Rachel's Mac and Cheese

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So, this recipe says Rachel's mac and Cheese but it should maybe be called Mary-Anne's Mac and Cheese because Rachel got the recipe from her mom. When Andrei and I were down visiting her and David this weekend, Rach made this for us for dinner one night. We devoured it!!

When I got back, I told my mom all about this, and she was was like..um yeh, that's how you make mac'n cheese. I guess this recipe is for those who,  like me, had no idea how to make macaroni and cheese. It's definitely something everyone should have in their recipe collection.

Ingredients:
-macaroni
-margarine
-milk
-flour
-cheddar
-paprika, salt, pepper

 Directions as per Rach:
Cook and drain in cold water, 2 cups macaroni (elbows)
Melt 1/2 cup margarine (or butter) and stir (or whisk) in 3 tablespoons flour. Add slowly 1.5 cups of milk and cook until thickened. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Sprinkle into the sauce mix 1 cup grated cheese (I always use extra sharp cheddar) until melted.
Combine the pasta with the cheese sauce and put into an 8x8 dish.
Dot with 2 tablespoons margarine (or butter) and additional cheese. (This step is optional; on Saturday I just put some extra cheese on top).<< yaay
Bake at 350 for 1/2 hour.
Sprinkle with paprika (also optional)

Keldi's Mini Quiches

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I know some of you will be super excited to see this recipe!! When I lived with Keldi, she made these little quiches for book clubs, and entertaining. They were delicious. I loved them and could easily eat about 5 of them in one sitting. Possibly more. On one occasion, someone ate nearly 10 at a poker night. There's something about them that's highly addictive. The shells can be made from scratch, or bought. You can probably guess that I did the latter.

I decided to bring these to M&Js for the break fast. Keldis was nice enough to share her recipe with me. They are an adaptation of "quiche lorraine" from the Joy of cooking. I wonder how I lived with Kel for 2 years and didn't learn how to make these sooner. They were quite easy to make, the hardest part was not being able to taste anything, or eat a crumb as I went..

I made 2 varieties, roasted red pepper and goat cheese (my personal favourite- shown above) and leek and cheddar. You can try any combination that suits your fancy.

Ingredients:
- Tart shells (I used tenderflake- on accident, I bought 2 different sizes, tarts and mini tarts, butboth were good)
- 1 egg white
- 2 cups milk ( I used skim)
- 3 eggs
- nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp chives
- roasted red pepper
- goat cheese
- leek, sauteed
- cheddar, grated

Directions
-preheat oven to 375F
-brush tarts with egg white (beaten with a fork), so they dont get soggy (let them though 5 minutes if they are frozen, they dont have to be pre-cooked)
- place fillings in the bottom of each tart
- mix egg/milk, salt, peper, nutmet, chives in a food processor or blender. Pour into tarts. You can fill them quite full as they will shrink a bit when they cool.
- Bake for approximately 30 minutes. Check them after 20 mintues to ensure they don't burn.

Good luck eating just one.. They are also good cold as leftovers.

Shrimp in Pomegranite Curry

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What a rude awakening to come home from holiday and have to cook again!! Well lucky for me, my parents often invite me over for dinner.

My dad made this recipe the other night and it was delicious!! It is from Vij's cookbook called- Vij's at home. My dad loves Vij's recipes and has made a few from the other Vij cookbook (fancier and harder to make). He recently added this more low key cookbook to his collection. The recipe calls for pomegranite juice which he did not have, so he substituted for mango juice. We ate it over brown rice, and let me tell you, there wasn't a spoonfull left at the end of dinner. We devoured it. It was a bit spicy, but not to the extent where you can't taste and savour the flavours. yum!!!

Ingredients:
36-42 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 ½ tsp salt
½ cup ghee or cooking oil
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1 ½ cups finely chopped red onion
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp ground cayenne or black pepper
1 tsp chopped jalapeno
1 Tbsp finely chopped ginger
½ cup pomegranate juice (or mango)
½ cup chopped cilantro

Instructions
In a large frying pan, heat ghee (or oil) on medium heat for 1 minute.  Add onions and saute for 8 minutes or until browned with darker edges.  Reduce heat to medium and add tumeric, remaining 1 tsp of salt and cayenne (or black pepper if using).  Stir, saute for 1 minute, the add jalapeno and ginger and saute for 1 minute more.

Add pomegranate juice and bring to a boil, which should take less than 30 seconds.  Add shrimp and stir gently. Saute Shrimp – stir gently stirring- for about 4 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Today is my mom's birthday. Happy birthday, Mom!!! This is her chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies
There is nothing special about this recipe. Except for the fact that it's in almost every one of my Sunday memories gowning up.

And just so y'all know, this was my very first time to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch. I know. I'm growing up so fast.The funny thing is that for some reason, I was a little nervous that I was going to mess them up. Don't worry; I didn't.

Every Sunday, I would sit Indian style on the kitchen counter while my older sister, Jenny, would make these cookies. She would always double the recipe because there are 7 people in my immediate family, and most of the time, we would also have friends over after church. We would still end up with almost the same amount of cookies as a regular batch though, because we would eat spoonfuls and spoonfuls of the dough at a time. Spoonfuls, I tell you! Some were made with nuts and some with out, "So as not to poison my little sister," my mom would say. Some were baked the full amount of time and some were left a little gooey, the way Dad likes them. Jenny would pile up a big plate of the gooey ones and race upstairs and give them to Dad. I always tagged along, as if I helped or something. Then he would instruct us to "hide the rest so he didn't eat them all," even though I'm pretty sure he knew where they were hidden. Yes, Mom's cookie recipe brings back lots of great memories. And after eating several of this batch, it made me so happy inside and so grateful to have such a wonderful family!


Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies     Becky Munson's recipe {with her notes}     makes 441 C dark brown sugar1/2 C granulated sugar1 C butter flavored Crisco1 1/2 tsp vanilla2 eggs2 1/4 C flour1/2 tsp salt1 tsp baking soda1/2 package semi-sweet chocolate chips {or mint chocolate, milk chocolate, white, dark or butterscotch}1 C chopped nuts {In Oregon, she used walnuts. In Oklahoma, she used pecans. I used pecans}
"Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, cream together thebutter and sugar until well mixed.  Add the vanilla and stir, then addthe eggs, blending after each.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and bakingsoda, then gradually add to the sugar mixture, stirring after eachaddition.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.  Drop by spoonfuls onto agreased cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until lightlybrowned.  Remove from pan and cool on counter top.  Makes about 5 dozensmall cookies or 3 dozen large ones." *Just a quick note, I have a convection, gas oven and wanted to try putting them all in at one time. The oven was on convection at 325 degrees and I baked them for 11 minutes. They came out perfect!

Now, every food blogger has their own favorite verion of this recipe, kind of like a man and his "big fish story." So if you were waiting on me to deliver this line, here you go: "These are the best chocolate chip cookies in the world!"
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! I LOVE YOU! XOXO

Our Maternity Photos

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 Little Baby Girl Hann's due date is only 3 weeks away! With all the nursery preparations and holiday festivities, my blog has been neglected recently. Big time.

That being said, hubs and I have had a blast getting ready for the arrival of our little angel. We have a name picked out and her room is all done. I got her 57 headbands over the weekend and her widdle clothes have all been washed in baby detergent. Thanksgiving is over and the house has been decorated in for Christmas. Baby, we're ready for you!

At 35 weeks, we got our maternity pictures taken and just a word of warning...... I am about to bombard you with them! Our photographer, Kendra, was so great to work with! She is creative, exciting, and fresh. When we started our shoot it was in the upper 30's {and if you know me, you know I hate being COLD!} She made it totally worth it and we had a wonderful time!

Go "like" her Facebook page: KJane Designs. If you want to see all her photos {her baby pics are the best} go check out her website:  KJane Photo and Design. Also, if you are in the Kansas City area and need a photographer, I highly recommend her!
Ok, ready? Here ya go! {By the way, drop me a comment. I would love to know which one is your favorite!}


































Like I said earlier, we had such a wonderful time during our maternity photo session. It was romantic, fun and oh, so special! We are already so in love with the little baby God is about to bless us with. I have truly LOVED being pregnant and I cannot wait to meet our angel. And even though I know our lives are forever about to change, I know the best is yet to come! From our Bun in the Oven pregnancy announcement to my Pregnancy Foodie Project, thanks for letting me share this journey with you! And stay tuned...... one million baby pictures, coming right up! 

Winter maternity photos, fall maternity pictures, cookin' cowgirl maternity pictures, creative maternity photo shoot,  stephanie munson, stephanie hann, 

French fried potato

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A potato is sliced through from end to end leaving caps and then microwaved to cook completely. The caps removed and the sliced, cooked and dehydrated pieces shallow fried in hot oil to produce French fried potatoes by a double cooked method.
This is a sorcerer's trick used primarily by males. It allows play with a sharp knife for skillful demonstration and for purpose of supplying a fast and excellent meal of a single potato. 
A pocket knife will do but not recommended. 
A potato will naturally lay flat on one side which can be regarded as its steady surface. Make slice through the center all the way through from near end to end leaving a cap. Then make another parallel slice on each side, perhaps two if the potato is large enough.
Rotate the potato 45˚ and make corresponding cuts all the way through so that the potato is held together by the caps.

Microwave the potato and cut off the caps. The potato is cooked and reasonably dehydrated.

Fry in oil 350℉ / 180℃
I said shallow fried. I meant enough oil to cover but in a very deep pot. The deepest pot you've got. For safety. 

It's a guy thing. If you're female and you do this, then face it, you're a tomboy. 

lemon cake

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Delicate lemon flavored cake with piped plain whipped cream filling and lemon ganache topping. 
Plain whipped cream filling that contains banana liqueur and vanilla extract and a small amount of confectioner's sugar, but with all that still plain. So plain you need a lot extra on the side to convince yourself that, yes, this whipped cream really is plain.
Lemon flavored icing with butter and banana liqueur.
Cherry preserves.



The cake is delicious, faintly flavored with banana liqueur and vanilla and lemon.
The whipped cream filling is delicious, faintly flavored with banana liqueur and vanilla and lemon.
The lemon ganache is fairly strongly flavored and with a trace of banana liqueur.
All three things are delicious separately
And horrible together. Flat horrible. 
I do not like these things one single bit and I wouldn't offer them to anybody. They simply cannot be justified. Maybe they go well with coffee, I don't know, I don't like coffee either. Just thinking about cake and coffee makes me want to brush my teeth.