SK week 8 | Easiest Baked Mac and Cheese

Smitten Kitchen has a few macaroni and cheese recipes on the website, so obviously I picked "the easiest" one. :) It was perfect comfort food in the midst of this very snowy month.

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup cottage cheese (not low fat)
2 cups milk (not skim)
1 teaspoon dry mustard
pinch cayenne
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 pound sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated (reserve 1/4 cup for topping)
1/2 pound elbow macaroni, uncooked

Heat oven to 375 degrees and use one tablespoon of butter to grease a 9-inch baking dish.

Blend up the cottage cheese, dry mustard, cayenne, salt, and pepper until really smooth.

Add the milk and blend.

Pour that mixture into a bowl.

Add the cheese...

And the uncooked macaroni.

Stir that up. It looks super unappetizing. ;)

Pour into your prepared baking dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove and stir a bit.

Sprinkle with the reserved cheese and dot with butter. Return to oven for another 30 minutes.

Then it looks all golden and delicious. :) Let it sit for 15 minutes before digging in.

Serve with something green. ;)

Final verdict: We all really liked it (even picky Leah, who has very strong feelings about macaroni and cheese). It worked well with GF pasta and it was great for how quick and easy it was to throw together. That said, I wanted it creamier. I like the taste of cheddar cheese, but I might mix it with a better melting cheese next time. I don't know. Maybe it's just the nature of baked mac and cheese, but it felt a little dry. But again, no one complained!

Happy Friday, friends!

SK week 7 | Black Bottom Cupcakes

Smitten Kitchen posted this recipe a week or two ago and I decided it sounded like a perfect dessert for Valentine's Day. So I made them for our Tuesday night friends this week and....everyone hated them. Kidding--but we'll get to the verdict later. ;)

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
(for the filling...)
8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 ounces chopped chocolate or 1/2 cup chocolate chips
(for the cupcakes...)
1 1/2 cups flour (I used GF)
5 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350 and take a mixer to the cream cheese.

Then beat in the sugar....

And the egg.

Stir in the chocolate chips (I ended up using mini chocolate chips, not the ones in the photo, because I didn't feel like chopping them).

Put that aside while you make the cupcake batter. (I actually stuck it in the fridge).

Measure your flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

Whisk those together and set aside. (If your flour or cocoa are lumpy, better sift them).

Combine your remaining ingredients--brown sugar, water, oil, vinegar, and vanilla.

Whisk those together.

Make a well in your dry ingredients...

And pour the wet mixture into it.

Stir together until just combined. Don't over mix.

Line your muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Fill the liners about half full with the cupcake batter.

Then grab your cream cheese mixture from the fridge. And grab a scoop or spoon.

Plop some of this mixture into each cup (it ended up being a scoop plus a little to use up all the cream cheese mixture).

Then top with a little more of the cupcake batter. (I started getting a little nervous here. These cups got really full. But it all worked out).

Swirl the tops of each cup to combine the two mixtures a little bit. Pop them in your preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes (mine needed an extra minute or two).

They definitely spilled over the edges a little bit, but not too bad. :) The centers will sink a little as they cool--perfectly normal.

Cool them on the counter and then stick them in the fridge before serving. They taste best cold with that cheesecake center. And no need for frosting--they're magical as is. ;)

Final verdict: We all loved them! And I was impressed that they translated to gluten-free so well without any other tweaks. We did kind of want some sort of fruit component. I'd even just drop a raspberry on each top, in that perfectly sunken center--that would be cute.

Overall these were pretty easy and definitely a crowd-pleaser. I'll for sure make them again! Enjoy!

My Valentine

Last weekend, Dan and I escaped to tropical (ha) Duluth and had just the best time. For the second year in a row, this is what we request as a Christmas gift from my parents--money toward a hotel and a weekend of watching our kids.

This particular trip was pretty cold and pretty snowy. Which was perfect for staying in and doing a whole lot of nothing! We ventured out (see photographic evidence below) for lunch on Saturday. And then back to our room and the romantic comedy marathon we'd happened upon earlier in the day.

At some point in the weekend, we realized that it was exactly 19 years ago that we were just starting to date. We'd started hanging out in January and were approaching our very fancy first "real date" on Valentines Day. More than once in the conversation, we said something along the lines of "What a difference 19 years makes!" (Oddly enough, I was 19 at the time. I have been with Dan as long as I was without him. Ha!)

Nineteen years ago we were young (so young!) and had no idea what lay ahead of us. We had no idea how much more we would love each other after almost 17 years of marriage and a handful of kids. We didn't know how hard life could be or how sweet. We certainly didn't know how much we'd enjoy a quiet hotel weekend, eating pizza in bed and watching Sweet Home Alabama. ;)

I love you, Dan Bennett! So glad you're mine. :)

So bright. So cold. 

SK week 6 | Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Does anyone else bake more in the winter? And does anyone else buy bananas mostly so they can sit on your counter and get perfectly ripe for banana bread? :) I have another recipe for chocolate banana bread, but I liked the simplicity of this one when I saw the recipe. My other one requires my mixer and calls for sour cream, which I don't always have on hand. Plus, it makes two loaves, which we can't quite get through before I feel like I should probably throw the rest away. (Yes, I should freeze the second loaf, and I have, but sometimes I don't think things through).

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
3 ripe bananas (about 1 cup mashed)
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flour (I used GF)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan.

Mash your bananas. I use a potato masher, but you do you.

Whisk in the melted butter,

the brown sugar,

and the egg and vanilla.

Measure the dry ingredients into a sifter.

No lumps!

Mix all that together.

Add the chocolate chips and mix again.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake 55-65 minutes. Check it with a toothpick--mine was good at about an hour.

Cool and try to resist cutting into it when it's piping hot.

I couldn't resist. ;) But I should have--either because it was a little too warm or because I made it gluten free, it was a little crumbly. But once it was room temp, it sliced much better and held its shape.

Final verdict: Big hit. I don't think my kids even knew it was a different recipe, and they love any and all banana bread. I liked that it was a one-bowl recipe with no oddball ingredients. :)

Have a wonderful weekend! Maybe enjoy all the snow we've acquired this week. ;) (And don't forget Giveaway Day is Sunday!)

SK week 5 | Buttermilk Roast Chicken

Happy Friday! Happy February! Happy "hey, the kids are back in school after four days off for snow and bitter cold" day!

I love chicken, but I think like most people, I get stuck in a rut of how I prepare chicken. So I'm always up for a new chicken recipe, and this one produced the most glorious comfort meal on a freezing, snowy day. :)

(Here's the Smitten Kitchen post)

You'll need:
2 cups buttermilk
5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 tablespoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
lots of ground black pepper
2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken pieces (Deb used all legs--I used breasts and thighs)
olive oil
kosher salt

You're going to whisk the garlic, salt, sugar, paprika, and black pepper into the buttermilk.

Whisk, whisk, whisk.

Put your chicken pieces in a ziplock bag and pour the buttermilk mixture over it.

Massage it around so all the pieces are covered. Then throw it in the fridge. This is basically a brine and it needs to sit for at least two hours, and Deb says up to 48 hours. I did this after church on Sunday and we had it for dinner on Monday. I'd say to aim for at least 24 hours.

After they've marinated, preheat your oven to 425 degrees and line a pan with foil and arrange the chicken.

Drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. The recipe also says to sprinkle with additional paprika, but I forgot. This goes into the oven for about 30 minutes for legs and closer to 40 for bigger pieces like this.

Yum. Love those browned skins.

Final verdict: This chicken was delicious. It was moist and really flavorful. And so easy--I'll definitely make this again! And so should you. :)