Baked Macaroni and Cheese

BAKED MACARONI AND CHEESE


This recipe was a not a favorite.
Despite putting in sharp cheddar cheese and JALAPENOS, it still came out bland somehow. It took a lot of time to prepare and is not something I would make on just a normal dinner night (took me about 45 minutes to prep not including cooking time?)

Anywho, if brave enough to tamper with the recipe here it is:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon powdered mustard
• 3 cups milk
• 1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 large egg
• 12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Fresh black pepper

Topping:

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for ten minutes and remove the bay leaf.

Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese.

Melt the butter in a saute pan and toss the bread crumbs to coat. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and rest for five minutes before serving.

Remember to save leftovers for fried Macaroni and Cheese.

Amazing Alfredo and Banana Bread

ALFREDO SAUCE


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Alfredo-Sauce-2/Detail.aspx

Here's the recipe for the alfredo sauce... this was the closest thing to Olive Garden alfredo I have EVER tasted. So much better than the canned sauce. A little rich, I will probably substitute lower fat milk for the heavy cream and low fat butter for the sweet butter next time. Usually parmesan cheese is hard to melt to be creamy, I thought it melted fine but I might use gruyere or asiago next time for a special treat? I am also learning to perfect my cooking of seafoodÜ The shrimp were coated with garlic butter and grilled with the salmon.

BANANA BREAD
I also had 6 bananas that had overripened and I didn't want to through them away so I tried a banana bread recipe from the same site: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Banana-Bread/Detail.aspx
The bread tastes really yummy but I would put less banana in it less time (maybe 1 3/4 cup instead of 2 1/3). It's pretty mushy in the center but the outsides are YUMMY!

1/3 of the way throughÜ

I am officially 1/3 of the way through the graduate program! It's going to be a tough week since I am still recovering from a grueling finals week and need to jump right back into it on Monday, but I had a very nice awards banquet on Friday, where I got an award for outstanding student leadership. Of course, my proud hubby took lots of pictures!


We have tried to fill this weekend with relaxing and fun events to get some small feeling of "summer." We are thoroughly enjoying our new barbecue and trying to have lots of reasons to have people over and grill, we have also been enjoying our time outdoors running and cycling through the beautiful trails of Irvine, and Derek took me out on a date night after my last final to eat at Boston's overlooking the lighthouse (where we ate and were the night he proposed).





Oh, and I've already began to develop my list of activities for my few weeks off in August (11 is a good start):

1.Visit relatives in Oregon
2. Camp in Sequoia
3. See my nieces and nephews
4. Spend time with Kay and Michael
5. Lots of trips to Disneyland
6. SLEEP
7. Beach
8. Sea World
9. Glen Ivy for Christina's birthday
10. Plan/have Ashleen's Bridal Shower
11. Plan a celebration cruise for next August!