Cooking: Mac and cheese

I love mac and cheese. It's such a simple concept, yet my recipes are anything but. Ryan and I love Ina Garten's Mac and Cheese, and that's how we fell in love with gruyere! It can be so stinky and attracts hoards of flies, but it's oh-so-delicious, and we always find ways to include it in our cooking.

Anyway, on to the recipe. This one was adapted from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld.

Ingredients:
3 cups elbow macaroni
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup nonfat (skim) milk
1 cup cauliflower puree (see below)
1 ½ cups shredded reduced fat Cheddar cheese
1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella provolone cheese
8 oz reduced fat or nonfat cream cheese
salt, pepper and paprika to taste


Directions:

Cauliflower Puree
Note: Cauliflower puree can be made in bulk and kept in the freezer.
Clean and cut florets and discard core. Steam for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain in a colander. Blend in food processer (blender) for about 2 minutes, with a few teaspoons of water, as needed, for a smooth, creamy texture.

Macaroni and Cheese
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add macaroni, and cook according to package directions until al dente. Drain in a colander.

While the macaroni is cooking, heat large saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter, then the flour, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture resembles a thick paste but has not browned, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the milk and cook, stirring every now and then, until the mixture begins to thicken, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vegetable puree, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, salt pepper, and paprika, and stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth. Stir in the macaroni.

Pour macaroni and cheese into a greased baking dish.

Add butter and bread crumbs on top of the macaroni and cheese.

Place baking dish in the oven on broil for approximately 10 minutes (or until bread crumbs are lightly toasted).

Unless you are having a panini party, you probably won't need the whole tray of mac and cheese. It's also best to use mac and cheese that has been refrigerated, as it hold firmly when you place it into the sandwich and proceed to press it for panini. So I suggest making the carnitas and mac and cheese on separate nights and then using the leftovers to make panini on the third night.


Other elements:

• Original post
  
• Slow-simmered carnitas
  
• Mac and cheese <--You are here
• Carmelized onions, building the panini
  
• Kale salad with soy citrus dressing

Sweet dreams of firearms and targets

When Ella was barely 2 weeks old, we propped a silhouette of daddy's AR on her arm.





Say what you may about our parenting, but I see nothing wrong with exposing my family to weapons -- presuming they are also exposed to lessons on safe-handling and responsible behavior. Yes, I do listen to country music. Yes, our house is protected by the Good Lord and our guns.

Anyway, back to my post. I was watching "Wild Target" with Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, and Rupert Grint. As quirky British comedies go, I loved the movie. Especially the scene in which assassin Victor shows Tony to his bedroom, in which there is a nursery mobile spinning above the bed. What's so great about this scene?





This.Mobile.Is.Awesome.



The internets returned no results relating to my query on how to go about building one of these. In fact, a search of "baby+mobile+firearm" showed results for "how to make a baby mobile using a glue gun" Say what? I asked for firearm, not gun.

You better believe if I find out Ella's having a sibling, I will be refashioning her zebra and elephant mobile to a hip firearm and target assortment, with pistols, gatling gun, and maybe an AR.  Or if someone starts selling them. Either way, I will be sure to post about it.

Please do not steal the picture of my Ella, that is mine. I do not have any claim on the movie stills shown here.

Cooking: Slow-simmered carnitas

Here we go! This was the first time I was making carnitas. In the 4 years of having a slow cooker, I have only used it to make chili or shoyu pork. I was a little nervous considering the ingredients, and previous failed attempts with altering recipes (to be shared with at a later time).

The pork came out delicious! I can imagine having them in a burrito or just served with mexican rice and a scoop of refried beans, with dollops of guacamole and sour cream. But, before I get carried away, here is the recipe I used.

Adapted from allrecipes.com - I didn't have coriander and I threw in an extra bay leaf since the turkish bay leaves I use are smaller than I see in the McCormick's bottles at the grocery store.

Ingredients:
1 tsp Kosher salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp crumbled dried oregano
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
4 lbs boneless pork shoulder roast
3 bay leaves
2 cans chicken broth

Directions:
Mix together salt, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, and cinnamon in a bowl. Coat pork with the spice mixture. Place the bay leaves in the bottom of a slow cooker and place the pork on top. Pour the chicken broth around the sides of the pork, being careful not to rinse off the spice mixture.

Cover and cook on low. Turn the meat after it has cooked for 5 hours. Cook until the pork shreds easily with a fork, about 10 hours total. When the pork is tender, remove from slow cooker, and shred with two forks. Use cooking liquid as needed to moisten the meat.


Other elements:

• Original post
  
• Slow-simmered carnitas <--You are here
  
• Mac and cheese
• Carmelized onions, building the panini
  
• Kale salad with soy citrus dressing

Cooking: Panini and salad

I know that title seemed really lame. I mean, REALLY. Panini and salad? I know titles can make all the difference but having a super long post title means a super long url (of course, not if you use a shortened link thing). Anyway, what this post really should have been called:

Slow-simmered carnitas with mac and cheese and carmelized onions bbq panini and kale salad with soy citrus dressing

Ryan came up with the idea after oogling at pictures of similar concoctions. He decided to make his panini with kalua pork instead of carnitas and an extra layer of cheddar.

Of course, you can take inspiration from here and come up with your own blend of store bought/personal recipes. But, want to know how I made it? Over the course of this week, I'll post up the recipes so you can make your own!


Other elements:

• Original post <--You are here
• Slow-simmered carnitas
  
• Mac and cheese
• Carmelized onions, building the panini
  
• Kale salad with soy citrus dressing

Follow along: Terra Scintilla Bracelet

I saw these super cute bracelets a few weeks ago and was totally inspired to make them as Christmas gifts for the tweens in our family.

(1) What in the the world are tweens?
It's the age between kid and teenager. They're too old to do the lame, childish stuff with their parents and younger siblings, and too young to be driven by hormonally emotional tantrums (but not immune to tantrums in itself). So youth ranging in ages 9 - 12.

(2) Gift giving, really?
I've always tried to justify the anti-gift. You know, the one where your parents give a blanket gift and you get a token appearance in the "From" portion of the gift tag? I justified, not giving a gift because a) I was just a kid, b) I'm young (in my career) and struggling with rent/mortgage, c) we're just not that close.
However, when you have kids, there's no excuse. People that aren't that close, with mortgages, start buying things for your kids. You want to tell them kindly, that it's not necessary, yet you find yourself receiving gifts all year round. So, you must reciprocate.

I try to come up with clever ideas or trendy gifts. I'm not really sure what tweens are into: one day it's Justin Bieber, the next it's Silly Bandz. Although I'm guessing I was similarly as finicky between Jonathan Taylor Thomas and slap bracelets (btw, did anyone else see those bright blingy slap watches at Nordstrom?!). Because of this similarity, I try to think, "Ok, so if I was in elementary school, would I be cool for having this, or a big joke?" And I know popularity isn't everything, but it counts for something. These diy bracelets fall under "cool" for me. I would love receiving them as a gift now, and I imagine I would have been complimented had I donned these in 6th grade.

I found a set of bangle bracelets on clearance at Icing for $6.50. It included 3 thinner bangles, 2 thick ones and one with a strip of rhinestone trim.




It was awesome that it had rhinestone trim. As I mentioned before, it's difficult finding things in Hawaii. You gotta be resourceful and make do. I just happened to be lucky.





Using some E-6000 (craft glue) I picked up at WalMart, I followed the instructions to attach the rhinestones to the thinner bangles. From this picture, you can see the 2 thicker ones that were included (I may just pair them with the crafted ones for a fun combo).





Also from WalMart, I picked up pretty colored Jute Cord for $3.99. I personally like the versatility of black and gray, so of course I opted for these instead of the neon variety.






A simple cobra knot covers the bangle and helps squeeze in extra knots to secure the rhinestones.





The picture doesn't quite do it justice (and I'm not about to figure out how to take pictures with Ryan's SLR, then upload them to my computer, bleh!), but it came out nice and I can see myself paying $26< at a boutique for a set of three.

After purchasing everything, it came out to less than $5.00 each. Keep in mind I didn't have bangle bracelets, rhinestone trim, decorative cord, or craft glue. I'm sure many crafters out there have most of these supplies and can just whip up something from their stash.

I definitely can raid my fabric scraps to make a little pouch to gift them. So all in all, a handmade, cute, affordable gift --and no embarassment come birthday or holiday!

Any ideas for gifts for the undertweens? I'm in need of gifts for kids under 7. Possibly this pretend make-up kit?