Mac & Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese.....we all love it. There is a restaurant here in Nashville called "Park Cafe," which makes some of the best Mac & Cheese in the world. It's full of green chile peppers, which adds just enough heat to make it interesting. A friend of mine snagged the recipe so here it is. I will warn you that there are quite a few steps involved here, but any homemade Mac & Cheese will be this involved, so just do it. I'm sure this won't shock anyone, but Jason loves this.....cheese, pasta, bread crumbs, no veggies, it's his kind of dish.

Be warned that you will gain at least 3 pounds by eating this.....and it's so good that you'll probably have seconds, so make that 6 pounds.

Park Cafe Green Chile Mac & Cheese:
2 cups pepper jack cheese, shredded
2 cups macaroni
1 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 Anaheim Green Chiles, seeds removed, chopped, and roasted in the oven
2 cups parmesean cheese
2 Tablespoon bread crumbs
1 cup melted butter

Directions:
1. Cook macaroni according to package directions, drain.
2. In a pan, melt butter and slowly add flour, whisking constantly.
3. Cook for 5 minutes over low heat.
4. Add milk, cream, and green chiles to flour mixture.
5. Turn up to medium heat and bring to a boil.
6. Turn off the heat and stir in the cheeses and cooked macaroni.
7. Pour into a greased baking dish or into individual ramekins.
8. Combine bread crumbs and melted butter and pour over mixture.
9. Bake at 400 degrees until cheese is bubbling and top is golden brown -- for ramekins this will take 10-15 minutes, for a large baking dish, try 25-30 minutes.

What's that brown stuff on your plate?

Is that some sort of chutney? No. Did you burn something? No. Is that even food? Yes.
Well, it's not the prettiest dish I've ever made, but it tasted great. Yesterday, I decided that I wanted to make a German potato salad, or something like that. I didn't want anything cold with mayonnaise, I wanted something warm with that vinegar taste all through it.

I was fumbling through recipes until I realized that the only vinegar I had in the house was balsamic vinegar. I just happened to find a warm potato salad recipe using balsamic, so that's what I made. If you've never used balsamic vinegar, it's very dark, almost black, and the color takes over just about everything in the dish. It was good though. The recipe has sauteed shallots, celery and lots of bacon crumbles. I would totally make this again, but I might think about using a different type of vinegar next time (maybe apple cider vinegar). If you feel like you can take the looks of this dish, then you should try it. It really did taste great!!


Balsamic Potato Salad:
8 slices bacon
3 tablespoons flour
1 shallot, chopped
1/3 cup vinegar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon powdered dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon crumbled whole rosemary leaves
2 quarts cooked diced potatoes (I used 8 small yukon gold potatoes)

Directions:
1. Dice potatoes and boil in salted water until done.
2. Fry bacon until crisp.
3. Remove from pan, drain and crumble.
4. Add flour and onion to the bacon fat left in the pan.
5. Stir in vinegar, water, sugar, salt and spices.
6. Cook only until mixture is of medium thickness (only about 5 minutes or so).
7. Add to potatoes and crumbled bacon.
8. Mix carefully to prevent mashing the potatoes.

Curry Rice Salad

Tonight, I made a delicious dish that my Aunt Bettie makes. It's a cold curry rice salad and it's wonderful. I served it with baked barbecue chicken. There's something about warm chicken and a cold rice dish that just works. I love this recipe and I love my Aunt Bettie. When reading the ingredients, you'll note a few that I left out, for various reasons. I will say that green olives would be good in this dish, if you like them. I think I'll chop them up and add them to this the next time I make it and just see if Jason even notices.....probably not.

Curry Rice Salad:

1 box Chicken Rice-A-Roni

4 green onions, chopped

1 teaspoon curry powder

1/2 cup mayo

1 jar artichokes, chopped (keep some of the liquid from the jar)

***Now, the recipe actually calls for the following, which I didn't add:

1/2 green pepper, chopped (I thought I had one in the fridge, but I didn't....oh well)

12 stuffed green olives, chopped (Jason doesn't like green olives)

1 can water chestnuts, sliced (Kyle doesn't like water chestnuts)

Directions:

1. Make Rice-A-Roni according to package directions and let cool completely (I used the microwave)

2. Add remaining ingredients (including just a little of the juice from the artichoke jar)

3. Let sit in the fridge for a while before serving, the flavors are much better when they've had time to get acquainted

Get Ready to Live!

This recipe is from my grandmother and it's one of my favorite things to eat. This dish goes with everything and it's really easy to prepare. Jason did a little dance when he found out we were having this tonight.....even on crutches, he still danced, which proves just how good this really is.


Baked Rice:
1 cup rice
1/2 cup water
3/4 stick of butter
1 can Campbell's French Onion Soup

1. Melt butter in a covered baking dish
2. Add remaining ingredients
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, stirring halfway through

The rice will absorb all of the liquid from the butter, water, and the soup and the flavor of the french onion soup will go through all of the rice.

Jason + Bacon = True Love

Jason's favorite vegetable is corn (iceberg lettuce is a close 2nd). So tonight, I was trying to find a way to make corn more exciting. I decided to incorporate the one thing Jason loves more than money......bacon!!!

This recipe is so easy, you will love it. Make sure to use a quality bacon.

Squaw Corn
1-2 pats of butter
1 onion, diced
5-6 slices of bacon, chopped into small pieces
1 bag of frozen corn (or 3-4 ears of fresh corn)
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Add butter to skillet and cook bacon and onions together
2. Drain bacon grease
3. Add corn, salt & pepper
4. Cook until corn is heated through, about 10 minutes


You might be thinking, "Kyle, what would I serve with this delicious recipe?" Um, duh....you would serve Shake-N-Bake chicken and green beans. Jealous anyone?