Martha's Mac and Cheese

Now I am not that big of a fan of Martha Stewart, but I do realize that she does have some recipes I definitely respect. The first was her buttermilk pancakes..and just recently when I was looking for good mac and cheese recipes, I found that a lot of people really like the Martha Stewart's mac and cheese recipe. It's called Martha's perfect macaroni and cheese recipe. It's pretty good.


*The original recipe calls for 12 servings so I just halved the recipe shown below.

6 slices good-quality white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces**
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for dish
5 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 1/2 cups (about 18 ounces) grated sharp white cheddar
2 cups (about 8 ounces) grated Gruyere or 1 1/4 cups (about 5 ounces) grated pecorino Romano
1 pound elbow macaroni

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 3-quart casserole dish; set aside. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, heat milk. Melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a high-sided skillet over medium heat. When butter bubbles, add flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.


Slowly pour hot milk into flour-butter mixture while whisking. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick.


Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups cheddar, and 1 1/2 cups Gruyere or 1 cup pecorino Romano. Set cheese sauce aside.



Fill a large saucepan with water. Bring to a boil. Add macaroni; cook 2 to 3 fewer minutes than manufacturer's directions, until outside of pasta is cooked and inside is underdone. (Different brands of macaroni cook at different rates; be sure to read the instructions.) Transfer the macaroni to a colander, rinse under cold running water, and drain well. Stir macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.


Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheddar and 1/2 cup Gruyere or 1/4 cup pecorino Romano; scatter breadcrumbs over the top. Bake until browned on top, about 30 minutes. Transfer dish to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes; serve.

**I did not use white bread to make bread crumbs, I just used bread crumbs I had already. For cheese, I made sure I got good quality white cheddar and percorino romano. The cheese will be the biggest purchase for this recipe as both cheese can be fairly pricey. However, I do believe that the quality of cheese did make a difference in this recipe.

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/perfect-macaroni-and-cheese

BBQ Carmelized Onion and Tomato Pizza

I have been loving the fact that I can make my own homemade pizzas. It does take some time to make the dough but it's definitely worth it! One day I decided to make half a caramelized onion pizza, and half tomato pizza. I used the recipe for the Flat bread dough

After the dough has fully risen, I rolled out the dough, and laid it out on parchment paper that had been greased with olive oil and a sprinkling of corn meal. And then the rest is a piece of pizza ;)

I caramelized a whole onion - and on half the pizza, spread BBQ sauce and mozzarella cheese and then sprinkled the caramelized onions on top. On the other half of the pizza I spread tomato sauce on, sprinkled mozzarella cheese and layered some tomatoes on the pizza.

I baked it in a preheated oven set at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. And then poof! You have homemmade pizza!