fancy mac and cheese (revised from pioneer woman)

2 cups (aprox) slice mushrooms
Watkins cooking spray
salt and pepper to taste
1 pkg bacon, cut into bite sized pieces
1 large onion, sliced thin
1/4 - 1/2 cup butter (I didn't measure)
1/2 cup fresh shredded Parmesan cheese
1 1/4 cup Mozza
1 1/4 cup cheddar
4 cups macaroni (maybe 5 cups but no more; I made 6 and had WAAAY too much)
1/4 cup flour
2 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs, beaten

Spread mushrooms in Costco pan lined with parchment paper. Spray well with cooking spray and bake @ 425F 25 minutes until deep golden brown. Set aside.
Fry bacon until only chewy, not crisp. Set aside on paper towel to soak up all that fat.
Saute onions till golden in bacon fat. Set aside. I drained these in a sieve. (I can't stand too much grease!)
Cook mac until almost done. Drain and set aside.
To make sauce melt 4 TBSP butter (aprox) in saucepan and whisk the flour into the melted butter. Slowly pour in the milk, stirring until thick. Add salt and pepper to taste. Spoon about 1/4 cup hot white sauce into a small bowl containing the beaten egg, stirring the egg with a fork as you drizzle it in. Then pour the mixture into the pot with the white sauce, stirring constantly. Add all that cheese.
Stir cheese sauce into the macaroni, adding milk to thin as necessary; I added quite a bit.
Layer into well-sprayed 9x13 pan like this: 1/2 the bacon,onion and mushroom, then 1/2 the mac. 1/2 onion and mushroom, 1/2 mac and then 1/2 bacon. If you wanna add more cheese on top, by all means do! I didn't and we loved it.
Bake @ 350F 1/2 an hour or so or until bubbly and hot. Enjoy!

apple cinnamon wraps

(Now, THESE are good! My taste testers passed them with flying banners!!!)

10-12 tortillas (I used whole wheat, homemade of course!)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (divided; used “lite” over here at our house)

1 ½ tsp cinnamon (divided)

½ cup cream cheese (softened)

½ cup sour cream (lite)

6 Granny Smith apples (peeled, shredded)

Mix together sour cream, 1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk, and ½ tsp cinnamon. Set aside. Mix the rest of the ingredients together, except torts. Fill tortillas generously with apple mixture. Place seam side down in greased 9 x 13 pan. Pour sour cream mixture over. Bake @ 350F for ½ to ¾ hour till hot through and bubbly. (Mine never bubbled. I dunno why, but since that sounds right, I said to bake till bubbly! But they did get hot throughout. The apples were tender crisp still, but that’s how we like them.) Serve hot with ice cream.

NOTE: I made fresh whole wheat torts the other day and wondered if they’d make good dessert wraps. So I decided to wing it and WOW! What a success! Never heard of such before. Since then I've gone online and seen recipes similar.

sausage potato salad

2 lb small red potatoes (I do maybe 3 or 4 large red spuds.)

2 Tbsp olive oil (or other)

2 Tbsp honey mustard

2 Tbsp vinegar

1 or 2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley or 2 tsp dried parsley

2 tsp minced fresh tarragon or 1/2 tsp dried tarragon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 lb (aprox) sliced sausage

1 small onion,chopped or 1/2 tsp onion powder

Scrub potatoes; place in a small saucepan and cook till tender. Don't overcook. Drain and cool slightly. Cut into small pieces or slice. Saute sausage until done.  For dressing combine oil, honey mustard, vinegar and seasonings. Toss with onion, sausage and potatoes. Serve warm or chilled. (I actually used chives instead of onions one time and another time, I blended the onion with the rest of the dressing ingredients. Both ways were wonderful.) 

I'm gonna make this for supper tonight, using good ol' Mennonite Farmer's sausage and spuds from our garden.

hot cider punch

1 L apple juice

1 L orange juice

1 L pineapple juice

2 heaping Tbsp Epicure Mulling Spices OR

cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and whole nutmegs (amounts, lets see, hmmm, I guess till it makes up aproximately the same amount as Mulling Spices. O, also star anise in small portions is good)

sugar to taste, not much

oranges cut into eight sections and embedded with four or five whole cloves each

Heat this in big pot over low low heat. I made this for the board and teacher supper last evening and it actually tasted the best at 10:30 after most people had gone. I think it had stewed long enough to bring out the full flavors.

cape cod bluberry pie

1 cup minus 1 Tbsp sugar, divided

3 Tbsp flour

1/4 tsp salt

4 cups fresh blueberries

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

1 Tbsp whole milk or cream

1 double pie crust

Preheat oven to 400F. (This temp is what original recipe says but I only baked it @350F and then for longer than it said.) Set aside 1 Tbsp sugar for topping the pie. Whisk together the remaining sugar, flour and salt and then add the blueberries and gently toss to coat. Fill bottom pie shell with berry mixture. Pour lemon juice over and dot evenly with the butter. Cover pie with top crust and cut vent design in the top and crimp edges. Brush milk on top crust and sprinkle with the remaining 1 Tbsp sugar. Cover edges of pie with foil so it doesn't get over baked too quickly. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil from the edges and continue baking until fruit is bubbly and crust is brown. Let this pie set for a few hours. Filling thickens up very nicely. 

I actually googled blueberry pie, once, to see if luck was with me. It was. In particular I was searching out a recipe that the filling didn't have to be precooked as I was thoroughly indoctrinated when I was young that ALL fruit filling with the exception of apple, had, I mean HAD to be precooked. Nope! It certainly doesn't! Here's proof. Get out the ice cream, people and we shall indulge!

on cast iron skillet cooking/baking

Some of you have expressed a wish to know more about cast iron skillet baking or cooking. I guess if you "cook" in a cast iron pan you really ARE frying! You use mostly oil, lard, or bacon fat to cook foods in it. And you are also like me in that you agree the foods made in a skillet taste better than "regular food". Why? I'd like to know, too!

I'm just like you! I want to learn more. I have tried a few things, though, with marvelous results.

~corn bread: I used my ol' favorite 9x13 recipe and just popped it into my cast iron frying pan and baked it in there. One little change I made, though. I put the pan into the oven while it was preheating to 375F. It had the bacon fat (3 Tbsp for a 14" skillet) in the pan already so when I poured the cornbread batter in, it sizzled nicely. The bacon flavor was the reason Carl said this was the best cornbread he'd ever had. That and the fact that it was done in my skillet!

~buns/rolls: I mixed my regular bread machine dough recipe and placed into skillet to rise and bake instead of costco pan. SCRUMMM!

~of course, you can make any and every pan breakfast food in a skillet. 

If I think of more, I'll pass it on. Meanwhile, please forward any recipes you've tried with success to me and I'll post it here.

twyla's apple pancake

1/4 cup butter melted in 9x13 pan

2 apples, chopped into same butter in pan

1 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup brown sugar sprinkled on apples

Bake this 10 to 15 minutes to precook apples a bit.

Mix batter of following:

6 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

Pour over warm apples and bake half an hour @ 350F. Serve with syrup of your choice. Maple is particularly good.