Baked Mac N’ Ham

No, this is not good for you. Nor is it low in calories, vegan, vegetarian or gluten free. This, is just plain ole comfort food. Because life is meant to be lived. Sure, you may fit into your skinniest jeans, but do you want to look back on a life of sad salads and fruit-ish smoothies, peppered with the stalks of nutrient rich weeds? I think not. But, that’s the Southern woman that raised me talking. Honey.

This dish is totally freezable, making it pretty easy. Sure, the sauce is roux based, but when made in bulk, it’s not that bad.

Ingredients & Directions: No exact measurements here, it depends how much you want to make and most of this is eyeballing anyway. I’ll amend with measurements…. Maybe? About a pound of shells and two cups of ham works for this recipe, using a large casserole dish.

Cooked and diced ham, I buy the big ass hams when they’re on sale, I use everything including the bone. For more on this click here.
Shells, cooked al dente and drained
Grated extra sharp cheddar cheese about 2 cups
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of garlic powder or minced garlic

For the sauce: It’s a roux, so you’re going to start with some butter and flour over medium to medium-high heat. Equal parts butter and flour, so if you’re starting with 2 tbsp of butter, use about 2 tbsp of flour. Melt the butter, whisk in the flour and keep it moving until it’s just started to have a hint of goldenness to it. If you’ve got fresh garlic, add it now, incorporating it fully. Garlic powder can be added with the flour initially.

Add milk 2% and about 1-2 cups, whisking until it’s fully incorporated into the flour mixture and there are no lumps.

Whisk almost continuously, until milk starts to simmer and roll a low boil. Adding the cheddar cheese and whisking to mix it fully. In addition, about another cup of milk, whisking and boiling to reduce. Keep in mind that the sauce reduces slowly and not much volume is lost, so however much milk you add, is about how much sauce you’re going to get. Reduction is only about 1/5 total.

Mix pasta, sauce and ham in a large casserole dish. Cover with crushed ritz crackers or bread crumbs, whatever kind of crumbles you’ve got, but a nice crunch on top is key! I like to add a little cayenne kick on top too.

Bake, uncovered at 350 until bubbly and brown, serve with a crusty bread or a fresh salad!

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

With Black Friday over, my family home safe, I’m taking a little time to enjoy a much needed glass of wine and some peace and quiet. However, I’ve had a few of my friends ask what I made for my very first Thanksgiving in our own home… So, I figured, this would be a better way to give everybody the run down!

As we sat there, quietly enjoying the dinner I literally slaved over, (with LOVE, of course) we started talking about what we remember of Thanksgiving as children. Family, food, lots more family, more food… But also, we remembered being hurried around to this house, then this one, then over there to say hi, even into adulthood, having to deal with split families and long distance travels.

It was nice to just sit down whenever dinner was ready, and eat our food, our way. I was excited to cook my food, in my kitchen, with nobody in my way, listening to my music, drinking my bottle of wine, cleaning up behind myself as I went and running the damn thing like clock work. It was a beautiful thing, it was a beautiful Thanksgiving and I couldn’t be happier that I spent it with the two most wonderful boys on the planet!

Enjoy the run through of our dinner and I hope it looks as delicious as it was… Food photographs worse than Andy Dick sometimes…

This turkey was incredible! I’d never cooked a turkey before and I laughed when it came out so good, because the week before I was actually asking my bff how to cook a turkey! She goes, “Um, put it in the oven, turn it on and baste it, Sarah!” I went, “Where do I buy a turkey baster?” I’m a gem. 

I took some butter and smashed it with some black pepper, a little salt, a few cloves of roasted garlic (threw some in while the oven was pre-heating, it doesn’t have to be a FEAT for some roast garlic!) and rubbed it between the skin and the meat of the beasts and legs. (That last part sounded FILTHY!)

I used the rest to rub on the outside of the bird and finished with more black pepper and some thyme and stuffed some extra garlic cloves under the skin as well!

Juicy, tender, dare I say? Perfect?

 

Mashed potatoes are easy. I love the skins on, so there they are, all mixed in there with some cream cheese, a couple cloves of roasted garlic leftover from the turkey, butter and LOAD of black pepper, maybe a pinch of salt to taste.

They’re not good FOR you, but oh my fuck, they were amazing.

Creamy, chunky, filling.

Perfection, again.

I used a bean masher instead of a beater, because, I kid you not, my electric beater is from the 60’s and I was afraid it couldn’t handle the job. I need a serious electronics update in my kitchen. Stat.

I JUST threw away my 60’s blender too. It was HUGE.

My Nana hoards, I enable.

It’s a sickness.

Every woman needs to know how to make her man some gravy, so I won’t take long in this department.

Turkey drippings, made into gravy. Flour, not corn starch.

Easy, peasy.

Again, a TON of black pepper, because the only thing KFC CAN do right, is make gravy extra peppery and delicious.

Mine followed suite nicely!

 

 

 

 

This was my biggest challenge. I refuse to pay out the ass for fried onion strings after last years green bean casserole cost us $11 to make and tasted like everybody elses. “No more!” I say.

This bitch, is completely homemade.

Fresh green beans, halved. My delicious recipe for Cream of Onion & Celery soup, found here, omitting the celery and obviously the black rice. You could make cream of mushroom, but I hate them. So I went with onion. Should have done turkey or something else. It was delicious, but a bit on the onion-y side.

And finally, some homemade French’s onions. Simply, onions dredged in flour and fried to a crisp in oil.

NOT anywhere near healthy, but so delicious I fried up an extra onion for us to snack on and Mo ate them all!

 

This is always good.

Tried and true Mac n’ Cheese.

The recipe can be found here.

It’s a great freezer meal, great for a pot luck, any holiday get together where food is required!

It’s a homemade sauce starting as a roux with some Velveeta and parmesan added. Topped with panko, Ritz and herbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Where’s the stuffing?” You ask… I ruined it. There. Are you happy?

Last, but not least…. And actually made, first… Mama made pie!

I’ve never tried making one, because honestly, I’m not that big of a fan. Give me a cookie, or fro-yo. I’m straight. A pie is like cake to me. It’s like, what’s the point? If I’m going to eat something like that, it better be bomb, elaborate and have layers and secret caverns.

I almost bought a pie. Then I went, “If I’m frying fucking thread sized onions to TOP a dish, I’m NOT pussing out a buying a pie.” So… I didn’t.

I bought cheesecake, pudding, heavy cream, a pie shell and a Hershey bar, and made a pie!

Heavy cream obvi get’s beaten into whip cream with a beater, it takes about 10 minutes, so calm your titties and wait it out. It’s worth it. Oh, and don’t forget the powdered sugar or you just have stiff milk. Ew. My pie? Not ew. Savvy?

So, there’s my turkey day!

I hope everybody’s day was as wonderful as mine was, I hope you all actually took time to thank those you are thankful for and stop to appreciate that in your life which deserves appreciation. I’ve been working on my “30 Days of Thanks” post and can’t wait to get it up… Although I feel like it will be a rambling rant of more or less 30 things I’m thankful for, ranging anywhere from my own flesh and blood to my new leather leggings. lol

Good night!

Basic Mac N’ Cheese

I’m going to do a few recipe posts in a row because I had my first attempt at “freezer-meal-ing” this morning and although I’m pleased with my results, it’s all in the, “reheat and eat” test to see if all REALLY went well.
I wanted to give it a try before we move because things will be a bit tighter then and a failed meal wouldn’t mean a ruined night…. Yet.

So this is my most basic Mac N’ Cheese. I thought it best to try it out as a freezer meal, so my instructions will head towards the freezer but a few small changes and you’re headed towards the oven.

Ingredients:

1 Lb large elbow macaroni, (when I can find it I use whole wheat pasta, but the supply at the grocery store had been thinning out and I’m afraid they’re not carrying it anymore) cooked al dente, rinsed and drained (I cook any pasta with a couple of table spoons of extra virgin olive oil, a generous sprinkle of garlic salt and a teaspoon of Oregano. It gives it a good flavor but doesn’t overpower it.)
12 Oz Velveeta cheese, cut into large cubes
3 C shredded Colby Jack and Pepper Jack cheese
1.5 C low fat buttermilk
1.5 C low fat milk
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs all purpose flour
1 Package crushed Ritz crackers
1 C parmesan cheese
Black pepper
Rosemary

Directions:

If you are planning on freezing this for later, line a couple loaf pans with a strip of plastic wrap on the bottom followed by completely lining the dish with foil. I don’t like the thought of using aluminum baking pans every time and I think it wastes space, so this technique works. The plastic wrap strip gives you little handles to pop the MacBrick out of the dish once it’s frozen so you don’t rip the foil trying to get it out.

Now separate the cooked pasta between the two dishes evenly and sprinkle a little less than a cup of the shredded cheese over the pasta. Toss so the cheese gets all the way to the bottom.

Pasta and shredded cheese in 4x8 loaf pans.

Now for the sauce, if you’re familiar with making a roux, you’ve got this. This is the hardest part because it requires your undivided attention as there is a small window between cooking the flour and burning it! In a medium sauce pan melt the butter completely. Add the flour and reduce the heat to low, using a whisk to mix. Keep the mixture moving and make sure it doesn’t burn. Once it starts to turn a golden brown and the flour is cooked, slowly add the buttermilk while mixing with the whisk. Make sure everything is mixed together well and there are no clumps, it should be getting very thick, keep it moving and don’t let it burn! Next add the milk slowly and whisk until smooth turning the heat up to medium low. Keep whisking until it starts to simmer and then start adding the Velveeta, just one handful at a time until the last is melted. Keep it moving, if your burn it now, I’m telling you from experience, the defeat is haunting. Once it’s all mixed and melted add the remaining shredded cheese, turn off the heat and mix. Add rosemary and black pepper and whisk one last time, REALLY well. Finally remove from heat and pour a glass of wine. You deserve it.

Next, simply pour the cheese sauce over the pasta, then using a big spoon, press down so the cheesy goodness gets all the way to the bottom. Cover the top with parmesan cheese (this keeps the crackers from getting soggy) and cover with a thick later of the crackers. Pop in the oven at 350 for about 30 min or until golden brown and bubbly!

If you’re freezing, stop before the parmesan. Just pop the loaf pans in the freezer for a couple of hours until they’re firm. Once they’re frozen, pull them out of the pans and put in a gallon sized freezer bag with the date. When you’re read to reheat, remove the foil from the MacBrick and put it back in the dish you froze it in. Cover with the parmesan and crackers and put in the oven at 400 until it’s golden brown and bubbly.

I serve this with my Baby Ray's chicken (recipe to follow), pork chops, ribs, fried chicken... Anything, mac and cheese goes with it all.... Again, mix-in’s are endless. Broccoli, ham, spinach, shredded chicken and frozen peas…. But if you get creative, let me know what you did so I can give it a try too!