Cheesy American Goulash

A classic American ground beef goulash casserole with a cheesy kick. Give it a try today and you'll have an easy tasty everyday dish that will be a favorite of kids and the whole family.

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30 Minute Spicy Sausage Pasta

A 30 minute one pan wonder. Packed full of flavor, this easy weeknight recipe will have them asking for more.

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Pasta Salad with Fresh Mozzarella, Basil and Tomatoes

Fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, fresh cherry tomatoes... starting to get the theme here... FRESH. It is still summer and we can all use another great side dish and this will be a hit with the whole family.


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Taco Casserole

A family friendly easy baked taco casserole that has great spiciness just in time for Cinco de Mayo. Think of it as a Mexican comfort food.

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Uncooked Macaroni Crock Pot Mac and Cheese

Great taste, wonderful creamy texture in the easiest creamiest slow cooker mac and cheese you will ever see. You can make this tonight. No blue box for you.

Just put that uncooked macaroni in the crockpot. Yep, uncooked. Add some milk and spices. Cook. Then add cheese and in a few minutes you're done.  No can of soup needed. Serve FRESH today.

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One Pot Stove Top Mac and Cheese

One pot, stove top, no precooking the pasta plus it's creamy and very tasty.

I needed a simple side dish for my chicken salad lunch. I had seen this technique/recipe around several places but I'll give the inspired by to Stephanie at Plain Chicken with her One Pot Mac and Cheese which was adapted from whiteonricecouple.com.  If you need a mac and cheese recipe, Plain Chicken is the go to blog.

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Baked Chicken Spaghetti

Everybody loves chicken with pasta. Here is a great tasting recipe that is weeknight simple but tasty enough for company. Make it ahead and pop it in the oven when you need it.

I have tried baked spaghetti before but the recipes always had to much pasta that was mushy. They were just wrong. I started with my chicken marinara then added some tomato paste to deepen the taste. I then undercooked 8 oz of spaghetti by 2 minutes. Mixed in some grated Parmesan. I then mixed the sauce a little into the pasta and topped with some mozzarella and more grated parmesan until browned. About 25 minutes.

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Creamiest Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese

A creamy tasty mac and cheese recipe that is slow cooker simple. Good enough to make my "in-house mac and cheese expert" go back for seconds and talk about variations we can try with glee in her voice.

UPDATE Jan 13,2013: Newer version available with even less work and just as creamy.  

Creamy Crock Pot Mac and Cheese with Uncooked Macaroni (linky)

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Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage

A quick and easy pasta dish with spicy Italian Sausage. Made from scratch with a tasty home made marinara sauce.

I started by browning a good quality Italian Sausage with chopped onion. Then added a modified version of my 30 minute marinara sauce. Mixed with cook pasta some mozzarella and topped with more mozzarella.

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Chicken Parmesan - An Easy Company Feast

I always judge an Italian restaurant on their Chicken Parmesan and frequently find them lacking.  Usually dry and tasteless covered by a sauce to hide their sins. I'm very picky. But I really like mine. This is a modified version a CI recipe called Lighter Chicken Parmesan. It is excellent and not too hard to make at home.

It is a wonderful company recipe and I have used it several times as the evening meal before a major holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas. Great for casual dining and conversation with wine. 

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Spicy Parmesan Chicken Alfredo

All recipes have a story and this one starts at Red Lobster. We were out and about last week and needed dinner. We were close to a lot of restaurants but my wife loves sea food but I'm from Iowa and as a rule, if it doesn't moo, oink or cluck you don't eat or cook it. But I suggested Red Lobster since she is a good wife and should have sea food occasionally and I can eat sea food or find something else (thinking cheese cake maybe).

She had a sea food combo and I skipped the cheese cake and went with the Cajan Chicken Alfredo. Frankly, I had a good meal with great taste, her's had no taste. I mean really tasteless. I tried it. Maybe I have spoiled her (and me) with my cooking???  I wanted to make it up to her so the next day though I would give her some great spicy taste. It worked, she cleaned her plate. Good Girl.

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KitchenAid Pasta Attachment - A Review

Just call this a toy report. One of the cool things about having a Kitchen Aid stand mixer is all the associated toys. I had my eye on the pasta attachment for the last year. In fact, I think I got the mixer in someway aiming for this attachment. Well this year, it went on and off my Amazon wish list several times. I thought I left it off finally but in one of the trips on and off the list, one of my daughters went for it. So it was a complete surprise.

A few weeks ago Rex at Savory Reviews ran his through a first run with inspiring results. So we had left over Chicken Parmesan that my wife made (excellent with some pepperoni for allot of taste). A great time for a trial run on my day off.

I cut the recipe in half (we are cooking for two remember). The final result were very good but I had a stumble or two to mention in-spite of the hints Rex had. The dough was too dry. I initially went with the recipe provided by Kitchen Aid, but in the end, I needed an extra teaspoon of water to make the dough hold together through the roller. I though it was too dry when I did the hand kneading but left it. I added the extra water when I found the dough would not hold together through the roller. I think that cutting the recipe may have had something to do with this.  

Recipe

1 3/4 cup AP flour
2 large eggs

1/4 t salt

1 1/2 t water (plus 1 t that I think is needed)

Method

1) Combine all ingredients in the bowl and mix on 2 for 30 seconds.

Too Dry!!

2) Move to surface and knead for 2-3 minutes by hand to combine all dough.

3) Let set for 20 minutes.

Also too dry, I added a small amount of water here.

4) Divide in half  and flatten to about 1/8 inch by hand. Start with the roller set to 1. Your initial few passes with by raggedy. Keep folding the dough in half and reincorporating any separated dough.

5) After 4-5 passes you should have a sheet of dough. Now change the setting to 2 and do several passes. Continue to narrow the roller until you have the desired thickens. I went for 4 in thickness.

6) Now change to the desired cutter and make your pasta.

7) Cook for 2-5 minutes.

 Conclusions
A very nice toy. There is a small learning curve. I was very afraid of cleanup before I read the instructions. I imagined soaking the thing and have multiple parts to clean, NOPE, just wipe it off and let any stuck dough dry and then brush off. 

The results even here on my first try were better than a restaurant. Now that I have had my learning curve about the dough consistency, it will be much faster next time. With all my fumbling tonight, it was about 50 minutes until we were eating. Cut about 10 minutes off that for the learning curve thing. 
 

 

Almost Low Fat Chicken Alfredo Bake with Bite

Well, I had good intentions and if you took out the bacon, it would be less than 10 grams of fat per serving. I started just to make a simple low fat chicken Alfredo baked pasta dish. I got a little side tracked with adding a touch of Penne Rustica from Macaroni Grill. It's a favorite of my wife and daughter so I added some touches from that dish. The final dish is a baked chicken Alfredo with some bite... very nice.

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Roadhouse Mac and Cheese

Listed as the top Mac and Cheese by Alton Brown  in Food Network's "America's Best: Top 10 Comfort Foods", Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor is a local tradition. We're off to AA for football tomorrow and my daughter (and wife) loves this mac and cheese so I though I would give it a try. Zingerman's actually posted the recipe for this one so no guessing and I really tried to follow the recipe. The changes were those you may need to make for convenience, no raw milk cheese around this area and a different pasta.

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Mac and Cheese for the "Mac and Cheese Hater"

I hate the blue box. You know the one. The one the kid love that goes to prove that taste buds are defective before puberty. The runny yellow stuff that passes for cheese. My kid would wolf it down especially if there were hot dogs in it. Well there is a better way.

Months ago my nurse practitioners dragged me to a restaurant that has a variety of mac and cheese as their specially. Very good. Definitely not the blue box stuff. Then last week my wife broke into the "yellow box" mac and cheese for lunch that we had on hand for the grandchild. I had forgot how much she likes it so I went in search of a recipe.

My criteria would be:
1) Common ingredients, preferably all things I have in the house at all times.
2) Not runny
3) Parmesan and bread crumb topping.
4) A little spice for taste.

First I did a Google search and got the "Ronald Reagan's Mac and Cheese" recipe. If Ronnie liked it, it can't be bad. But it looked runny. I checked CI and got a recipe that would take hours to make but at least had some good tips. I continued to look and as I cruised the blogs I found a good start at Plain Chicken. I love this site and she has 8 mac and cheese recipes ( I think I counted right). I wanted her most recent recipe "Southern Style Mac and Cheese"   which she modified from The Deen Family Cookbook. The egg and sour cream should give me the texture I wanted. But I added Parmesan bread crumbs on top and added some cayenne pepper for taste.

Results  9.2 Taste 9.5 Ease 9
Time Prep 15 minutes and cooking 35 minutes
Health-O-Meter 0.0

Notes: The eggs add the structure I wanted. I didn't have the traditional elbow macaroni but I used whole wheat penne. I also substituted Colby-jack cheese for half the cheddar for a different taste. And lastly used a shallow baking dish so I could have more topping. I love the taste and crunch of the topping,

Tools: Shallow baking dish

Ingredients

8 oz  Pasta of your choice
4 T butter
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t dry mustard
1/8-1/4 t cayenne pepper (your taste)
2 cups cheese of your choice (I used 1 c sharp cheddar and 1 cup Colby-jack)

Topping
4 T butter
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1) Cook pasta fully per instructions on box. Do not under cook. Preheat oven to 375 convection. Proceed with next steps will cooking.
2) In large bowl, place 4 T butter and microwave for 20 seconds or so to just melt butter.
3) Add eggs, milk, sour cream, salt, pepper, mustard and cayenne pepper. Whisk until mixed well.

4) In a small skillet, melt 4 T butter over medium heat. Add bread crumbs and mix well. Remove from heat and allow to cook for several minutes then add parmesan and mix well.

5) When pasta is done, drain well and add to egg mixture. Add shredded cheese and mix well.

6) Spray pan with PAM and add mixture. Add topping.

7) Cook until top is brown and internal temp is 160 degrees. About 35 minutes.

 Printable Recipe

Chicken Baked Ziti

Very Italian. A little heat and great taste that will warm you to the bone.

"It was a cold and rainy night." Not really, but it is cold and rainy today and I have been working on combining some recipes this week and needed to just dive in and do it. Ever since my "Chicken Italian Bake" which was a modification of a Giada De Laurentiis recipe, I have needed to "fix it". Here it is and it worked very nicely.


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