I'm good at blogging!

Two entries in a row, I'm on a roll! At least for tonight :) My wonderful husband was going to make us dinner tonight, but we came to discover that we were missing half the ingredients for his tator tot hotdish. So we swapped meals and I made mac and cheese tonight and he can cook for me tomorrow while I watch Grey's. This was my first attempt at homemade, and it turned out pretty good. I thought it was a little heavy on the breadcrumbs, but the husband liked them.

Looking at these pictures makes me realize that I need to learn how to use my camera. They're pretty horrible (as in, the top of the dish is not actually burnt like it looks!). It doesn't help that it now gets dark more than an hour before I even get to leave work :( Crazy winter in Minnesota...

Fannie Farmer's Classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese
(from Recipezaar)

1 (8oz) package macaroni
4 T. butter
4 T. flour
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
1/2 tsp. salt
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups good quality shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup buttered breadcrumbs

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Cook and drain macaroni according to package directions; set aside.
3. In a large saucepan melt butter.
4. Add flour mixed with salt and pepper, using a whisk to stir until well blended.
5. Pour milk and cream in gradually; stirring constantly.
6. Bring to boiling point and boil 2 minutes (stirring constantly).
7. Reduce heat and cook (stirring constantly) 10 minutes.
8. Add shredded cheddar little by little and simmer an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese melts.
9. Turn off flame.
10. Add macaroni to the saucepan and toss to coat with the cheese sauce.
11. Transfer macaroni to a buttered baking dish.
12. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs (I added some parmesan too).
13. Bake 20 minutes until the top is golden brown.

I'm bad at blogging :(

I made these cupcakes a couple weeks ago, and I'm just now getting around to blogging about them. Sorry folks! Rest assured, though they are long gone, they were loved during the short time they spent with us. I brought them to work, as I do with most of my baked goods, and my office raved about them (ok, they rave about everything to be nice, but this seemed extra sincere!). I have Amber at Amber's Delectable Delights to thank for this! You can find her original recipe here. I wanted cupcakes, so my changes for baking are below. And, obviously, my husband liked them too!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I omitted this and increased the apple sauce to 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups pumpkin
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil, apple sauce and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spoon batter evenly into lined muffin tin. (This made about 19 cupcakes for me.) Check at 20 minutes, remove from oven when toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
(from RecipeZaar)
Ok, so if my cookbook on RecipeZaar would open I would gladly post the link and the actual recipe, but we'll have to make do. This is what I remember: cream cheese (16 oz, I think), butter (1 stick), vanilla (1 tsp.?) and powdered sugar (um...a cup? two cups?). I put in a little less cream cheese, because I wanted it sweeter. This made A TON, so I'd recommend halving the recipe.