Sunday Supper - Mac & Cheese

People ask me all the time..."Are you also a good cook?" And the answer is...sort of. Of course that question is predicated on the assumption that I am actually a good baker. And only a small portion of you out there have ever tasted anything I've baked. But work with me here.

I do like to cook, though I prefer baking, but I just do it less often. With baked goods, they're easy to bring to the office, or to class, or to give individually to friends and family members. But it would be a bit strange if I brought a chicken sandwich or roast potatoes to work with me. Though I'm sure it would be appreciated.

Which means that generally, if I do cook, its for one (or two). Which doesn't inspire me to try new things very often. But I do cook sometimes for friends on weekends, or if I'm home for my family. There are a few dishes that are my "specialties" and that I know will come out well so I turn to them again and again.

I toyed with the idea for a while about doing a weekly Sunday post on non-baking dishes, but I would never have enough for that, so its more likely to be monthly or even less, we shall see!

So here goes, I tried out this Mac & Cheese recipe I found on recipezaar. Recipezaar is great if you know what you want to make, but are looking for a good recipe for it, or want to see a bunch of different recipes for the same thing and pick your favorite. The ratings and reviews are also really helpful. Enough about that (no they're not paying me), here it is, my baked macaroni and cheese.

For starters, most pasta dishes I have will never use the right type of pasta. Here, I didn't use macaroni, but "Ditalini," which I found in the cupboard and looked so cute. See?
Last week my friend Ariel and I made fettucini alfredo together, except it certainly wasn't fettucini. Rigatoni Alfredo, if I remember correctly. And it was delicious.
Well anyway, this recipe called for you to make the sauce and boil the noodles in separate pots on the stove, which I dutifully followed. Though the recipe called for you to pour the sauce over the noodles and bake it, I thought the sauce was a little too thick for that, so I dumped the noodles into the pot and stirred it all up first, before transferring it to the pan and topping with breadcrumbs.
Then just pop it on the oven on 350 F for 30 minutes, and voila, baked ditalini and cheese! This picture (like most of mine) doesn't adequately show the beautiful baked cheesy goodness. It was there, trust me. Now its time to put it on a pretty plate, after all, its not very civilized to eat right out of the foil container. No, I would never do that. Ahem. Now all that's left to do is to dig in! Yes, this fork is going straight to my mouth. Delicious! Hope you enjoyed this momentary sojourn into the world of savory cooking. Don't worry the sugar and spice will be back soon!

Tip of the Day: Experiment with different types of cheeses in your recipes, or use a combination: if it calls for cheddar try adding in some monterey jack and muenster, but be careful - some soft and hard cheeses cannot be substituted for each other.

Apple Pie update!

Remember when I told you it was too painful for me to show you a picture of my disastrous apple pie?
(If you forgot, just scroll down).
Well, that was party true. But it was also partly because I didn't think I actually had a picture of the pie after its completion. Sometimes, things just get away from me, and baked goods get eaten before I get a chance to photograph them. I know, I know, its atrocious.
But guess what! I found one!
I know you've been waiting with bated breath too see what my pie looked like, so I won't keep you any longer:
It doesn't look so bad, right? In fact, it might look....delicious? Well, looks can be deceiving.
But now your wait is over! Enjoy staring at it, and wondering what went wrong.

Oh no, apple pie

A friend of mine told me recently that she reads my blog just to see the mistakes. And while (I hope) she was kidding, I don't want to disappoint.
Now, right about here, is where I should put a picture of the apple pie I made.
But I can't. It's just too painful.
Something went wrong. And I don't know what. The recipe was simple: I took a graham cracker pie crust, some apples, lemon juice, sugar, flour and salt, and a topping of butter, brown sugar, flour, oats and salt.
Sounds good right? Right. What went wrong? You tell me.
It started off pretty well, with 5 apples, peeled and cored. And no, those chocolate chips in the background aren't for this recipe. But wouldn't that be interesting....?(Pretend there are five here.)
I used granny smith, but plenty of different kinds of apples will work, and, if you'd like, you can use two or three different kinds to mix things up.
So anyway, in apple pies in the past, I have diced up the apples, but I figured I would make some nice little thin slices here instead. And eat a couple along the way. Step two complete, with no apparent problems. Next I tossed them with the flour, sugar, lemon juice and salt. And ate a few slices. And then, even though I wasn't supposed to yet, I dumped it all in the waiting crust.

Now, I'm what you might call a paranoid baker. If something seems a little off, perhaps a little strange, I start to worry. If the amount seems wrong, or if it doesn't smell the way I think it should, or if it looks a funny color, I start to panic. And, most of the time, everything turns out ok in the end. And sometimes, it does not.

After I placed the apples in the crust, I realized I had alot left. Like, alot. And while I didn't have a problem eating a few more slices (clearly), I did think for a minute. Is this the right sized crust? Did I layer the apples right?
But, I piled them slightly convexly (is that a word?) and set about for the next step. Which was, of course, making the topping. A pretty simple mix - 1/2 cup flour, 1 1/2 sticks butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup quick oats and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Now the recipe that I was sort of pretending to follow said I should cut the butter into the flour, and then add the remaining ingredients. But, well, I'm not exactly the queen of patience, so I just mixed together all the dry ingredients, and then cut the butter in to that. And by cut, I mean used my hands. As I was doing this, I thought the butter seemed so be a little much, but I checked, and double cheSo, after I mixed the topping together, I sprinkled it evenly over the pie. And I stuck it in the oven.
As I mentioned earlier, I am not known for my patience, and I always end up - despite my mother's urging to the contrary - checking the oven before anything is done.
(Side note: oh how I wish my new oven had a window.)
Anyway, about a half hour in to the hour long cooking time, I took a quick peek. And....oh.
The carefully placed topping had completely melted down the slope of the pie, dripping off the edges of the crust and pooling on the (thank goodness I put it there) baking sheet underneath.
I watched in abject horror as my pie appeared to melt off and brown in all the wrong places. I could even see apple sticking out! Oh no!
Well, as this pie was supposed to serve as a dessert for my friends, I had no time to make something else, and I brough it anyway.
After I picked off the pieces of the top that had slid down, it looked basically presentable, but I certainly wasn't hopeful.
And as we cut into it, the pie that should have been crisp and delicious, was liquidy and didn't hold together.
From this, I have drawn two conclusions:
1 - the convex nature of the pie made the topping slide off when heated.
2 - the topping had a too high butter content that made it melt.
So, notes for the future, and one (slightly) redeeming factor: the whole thing got eaten anyway.

Tip of the Day: If a recipe doesn't work, don't get discouraged! Sometimes, you've done something wrong, sometimes it was the recipe, but either way you can remember what happened and use it in the future.

Recipe: I'll share the original recipe I used here, but there definitely need to be adjustments!
Graham cracker pie crust
4 to 5 apples
3 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup quick oats
1/4 teaspoon salt

Peel, core and slice the apples, and mix with the lemon juice, sugar, flour and salt.
Cut the butter into the flour, and mix in the brown sugar, oats and salt.
Fill pie crust with apples, and top with mixture.
Bake on 375 F for 55 minutes.

A New Beginning (and chocolate chip cookies)

Today I baked my first thing in my brand new (to me) kitchen. What better way to begin than with chocolate chip cookies?Now, everyone seems to have their very own favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I'm no exception. But my recipe produces crisp, crunchy cookies, and I figured I would try to make soft, chewy ones this time. So I found this recipe on recipezaar, and thought I'd give it a try. I was not disappointed.
Nor was I disappointed with my new found counter space. Enough to actually line up my ingredients before I start? And not have to remove them from the cupboard one by one and then replace them? Simply amazing. (Yes, I know I'm missing a couple ingredients.) Speaking of things I'm missing, I have yet to get a microwave. Now, I know, people have lived for centuries without microwaves (and some continue to today), but I really need one. For things like melting butter.
Now, granted, for this next step, I could have brought out a pot and melted it on the stove, but, well, pots weren't on my agenda for the day, so instead I placed a stick of butter in a foil container and stuck it in the oven until it melted. It got the job done. Now, while I certainly still have my stand mixer, it, umm, happens to still be inside this here box. Underneath - if I remember correctly - a rolling pin, two ice cube trays, and an assortment of tupperware containers. So it remains in this box for now. And instead I whipped out the trusty bowl and spoon. For a recipe like this that uses melted butter, this is a pretty easy task. I made these cookies quite big, and even though I was only supposed to put 9 on a baking sheet, I decided to live on the edge of danger and do 12. Sure, they spread into each other a little bit, but hey, they still looked and tasted good.
And this baking sheet just, just fit inside my oven. Phew. It was a close one.
Over all, I would definitely say that this will be my go to recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies - they were sweet, chewy, gooey and delicious. And very easy as well.
Anyway, I still have some recipes to share with you pre-move, but I felt that this new kitchen quest should come first.

Tip of the Day: If you know your oven doesn't heat up evenly from front to back, don't be afraid to rotate your cakes or cookies mid-way through baking to brown evenly - but work quickly!

Recipe: (from Recipezaar)

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsps vanilla
2 cups flour plus 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Mix butter and sugars until well blended.
Add in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and beat until well mixed.
Gradually add in the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir until incorporated.
Stir in chocolate chips.

Form into 18 even balls, and place on to parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Bake at 325 for 14 to 18 minutes. Cool on baking sheets.

New Kitchen!

I know, I know, I haven't been baking or mistaking much lately. Well, I've certainly been mistaking, just not in the kitchen.

I'm ever so sorry, but, you know, finals, and I MOVED!

Yes, from one tiny Manhattan kitchen to another. Here is the new one:So yes, yes it is miniscule, in fact it has a smaller space to work in than my old kitchen, but what is that? Is that counter space? Why yes it is. Alot of it in fact. You mean I can have both my mixer and another bowl next to each other? Yes I can.

So don't worry, plenty of baking (and mistaking) will be coming out of this kitchen soon.