Fall Treats: Pumpkin Mac & Cheese

Have you ever heard something really weird and thought, "Oh my. That would be my new favorite thing."
This happens to me a lot. Like steamed broccoli and mustard (which was my aunt's idea, but she was pregnant so it made way more sense.)
Sometimes I really, really hope I have the most insane pregnancy cravings just so I can have the most absurd foods for 9 months straight.

I almost always love trying new things. Especially when it comes to food. (I added the almost always as a disclaimer, in case any of you weirdos try to get me to try something gross).
One time I made blueberry chicken just for the heck of it. Because honestly, all we had in the freezer was chicken, and blueberries. And so I figured, heya. Let's make this work.
I still really want to try mint blueberry chicken, but the weird look that my husband gave me when I first said "blueberry chicken" intensifies x10 when I add the "mint". So maybe that experiment will have to be when he's gone for a weekend or something.

What this all boils down to is that I saw this recipe for Pumpkin Mac and Cheese, and my mouth started to water. It's like I can taste the possibilities, despite the flavor gamble.
We just went over for a double date with some friends, and she had made pumpkin turkey chili, which was also incredibly delicious. The truth is, pumpkin is not just for pumpkin pie. It has so much potential.

The original recipe is here, on Spook Fork Bacon's blog.
As far as I can tell, it's a blog that I need to get better acquainted with.

If that picture doesn't help you to "taste the possibilities" I don't know what will.

My pictures are not so fancy -- I'm definitely not a food blogger. I don't even know what kind of blogger I am!

Pumpkin, Thyme Mac and Cheese
Serves 4 to 5

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
1 lb dry fusilli pasta (can substitute elbow macaroni)
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons minced thyme **I only used 1 tablespoon and it was plenty
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice **I used lime
2 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 ounces smoked gouda, shredded
1 ounce white extra sharp cheddar
salt and pepper to taste
garnish:
lightly toasted/buttered panko breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Place milk, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a medium saucepan and stir together. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

2. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Once the water comes to a boil add a generous amount of salt (2½ – 3 tablespoons) and then the pasta.

3. Boil pasta for 10 to 12 minutes or until al dente, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta and set aside.

4. Melt butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Sprinkle flour over melted butter and whisk together. Allow mixture to cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in thyme.

5. Whisk pumpkin-milk mixture into flour mixture and continue to whisk until fully incorporated. Allow mixture to simmer until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, 3 to 4 minutes.

6. Place shredded cheese into a mixing bowl and toss together with lemon (lime) juice.

7. Stir cheese into the béchamel sauce and stir until cheese just melts. Season with salt and pepper. 

Reduce heat to low and gently stir pasta into the sauce, ½ cup at a time until all of the pasta has been added and is fully coasted in sauce. Adjust seasonings and serve immediately.

I topped ours with the buttered bread crumbs, and extra grated cheese for good measure!

My two cents:

1. Do not use all the thyme. The flavor was plentiful as it was. I would add 3/4 to 1 tablespoon, and then sprinkle more on top if you feel like it needs a bit more. It's always better to have too little than too much! It's an easier fix.

2. Grate all of your cheese ahead of time, before you start cooking the sauce. If you're like me, you get to the cheese portion, and frantically start grating as everything begins to boil over. To make cooking a breeze, grate first the cheese. New motto.

3. Serve it with a side salad or vegetables or something. It's very, very rich and filling, so I would start with a small bowl and a side and save the rest for leftovers!

I hope you try this, because it's a new favorite of both of us. We decided last night that it would be a Fall tradition!
And we have 3 lunches worth of leftovers! So I think I'll go have mine now, because my mouth is watering.

In love,
Cait

bowls of super

Let me start off by saying, that I'm....not exactly the most avid of football fans.
Let's also say, that I walked into the Super Bowl party completely unaware of who was even playing.
(Although upon arrival I was swindeled into rooting for the Giants!)
This is my one flaw (from my husband's perspective, I'm sure) and I've always been okay with it.
Because despite my lack of football know-how, Super Bowl parties are always a blast!!

Great food, great people, great energy.
We've surrounded ourselves with pretty awesome people out here, and opportunities like the Super Bowl provide a casual atmosphere to get really fat and really happy. (We even sang a little!)
The party was hosted by the beautiful and talented couple, Chris and Heather :)
It's been really fun getting to know them, and we love their apartment! (wink!)

My contributions for the evening spread (It was so weird watching the Super Bowl so late! It started at 6:30pm!) (am I using too many parentheses in this post?) were mini pizza puffs and mini corn dog muffins! Although I must say, the dessert was the highlight of the evening. Oh, and the cheese with the jelly. I'll get to that.

Our spread:



Wings are a MUST HAVE at a Super Bowl Party



Pizza Puffs - totally yummy, with Marinara to dip them in!



Corn Dog Muffins - a pretty great, ridiculously easy idea :)





THE CHEESE. (and crackers). Advice: take cracker, take cheese, take jelly, and consume.
This spicy jelly was SUCH a delicious component to this platter of goodness.



Wings, round 2 -- reheated and refreshed with the mouth-watering sauce.



Chocolate chip cookie dough dip.
Chocolate...chip cooke DOUGH, DIP.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH DIP!

One of our friends is pretty much a culinary genius. The last time we were all together for a game night, she whipped up a delicious, moist chocolate cake (that included a cup of coffee in the recipe, which was an added bonus), and this time, she just bamboozled us with this delightful treat. Animal crackers? And chocolate chip cookie dough DIP? I still can't get over it. I'm pretty upset that I haven't been eating this my whole life. What a concept!



Goofs :)





Our friends are the greatest part of being out here. As shy and awkward as I am, Dusty has always been the more outgoing of the two of us. And my usually slow and steady process of making friends has been revolutionized by the law wife group out here, as well as just simply being married to Dusty!

We had a great time with these peeps. And we look forward to other fun events!

Happy Super Bowl!

In love,

Cait

Top Recipes of January

Due to the continued onslaught of great recipes that can be found for FREE online, (not to mention the fabulous online resource, Pinterest), I have hardly touched my cookbooks. Which is probably a bad thing -- I need to go old school, and get familiar with some real paper recipes!
But, today is not that day. Today is a recap of all of the online recipe experimentations that took place in our home throughout January!

This first one is a recipe I gathered on Pinterest! If you'd like, you can hop on over to my Pinterest boards by clicking here.
I have recently taken to "surprising" my husband with dinner, because oftentimes, his response to my experimental suggestions is "uhhhh...are you sure about that?" or maybe just a very hesitant, disapproving look. When I offered to make a quiche dish for dinner, I can tell you, he did everything in his power to dissuade me!
But as always, I simply respond, "Have I ever failed you yet?"

Quich a la Parm

(Parmesan Quiche)

Find the original recipe here, at the naptimechef.com!
My version will include a couple of my own ingredients.

For the Crust:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened.
1 1/2 c. flour
1/4 cup ice water
A-lotta salt (as much as you desire!)

For the Filling

3 eggs
1 c. milk
1 c. parmesan cheese
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 medium-sized potato, chopped.
1 c. (as much as you want) of corn (I used frozen)
1 carrot, chopped
1 handful of freshly chopped basil

A-lotta salt & pepper!
 
DIRECTIONS:

1. For the crust, add all the ingredients to a food processor
(I don't have a food processor, so naturally, I just mixed it all up until it became a crumbly mess and squashed it together into the pie pan, forcing it to do my bidding) until a dough forms. Roll it out to 9" in diameter and press (smash/squash/force) into a pie plate.

1. For the Quiche: Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Whisk together the eggs, milk and cheese in a bowl, then set aside.

2. In a skillet over medium heat, add the onion, potatoes, corn, carrots, and basil. Cook until the onion is soft. Add to egg mixture.

3. Add salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste, then pour the egg mixture into the prepared crust and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top is lightly golden and the quiche is totally set.

YUM!

Another successful parmesan cheese-centered recipe.

The great thing about this, is that you can pretty much make it whatever you'd like to. Adding different veggies and seasonings based on what you already have lying around makes for a unique experience every meal! (And not having to have a pre-made, store-bought crust is a bonus! Cause who has those lying around??)

The next recipe was mainly created because I had a pre-made, store-bought crust lying around. :)

Mozarella Pie

(Yummy Pizza Pockets)

Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury Pie Crust

Marinara/Pasta Sauce

Leftover Meatbals and/or Sausage

Mozarella Cheese (shredded)

Directions:

Roll out your pie crust (it's best to leave it out on the counter for a little while, so it will be easy to handle and not cold enough to break).

Cut your crust into four pieces, then smother with red sauce and add your fixin's (sausage and/or veggies, etc.), and sprinkle with copious amounts of shredded cheese.

 

Then, take your little pockets of sunshine and fold them together, using a fork (if you'd like) to press the sides together so they look nice and cute.

Bake them at about 375ºF, keeping an eye on them until they get a nice and toasty golden brown.

This was a perfect little meal, served with veggies and/or salad on the side. We were both a little shocked how delicious a pie crust could be, in this context. While it's not dessert, it still worked like a charm!

Pear and Ricotta on da Grill

Grilled Cheese gone Fruity

I'm going to preface this recipe with the fact that it wasn't my favorite meal ever.

BUT -- what I liked a lot about it was the mind-blowing realization that grilled cheese doesn't have to be wheat/white bread with cheddar/Kraft singles.

I saw this pin on Pinterest, and it was like a mental bomb went off. Must. Try. New. Grilled. CHEESES!

Luckily for me, I happened to have Ricotta cheese, honey, and pears in my refrigerator. While some of the other options sound much more tasty to me (namely the Jalapeno), I opted to use what I already had. 

Here was my step-by-step experience:



Thinly sliced



Asian Pear





Put on da bread



Spread with Ricotta



Doused with honey



Grilled and Eaten

I made Dusty a regular, old-fashioned grilled cheese, and we both had a bowl of tomato soup on the side.

Needless to say, my little sandwich was much healthier than his! It was light and pretty good, although I'm convinced I could come up with something else to add that might zing it up a little.

And last but NOT least, I made the most incredibly stellar chicken last night.

Of course, I didn't take any pictures and don't remember anything about how I made it.

No but really -- here's the gyst of it, and I'm begging you all to try it.

Brosugamozarellarlic Chicken

Chicken made with Brown Sugar, Garlic, and Mozarella

Ingredients:

1 Frozen Chicken Breast, thawed

1 half yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, or a copious amount of garlic powder/salt

1/2 c. olive oil

1/4 c. brown sugar

Mozarella Cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees (I know, that's a lot!)

2. Take thawed chicken breast and chop into thick chunks, big enough to stuff with mozarella cheese!

3. Slice small openings into your chicken slices, and cut up pieces of mozarella cheese to stuff them with.

4. For the sauce: in a small skillet, heat up the olive oil and add your garlic (whether cloves or powder/salt), and your onion, letting it heat up for a while until the onions begin to sizzle and soften. Then add your brown sugar, to create your glaze!

5. Line up your mozarella-stuffed chicken pieces in a casserole dish (since I only did one chicken breast for the two of us, I used my glass pie pan...), then cover with the glaze!

6. Bake the concoction for 15-30 minutes, keeping an eye on it until it gets nice and bubbly, and the glazed chicken begins to brown.

This truly is my absolute favorite Chicken that I've ever made. I couldn't believe how good it was. It may even top the jalapeno cream cheese stuffed chicken. It's a toss up!

The flavors were incredible, and it was so easy to make.

I hope you've enjoyed looking through some of our kitchen experiences from January.

I'm getting better at the whole cooking thing, and I'm finding that it's way more fun than I ever thought possible. The eating out has really diminished, and we've both gotten good at really disciplining ourselves to utilize our leftovers and not go grocery shopping every other day!

Happy February, all :)

In love,

Cait

The Facts of Life

Does anyone else remember that show?
By all means, I shouldn't really remember that show, but thanks to Nick @ Nite, I was able to watch it constantly when I was younger.

The theme song was even my ringtone for a while. I remember this particularly well because my phone went off in Chemistry class my Junior year of High School. My embarrassment level was pretty much as high as it could go (mostly because my teacher was quite scary -- likeable, and great, but scary).

I also remember it because the song drove my little brother insane.

Anywho, I have learned quite a few "facts of life" in my days here in Virginia. Sometimes you don't quite realize how much ya know.

(DISCLAIMER: this list is entirely generalized based on my own experiences, and you are welcome to take everything with a grain of salt, since I am sure you or someone or something that you know of may be the exception in some way or another).

1. Home Fries.
Ya know, I thought it was pretty universally known that "Fries" refer to fries a la french. In otherwords, Fries refer to slender fried potatoes. But, nay. Home Fries are actually home potatoes. Little chunks of potatoes. In no way are they "fries". I'm not a fan of this.

2. Valentine's Day.
Girls (who are single) HATE Valentine's Day with an unnatural fervor. This entry coincides with a newly realized pet peeve of mine. Would ya calm down, missy? Next month when you have a boyfriend, you'll be all for it. So go get yourself some ice cream and leave St. Valentine alone.

3. All freeway entrances should be merging. To yield is to risk your life on a daily basis. Growing up as a merger, I am no good at being a yielder. And the funny thing is? People who grow up as a yielder are no good at being a yielder, either.


4. Nobody likes a salesman. This isn't a newfound revelation from VA, just a commonly known truth.


5. Lynchburg doesn't get that cold.

6. Writing a book is a lot harder than you might think. I can't tell you how many times I've read something and thought, "Psh! I could write that..." but, as these last months have proven, being an author is hard work. The 3 books that I'm in the middle of writing (and by "middle" I mean 2 paragraphs in) all pretty much suck, and I have newfound respect for anyone who has theirs published and adored.


7. "Cellar-Door" is the most beautiful combination of words in the English language.


8. Even if you're feeling great, you will say "I'm tired" just to have something to say.

9. The 90's were absolutely the greatest time period to grow up in. The more I look back, the happier I am that those were my years. My children will experience all the treasures of the 90's. Because I'm pretty sure their generation is going to be doomed, based solely on the apparent need for 5 year-olds to have cell phones and the overall stupidity of the Disney channel.

10. Sitting at a computer all day not only demolishes any and every energetic and motivational molecule in your body, it also removes about 7 years of your life. (**this point has not yet been proven).

11. I'm tired.

12. Cheese is God's way of saying, "In case you missed my rainbow, this is another promise of everlasting goodness for you (and also to remind you that I won't flood the earth again)."

13. Reading is absolutely a great way to spend your time. Unless all you read is Twilight.

14. Nicholas Sparks has and always will kill off someone or something in every single one of his books (even if what he kills is simply the last remaining hope of love or happiness).



15. Don't assume that everyone has manners. Just because I would do something a certain way, doesn't mean I can expect everyone else to rise to that level of excellence. In fact, it's better to just assume that everyone sucks so as not to be incredibly disappointed when you are mooched off of and taken advantage of daily.


What facts of life have you encountered lately?

In love (and love for sarcasm),
Cait