smooth.

Cod Fish Tacos

With the sun finally coming around, Kristin and I made summer-worthy cod tacos with a zesty cilantro salsa aioli.  We are fans of spice, and this meal had a great kick to it.  Plus, I am a sucker for colorful food, so I loved the punch of purple cabbage.

Kristin just got a Cuisinart food processor, and this meal gave us plenty of chances to experiment with it.  We blended the salsa and shredded cabbage in the processor, but if you don't have a food processor you can dice and shred by hand.

Ingredients

Cod fillet, bones removed

1 package cajun corn meal batter

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 head red cabbage, or 1/2 head of both red and green cabbage, shredded

juice of 1/2 lemon (save the other 1/2 lemon for serving)

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tomato, roughly chopped

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 head of cilantro

a few slices of jalapeno pepper

1 avocado, diced

vegetable oil for frying

1 package tortillas (we used flour, but corn tortillas would be great too).

1 package feta cheese crumbles

We got a cheap cajun corn meal batter from the grocery store, and it tasted fantastic.  It was essentially just corn meal and spice.  You can batter the fish however you'd like; we dipped it in an egg and milk mixture, and then tossed it in the cornmeal batter.  

Here's a tip for neutralizing the fish smell: keep a bowl of vinegar on the counter while cooking.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with about a half an inch of vegetable oil.  Fry the battered cod on both sides until golden brown.

Blend the tomato, onion, cilantro, jalapeno and lemon juice in a food processor until you reach a desirable consistency (we basically pureed ours, but you can do a chunkier salsa if you want).  Mix the salsa into the mayonnaise.

Warm the tortillas by frying them briefly on both sides.  Layer tortillas with battered cod, cilantro salsa aioli, cabbage, avocado slices, feta cheese crumbles, and lemon juice.  Eat up!

Stuffed Mini Sweet Peppers

Going along with our theme of colorful bite-sized treats, Kristin and I made stuffed mini sweet peppers this week.  We ended up making a ton, so we were lucky that a few friends happened to stop by for dinner.  These sweet bite-sized peppers would make a great appetizer or side dish, and they are so fun to make!

These peppers taste like little bell peppers, except they are sweeter (especially the red ones).  You can find them at the grocery store next to regular bell peppers, and they are typically sold packaged in bags or cartons.

Ingredients
Mini sweet peppers (we used around 1 and 1/4 pounds)
1/2 large yellow onion, finely diced
2 cups finely diced crimini mushrooms
1 5-oz container of grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
rosemary
oregano
garlic salt
1 slice of bread, cut into small crouton-sized chunks (we used multigrain, but any crusty bread or sandwich bread will do)

Chop off the very top of the peppers with a sharp knife, and seed the inside of the pepper.

Sauté the diced onions and mushrooms in a generous amount of olive oil until tender and browned.  Season with salt and pepper, rosemary, oregano, and garlic salt.  Transfer to a big mixing bowl.  In the same pan, fry the bread crumbs in any remaining oil.  They should be brown, toasty and crispy on both sides.  Toss the bread crumbs with the sauteed veggies, parmesan cheese, and basil in the mixing bowl.

To stuff the mini sweet peppers, use a small teaspoon and tuck a generous amount of filling into each pepper until full.  If needed you can use the spoon handle to help press the filling in.  Arrange the peppers in a lightly greased baking dish, stuffing-side up, and bake at 375 until the peppers are tender and the filling is bubbly and browned.

We could not get enough of these, and we hope you enjoy them too!  

We'd like to hear from you- have any recommendations, requests or ingredients you'd like to see next?  Let us know in the comments!

Cupcake Lasagna

This idea was suggested to us by a friend, and it turned out so incredibly tasty and easy to make that we're now thinking of having a party dedicated entirely to dishes made in cupcake tins.  Think about it: cupcake chicken pot pies, cupcake lasagnas, cupcake berry pies, cupcake strawberry summer cakes... it would be magical.  But enough of that...

Our cupcake lasagnas were made with sauteed vegetables, but if you are a carnivore you can add ground meat, or any other fillings you prefer.  The idea is simple enough: sauté some veggies, grate some cheese, and layer your fillings between gyoza wrappers (similar to wonton wrappers, except they are round).




Ingredients
1 package gyoza wrappers
1 small container parmesan cheese (grated)
1 medium package mozarella cheese (we used aged cheese but you can use fresh if you like)
1 jar marinara sauce or homemade marinara (about 24 oz)
1/2 yellow onion, diced small
1/2 medium eggplant, sliced very thin and diced into 1 inch strips
1 cup diced crimini mushrooms
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic, diced
fresh basil
olive oil
Italian herbs (rosemary is great)
salt and pepper to taste
2 cupcake tins

Sauté the onions and eggplant in olive oil over medium-high heat until both are tender.  Add mushrooms and garlic and continue to stir and cook until the vegetables are soft and slightly browned.  Season with rosemary, salt and pepper.

Prepare your cupcake tins by coating them with a light layer of olive oil or unflavored cooking spray.  Drop a small dollop of marinara in each cup.  Press a gyoza wrapper into the cup, pushing down until it fits snugly into the bottom of the cup and the sides of the wrapper curl inward.  Top with grilled veggie mixture, shredded mozarella, and more marinara (remember not to overflow the cups).  Seal the cup with another gyoza wrapper, tucking it in as you did with the first.  Top with a dab of marinara and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Bake at 375 until the gyoza wrappers are browned and the lasagna is bubbly.  Remove from the tin with a spoon, and top with a curl of basil.  Enjoy!

Panzanella

There is no better way to enjoy summer produce than this!  Panzanella is an Italian salad traditionally made of stale or crusty bread and tomatoes.  This simple dish is refreshing and flavorful.  We made our panzanella with ingredients typically found in caprese salad - fresh mozarella and fresh basil.  Because this is such a simple salad, the quality of the ingredients is what makes or breaks the taste.  Go for the good produce on this one (maybe check out your local farmer's market?)

Ingredients:
4 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
3/4 c. bell peppers (we used red and orange), cubed
1/2 a red onion, finely diced
1 package fresh mozarella, drained and cubed
1 c. fresh basil leaves
1 loaf crusty bread (French or Sourdough will both work)
1 clove garlic (chopped in half or in thirds)
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper

After dicing the tomatoes, peppers, onion, and mozarella, combine them in a large serving bowl.  To cut the basil, layer the leaves flat on your palm like sheets of paper and then roll up the stack of leaves.  Use kitchen scissors to snip the roll of leaves crosswise into little curls.  Add basil to the bowl.

To prepare the bread, cut it into 1- or 2-inch cubes with a serrated knife.  Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat and add a few tablespoons of olive oil.  When the oil is hot, add the garlic.  Sauté garlic in the olive oil; before it browns, remove the garlic pieces from the oil (this way the oil is garlic-scented, but the garlic does not burn).  Fry the bread cubes on medium-high heat until brown and crispy.

Add the bread cubes to the serving bowl and toss with the salad.  Season the salad with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.  Allowing the salad to rest for 10-30 minutes before serving gives the flavors a chance to combine.