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Barefoot Bloggers: Mac 'N Cheese

I actually made this on the day it was due. I've just been too dang busy to post it! In any case, welcome to one of the September BB posts. The next one is coming soon, as I've made it but I just have to upload the pics.
The ingredients. Just don't forget the pasta. It's essential for macaroni and cheese. Obviously.
I always bake the bacon in an oven. Set it to 375 degrees.
Grate the cheese. Blue cheese, sharp cheddar and it's supposed to be gruyere, but I'm too cheap to spend $8.99 per pound on cheese. I used another soft cheese instead.
While your bacon is cooking and smoking, have Bimmer Man try and take apart the smoke detector to no avail. It's hard wired so it still goes off even hanging there. Our solution = me cooking, Bimmer Man fanning a dishtowel in front of it.
Cook the macaroni.
Make your bechamel sauce and add the cheese.
Add the nutmeg.
Then your cooked pasta.
Then the bacon and stir to combine.
Put in two small baking dishes or one small dish. Apparently this is just for two, well, it's really more for three or four.
Top with basil seasoned bread crumbs.
And bake.
Until bubbly.
Very bubbly.

Ina's Grown Up Mac N Cheese

• 4 ounces thick-sliced bacon
• Vegetable oil
• Kosher salt
• 2 cups elbow macaroni or cavatappi
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 ounces Gruyere cheese, grated
• 3 ounces extra-sharp Cheddar, grated
• 2 ounces blue cheese, such as Roquefort, crumbled
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch nutmeg
• 2 slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped basil leaves

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place a baking rack on a sheet pan and arrange the bacon in 1 layer on the baking rack. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the bacon is crisp. Remove the pan carefully from the oven - there will be hot grease in the pan! Transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and crumble when it is cool enough to handle.

Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don't boil it. Melt the butter in a medium pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or 2 more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the Gruyere, Cheddar, blue cheese, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and crumbled bacon and stir well. Pour into 2 individual size gratin dishes.

Place the bread slices in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until you have coarse crumbs. Add the basil and pulse to combine. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the top of the pasta. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Enjoy!

PSH

Miracle Marinade

1/3 cup BBQ sauce
1/3 cup say sauce
1/3 cup Italian dressing

Whisk all together.

Then make stir fry...

Enjoy!

PSH

I Forget Sometimes...

About what I do on the weekends. I don't usually cook. But I do normally have a camera in my hands.
And I hang out with awesome people. Actually, I photograph awesome people. I follow people around and I depress the shutter button. At just the right time. So now you know why I photograph food.
It's because I have to practice for beautiful days when I get to photograph awesome things. And yes, I have fun doing this on the side. I work 40 hours per week, clean the house, do the laundry, walk the geriatric Golden Retriever twice per day, cook dinner and somehow still have time to do this.
I love photographing feet. I'm not sure why but I do. I think it's because of the wrinkles (where you don't want to put wrinkle cream) and probably because people are so self-conscious about them. There's no make-up, there's dirt, sometimes they smell, but most of all, they're just that, feet.
And then when you capture the perfect expression, you remember why you take pictures in the first place. To capture the life of someone else in one quick snapshot.

And they say a picture is worth a thousand words...

PSH

I'm a Martha Fan!!

Ok, so I really am a Martha fan. And I do read her blog. Yes, yes I do!

Anybody Heard of the Gas Crisis in Nashville Yet???

Please, please, please post a comment if you have. If you haven't it means that I don't believe the news stories that I see anymore.

Thanks.

Here's a few stories that have been posted on blogs the past few days:

Number 1

Example 3

So please, tell me if it's true or just a marketing hoax!! Oh, and it looks like I skipped #2, but whatever... I want to know!!!

Thanks,

McTatty

Ride, Don't Drive

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Bars

Much like my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins, these are nice and chewy, soft and easily eaten while sitting at your desk. Remember to keep the canned air handy for the crumbs that may land on your keyboard as well!
I cut them big. I make sure I do that because every piece needs a large piece of cream cheese!
Then put Bimmer Dog in sunglasses. Forget for a minute that you're cooking because you're laughing so hard at the dog being embarrassed about sunglasses. I'm a bad doggie mommy...
And then when Bimmer Dog tries to eat your flour, put him in the dog box. And yes, we did label it with a prisoner number. That was for his flight home last year. We thought the airport workers would be amused by "LIVE ANIMAL" and "PRISONER #24601" Ha.
Yeah, he's none too happy with that. But still, he has an orthopedic dog bed. Heck, I'd even sleep in the dog box!
The ingredients.
The lovely eggs. They're 3 weeks old. No time for eggs in the morning and so this is what I make instead.
Melt the butter and let it cool. It just needs to be zapped for 30 seconds twice, stirring between radiation waves or whatever they are zapping your butter.
Have Bimmer Man stop at the liquor store and buy Octoberfest. Mmm...
Mmmm...
Then show the Gopher pride by opening the beer and singing the U of M fight song in the kitchen, pumping your fist in the air screaming M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A!!!!
Then get back to mixing the butter and sugar. This is what happens when you don't let your butter cool all the way. Not a problem. You could probably cream them too.
Sugar. The dentist's best friend.
Add the pumpkin and egg.
Mix more. Scream the fight song again as you mix. It's just about the right amount of time. You know, maybe if I add red food coloring, this can be "maroon and gold" cake.
Yep, I think it could!
Then dump your whole box of nutmeg in your drawer. Whatever. Lick it up. Ok, so I used our lovely Kone vacuum. It worked.
Stir the dry ingredients together.
Pour/mix/whatever into the wet ingredients. Again, sing the Minnesota fight song while you mix. It's the right amount of time to just blend it.
Pour into a glass pan.
Then put the ingredients for the cream cheese into a bowl.
Blend, but don't sing the fight song.
Drop into the pumpkin batter and swirl.
Put in the oven. And have another beer. Hey, you can even sing the fight song if you want to!
Let cool.

These are from HERE.... on myrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, at room temperature

Preparation

1. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Beat in 2 eggs, pumpkin, and 1/3 cup water until well blended, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. In another bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and nutmeg; stir or beat into butter mixture until well blended. Spread batter evenly in a buttered and floured 10- by 15-inch baking pan.

2. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, remaining egg, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until smooth.

3. Drop cream cheese mixture in 24 evenly spaced 1-tablespoon portions over batter. Pull a knife tip through filling to swirl slightly into batter.

4. Bake in a 350° oven until center of pumpkin batter (not cream cheese mixture) springs back when touched, about 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan, then cut into 24 bars.

This Shit Is Bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Oh, yum. Banana bread. It's like the best thing on a Saturday morning after a long night of fun! I can tell you this, I had to search high and low for a recipe without sour cream. I finally found it and adapted it.
The ingredients. Butter, flour, vanilla, bananas, salt, baking powder...
You're supposed to use 3 - 4 bananas. I didn't have that many bananas. Oops...
Smush the bananas, add the vanilla, baking soda (I added a pinch of baking powder too)
After you've smushed, pour the melted and cooled butter into the bowl.
Keep pouring until you've gotten every last drop of yummy butter into the bowl.
Yes, every last drop.
Then put in your egg, and stir.
Oops, I mean add the flour, then stir. Don't be like me and stir before you're supposed to!
Add in the baking soda...
And see how pretty it is.
Then stir.
And stir. And stir. And stir. Or use a mixer. Whatever.
Just do it until smooth.
Then pour into a loaf pan.
Mmmm... thank Bimmer Man for these pics!
Ooohhh... so goey..
And great, of course. You know, it's one thing to make bread, but this is a quick bread.
Smooth out.
And bake for about 45 minutes...

I adapted my recipe from this recipe here... Yea for google!

Enjoy!

PSH