Baked Mac and Cheese

My goodness it has been a long time since the last time I posted a recipe!! WAAAY too long!  I am hiding my head in shame....but honestly my excuse is only because life has simply grabbed ahold of me and wouldn't let me deviate from taking care of my kiddios by making sure they were feed, cleaned and most importantly HAPPY! I have often looked at my computer longingly , wishing to sit down in front of it and type out a blog post but then I suddenly get pulled in another direction and then yet another day goes by without a blog post.  I know you guys get it.  I'm sure you totally get it as the very same thing happens to many of you mommas or not.  But most importantly know that I've missed all of you! - my dear and precious followers and fellow bloggers.  I've so missed you!

Anyway, upward and onward with my recipe today that I wish to share with all of you...Baked Mac and Cheese!!!!   Like Chocolate Chip cookies I am always looking for a new and super yum recipe for Mac n Cheese.  I make it often (from the box and from scratch) so it's fun to switch it up a bit and make a different recipe every once and awhile from the one I use most often.

This recipe is great.  Full of good cheese, a dab of sour cream and even a couple eggs and viola the magic of pasta and cheese come together to form a lovely dish of Mac and Cheese.  The credit of this recipe goes to the fabulous Tina of Mommy's Kitchen who found the recipe from the good ole adorable Deen Brothers (Paula must be SO proud of them!!!).

Baked Mac and Cheese

(recipe found on Mommy's Kitchen from the Deen Brothers cookbook, Recipes From the Road)

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (or small pasta of your choice)

4 cups shredded cheese - I used a mixture of Colby Jack and Cheddar (yummy combo!!)

1 cup milk - whole milk is suggested, I used 2% and it was great

1/2 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 tsp salt

dash of hot sauce - optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish - set aside.

2. Cook pasta according to directions on package.  Drain pasta and return to pot that it was cooked in.

3. While pasta is still HOT add in the cheeses and stir well to combine.  Spread pasta and cheese mixture into prepared baking dish.

4. Whisk together milk, sour cream, eggs, butter pieces, salt and hot sauce (if you are using it) in a medium bowl.  Pour mixture over macaroni and cheese.

5. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and bubble good.  Let stand out of oven for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!!!

Happy Baked Mac and Cheese!

WINNER is announced and a LOVELY PD Gelatin Salad

OMHappiness!!!!  The WINNER has been chosen for the yummy True Nuts give-away! 

I'm delighted to announce that the #10 comment on my give-away post has been drawn from random.org.....YES, the lovely Ingrid of Baseball, Baking and Books has been chosen! Congrats Ingrid!  I will be contacting you soon to get your home address to mail away your yummy nuts.  :-)

Along with my happiness over Ingrid winning The True Nut give-away I'm delighted to share with you a very special recipe.  Special in what way you ask? Well, let's just say that I have finally come across a PD (Paula Deen) recipe that does NOT contain butter.  That's right NO butter exists in this recipe from the sweet southern gal we all love.  I know, I know this may not really be fair because the recipe I'm about to share with you is a gelatin mold salad so why would it even be possible for butter to be an ingredient in it?  Just wondering....have you ever heard of a gelatin mold that has butter in it?  Me neither (so far).  But the reality of this d'lish gelatin salad mold that PD created is that it has a lovely nutty cream cheese filling that could easily have a little butter added to it......but PD held herself back and didn't do it!  I'm proud of you girl! ;-)

I made this gelatin salad for Turkey Day.  It was a BIG hit and it was easy to put together along with wonderful flavors from the combination of pineapple, cranberry and raspberry.   I will definitely be making this recipe again....most likely for Christmas dinner.

Cranberry Pineapple Gelatin Salad

(recipe from Paula Deen)

Ingredients:

2 (3oz.) packages raspberry gelatin

1/2 envelope unflavored gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup cold water

1 (8oz.) can crushed pineapple in its own juice

1 (15oz.) can whole cranberry sauce

1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts (optional....I didn't add these)

Filling Ingredients:

1 (8oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp whipping or heavy cream

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Spray a 4 cup gelatin mold or a 9x9 square pan with non-stick spray.  Set aside.

2. Combine 2 boxes of raspberry jello and non-flavored gelatin in a glass bowl.  Add in 1 cup boiling water...

 and stir with a metal spoon until the gelatin is completely dissolved - about 2 minutes of continual stirring.

3. Stir in 1/2 cup of cold water.

4. Add the crushed pineapple (and it's juice) along with cranberry sauce and chopped nuts (if you wish).....

  Stir well with a metal spoon until all ingredients are completely incorporated.

5. Pour mixture into prepared mold....

  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm - at least 4 hours (or overnight as I did).

6. Make filling by combining softened cream cheese, powdered sugar and whipping/heavy cream....

  Beat until smooth with a hand held mixer.  Add in chopped nuts and mix to combine. Set aside.

7. About an hour before serving gelatin salad remove from refrigerator and invert onto a serving platter.  Allow to sit at room temperature and the mold will release itself and come clean from the mold. 

8. Once gelatin has been removed from mold gently fill or top with filling....

Yummy!  What treat of a gelatin salad!

Happy Pineapple-Cranberry Gelatin Salad Making!

Blueberry Gems and a MckLinky for "Blueberry" recipes :-)

I just adore blueberries!  I adore their color, their taste, their size.....even their smell.  I LOVE blueberries. Picking blueberries makes me happy....it's almost like a form of therapy because it is such peaceful, non-stressful and relaxing activity for me.   I am seriously counting down the days until blueberries are actually ready to pick here in NH (for those of you local to the Southern NH area - Monadnock Berries is the best place to go around here).

 And I LOVE baking with blueberries too! Don't you?  What is your favorite recipe to bake with blueberries?  Please do share with MckLinky at the bottom of this post. 

I have tried a lot of blueberry muffin recipes over the years - some are definitely better than others.  One of my most favorite recipes for blueberry muffins I am sharing with you today - Blueberry Gems.  And guess where I found this recipe??!!???  YES, from one of my top beloved Queens of Cooking (QOC) - Paula Deen.  She is a gem....just like these muffins. :-)

Start off by gathering your ingredients for this recipe - which believe it or not does NOT include any butter!!!  Yes, you are reading that correctly.....NO butter in a Paula Deen recipe.  I don't know what got into her when she created this recipe but there is absolutely NO butter in it.  Just good old fashioned oil.

Now, this recipe is so easy to make so don't hesitate to invite a little one to join you in the making of it. I asked Jolie (my daughter) to join me - as I often do when I bake - and she invited her dolly "Sarah" to join us too.   They both did a fabulous job mixing up the self-rising flour and sugar. :-)

Make a little "well" in the flour mixture after you are done combining the ingredients together.  This is where you will ever so gently pour the wet mixture into the bowl.

I find that whisking the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla extract together works best.

And now you pour your wet mixture as seen below in the "well" of the flour mixture.

Mix all together until almost combined and then add in blueberries.  The key to this recipe is to NOT over- mix the batter.  This is the biggest reason why I add in the blueberries before the wet and dry ingredients are completely mixed together....it allows everything to be mixed together BEFORE over-mixing the batter. 

You can either use regular size muffin tins or mini muffin tins.  And you can either grease the muffin tins or use muffin liners.  It is your preference.

This recipe makes at least 12-16 regular size muffins OR 24-26 mini muffins.

Ok, enough fooling around.  Here is the recipe......

Blueberry Gems

(from Paula Deen's cookbook,  Paula Deen Celebrates!)

Ingredients:

2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/2 cups sugar (you could easily decrease the sugar to 1 1/4 cups if you wish to do so)

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup whole milk (I used 2%)

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (I used frozen)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease or line muffin tin/tins.

2. Combine flour and sugar in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.  Set aside.

3. Whisk together eggs, vanilla, oil and milk in a small bowl.  Gently pour liquid mixture into well of the flour mixture. Mix with spoon until just combined.

4. Add in blueberries - gently fold into batter.

5. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.

6. Bake for 23-25 minutes for regular size muffins. 15-17 minutes for mini size muffins.  Muffins will be nicely browned and puffed when done.

Enjoy!

Please do share your favorite BLUEBERRY recipe!!!

Just click on the link below to share......

(I only meant to post one MckLinky but being my 1st time doing this I messed up so just pretend you only see one MckLinky and use the 1st one).

This recipe has been linked to Hoosier Homemade and Mommy's Kitchen :-)