Yum O

What a busy day. Believe it or not Jim ate both French bread loaves that I made yesterday. So, when I got up, I reloaded the bread machine so we had bread to make lunch sandwiches. I know a lot of you have bread machines and they sit in the cupboard. Get them out; it is so easy. Today I made Pomegranate bread. I was looking in the book and there was a recipe for Cranberry juice bread. I didn’t have cranberry juice, but Pomegranate is red also. Just use your bread machine recipe and split the water to juice ratio half and half. I also added ¼ C of grape nuts. It was quite good. I made tuna sandwiches with it.


For dinner, I made mac n cheese. Once a year, I always desire mac and cheese and not the kind that comes in the blue box. If you want a really good standard mac and cheese, go to Martha and get the recipe for Macaroni and Cheese 101 as she calls it. Tonight’s mac and cheese was anything but standard and wonderful. It came from Rachael Ray’s Big Orange book. She calls it Austin Mac ‘n’ Cheese Suizas. She says serves 6. Tomorrow is my class day so I wanted leftovers for dinner tomorrow.

1# Cavatappi or other short-cut pasta. I had and used Ziti

1T EVOO

12 tomatillos

1 med onion

3 garlic cloves

2 Jalapenos

1t ground cumin

2 t honey

Handful of fresh cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

3 T butter

3T flour

1 C veg stock I had chicken stock left over and used it

2C whole milk Jim drank it all so I used 1C cream and 1C skim milk.

Salt and pepper

1C shredded Swiss cheese

1 C shredded Monterey Jack cheese

2C crushed flax seed tortilla chips (Available at Trader Joe)

1 C shredded Pepper Jack Cheese

1 C crème Fraiche (I forgot to serve)

Put on the pasta pot and bring salted water to a boil. Add the pasta when it is ready.

I used my Cuisinart for all the prep. I put the onions, garlic and jalapeno in and chopped. To a pan with the EVOO I added this mixture and cooked for 5 min. Next I chopped the tomatillos. Add them, cumin and salt, pepper and honey to the pot. Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes and stir in the cilantro and lime juice. I chopped the cilantro in the Cuisinart also.

Melt butter in a second pot; add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the milk, stock, salt and pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes to thicken. Stir in the Swiss and Monterey jack cheese which I also chopped in the Cuisinart. Pour the cheese mixture over the cooked drained pasta in a bowl.

Spray a 9 x 12 baking dish. Add ½ the pasta cheese mixture. Top with ½ the tomatillo mixture. Next, add the second half of the cheese pasta mixture and the remaining tomatillo mixture. Top with the crushed tortilla chips and the pepper jack cheese. Brown the top under the broiler. Serve with the crème fraiche, which I forgot to serve.

This is the best Macaroni and cheese I have ever tasted. If I didn’t have a million more recipes to try, I’d make it again.

Jim served a Beachaven Riesling as it was in the refrigerator. It was definitely the wrong wine for this dish. An icey Pinot Grigio would have been better.