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Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Sweetie Pie’s Macaroni and Cheese

Here is some creamy, cheesy, delicious macaroni and cheese from a famous St. Louis soul food eatery!  It is hard to turn down a comfort food like this one. Try it—you’ll see what I mean.
Macaroni and cheese

Sweetie Pie’s Macaroni and Cheese

Sweetie Pie's Macaroni and Cheese

  • Author:
  • Recipe Type: Casserole Recipes, Copycat Restaurant Recipes, CopyKat Recipes, Pasta Recipes
  • Prep time: 25 minutes
  • Cook time: 45 minutes
  • Serves: 8
Here is some creamy, cheesy, delicious macaroni and cheese from a famous St. Louis soul food eatery! It is hard to turn down a comfort food like this one. Try it—you’ll see what I mean.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound elbow macaroni pasta
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 2 cans (12 ounce) evaporated milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup butter (2 sticks) cut into small pieces
  • 1/2 pound Colby cheese, shredded
  • 1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
  • 1/2 pound sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 1 pound Velveeta cheese, cut into small chunks
  • Salt, to taste
  • 1 tablespoon white pepper
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 cup shredded American or Mild Cheddar cheese

Instructions

Heat oven to 350F.  Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and transfer the pasta to a 9×13-inch casserole dish. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the whole milk, evaporated milk and eggs. Mix with a fork until thoroughly combined. Add the butter and Colby, Monterey Jack, Sharp Cheddar, and Velveeta cheeses to the pasta. Pour the milk and egg mixture over the pasta. Season with salt, pepper and sugar, and toss. Sprinkle the top of the pasta with the remaining cup of American or Cheddar cheese. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes (or until the top is lightly golden brown).

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Never Grow Celery Again

How to re-grow celery from the base thank you Robin Shreeves for this post!
New celery will grow from the base of a used stalk. Give it a try. For your efforts, you'll get a free, edible stalk of celery in a few months and a fun experiment for the kids to keep an eye on all summer vacation.


Regrowing celery
Photo: Robin Shreeves
Granted, this may not be the way to solve the world’s hunger problems, but it’s a fun experiment. I saw a photo of celery re-growing on Pinterest, and I decided to give it a try.
I followed the Pinterest photo back to its original source on the 17 Apart blog and followed the instructions. Take the base from a stalk of celery, rinse it off, and put it in a shallow cup of warm water on a window sill. Change the water daily and keep an eye on it to see if any regrowth begins. As you can see from the photos below, there were significant signs of regrowth within five days.
Day 1: Celery base put in water.
Day 5: Celery base after five days of the experiment. Water was changed daily.
There was little to do except change the water and look at it daily for changes. As the middle of the base of celery began to re-grow healthy, dark green leaves and eventually stalks, the outside of the base began to turn brown and break down. That seemed perfectly natural, and I assumed that when I finally planted the stalk in soil, the outside would continue to break down and create natural nutrients for the new growth.
Day 8: Celery base with impressive, healthy regrowth.
It took only eight days for the regrowth to get to the point where I needed to transplant it into soil. My son and I took a container, filled it with organic potting soil, and planted the re-growing celery in the container. We placed it on top of one of the cinder blocks that border my vegetable garden so the rabbits couldn’t get reach it. We probably should have surrounded it with barbed wire, too, because within two days, it had been eaten down to a nub. The %$&* squirrels got to it! I didn’t take any photos of the celery in the soil, but for the two days it was in there, it continued to thrive. It didn’t seem to suffer any transplant shock at all.
I suppose I’ll have to console myself with the fact that the regrowth did end up as food — even if it wasn’t food I got to feed my family. It would have been great to watch the celery grow into a full stalk to harvest later in the summer and eat (and then see if we could get the base from the new stalk to re-grow). But, I saw enough of the regrowth to know that this was an experiment worth sharing. If you’re curious, give it a try. And, if you have children who are getting out of school just about now, this would be an easy, fun garden/science experiment to do with them over the summer.
From what I read from various sources, it takes two to three months (sometimes longer) for a mature stalk to grow. During that time, kids could be keeping a regrowth journal, recording what they see, measuring the height of the regrowth, and taking photos. My 10-year-old (yes, the 9-year-old I always write about turned 10 last week) eagerly checked on the celery every day and took some photos.
You can also re-grow green onions from their roots after you’ve used the green part. I think I may try that next. I don’t think the squirrels would be as likely to eat them.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Lemon Cake

lemoncake2


Lemony Lemon Cake

FINALLY!! A  Great Lemon Cake




Lemon Cake
source: Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Parties!
  • 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
  • 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1/3 cup grated lemon zest (6 to 8 large lemons)
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, divided
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the glaze:

  • 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 (8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch) loaf pans. You may also line the bottom with parchment paper, if desired.
  2. Cream the butter and 2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, and the lemon zest.
  3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, the buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Divide the batter evenly between the pans, smooth the tops, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.
  4. Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. When the cakes are done, allow to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and set them on a rack set over a tray or sheet pan; spoon the lemon syrup over them. Allow the cakes to cool completely.
  5. For the glaze, combine the confectioners’ sugar and the lemon juice in a bowl, mixing with a wire whisk until smooth. Pour over the tops of the cakes and allow the glaze to drizzle down the sides.