Easiest & Cheesiest One-Pot Mac & Cheese!

It's probably pretty safe to say that you're a mac & cheese fan... who isn't?  Better yet, who doesn't like extra-cheesy mac & cheese?  Even better yet... who doesn't like only using one pan to do it?!  This recipe is also easily made vegan (see below).

Here is what you need:

• 1 lb pasta (I used cavatappi)
• 1.5 pints (24 oz) heavy cream + 1 pint water, or 2.5 pints milk
• For a vegan option, use 2.5 pints (40 oz) of any non-dairy milk
• 12 oz cheese (I used original Velveeta this time, but next time I will try white cheddar!)
• For a vegan option, Daiya cheese substitutes are awesome!
• ~4 tbsp butter or margarine
• For a vegan option, Earth Balance spreads work wonderfully!
• salt, pepper, and other seasonings to taste (if desired)

Simple instructions:

1. Combine pasta and liquid(s) (cream + water / milk / non-dairy milk) in a large non-stick pan.  
2. Heat on high until boiling, then reduce heat so that liquid still boils consistently without frothing over.  Boil for about 10 minutes or until pasta is at desired tenderness, stirring often.
3. Once pasta is at desired tenderness, turn off heat and add remaining ingredients.  
4. Stir constantly until combined well (don't worry if it takes a few minutes for the cheese to melt).
5. Serve immediately.
    

That's it!  Super easy, super cheesy, super delicious.  Cooking the pasta in the milk is an awesome way to make sure the final product is perfectly creamy.  

Also, upon zooming in to the picture above, I created an awesome phone wallpaper for true mac & cheese fanatics:

Pretzel dogs - meat or vegetarian!

I have been craving both hot dogs and soft pretzels for weeks... so this was the perfect opportunity to put them together!  Even better, they are easily made vegetarian by using veggie dogs... those are actually the ones in the picture below!

This recipe was taken from The Slow Roasted Italian... if you haven't heard of her, go check out her other recipes and follow her on her Facebook page!  My sister Brittany and I made these together.  We made a couple minor adjustments to her recipe as we were making these; what we ended up doing is below.  Her original recipe can be found here.

These really came out delicious, although they took much longer to make than the estimate said.  For some reason, our dough took considerably more time and flour to come together.  It was definitely worth it in the end!  Here is what they looked like... recipe below.  

Pretzel Dogs 

by the Slow Roasted Italian;

minor changes by Brandon and Brittany Signorino

Ingredients:

2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast (~1 packet)

12 ounces warmed beer (110°-120°F)

2 tablespoons honey

4+ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup baking soda (for water)

1 large egg + a splash of water

coarse salt for topping (I used Hawaiian black salt)

8 hot dogs, regular or vegetarian

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 450°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside.

Pour beer into the bowl of a stand mixer, sprinkle yeast over top, add honey, and stir.  Allow yeast to bloom for 5-10 minutes.  Once it is nice and foamy, it is ready.

Fill an 8-quart pot with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  In a small bowl beat egg and 2 tablespoons water with a fork.  Set aside.  Wash a section of counter top for rolling out dough.  Do not flour the countertop or it will be harder to roll out the dough.

Add flour and salt to mixer.  Knead until the dough comes together in one ball.  Add more flour a tablespoon at a time as needed, if bread is too sticky to come together.  Dough should be tacky when you pull it out of the mixer, not sticky.

Place dough on counter top and form dough into a ball. We are going to cut this ball into 8 (somewhat) even pieces.  First quarter the ball of dough.  Then cut each quarter in half.  Roll each piece into a 12” strand. 

Place end of dough strand on the end of the hot dog pinching the end together, and then wrap it around the dog until all of the dough is wrapped around the dog.  Pinch the ends so they stay together.

Carefully, add baking soda to boiling water.  USE CAUTION:  IT WILL BUBBLE UP.  Place hot dogs into boiling water about 3 at a time.  Remove with a slotted spoon after 30 seconds.  Place on parchment paper to cool and repeat until all hot dogs have been boiled.

Arrange all pretzel dogs on parchment so they are not touching.  Brush egg wash onto each one and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Bake for 11-13 minutes until the tops are browned.

COOK’S NOTE:  

- We microwaved the beer in a glass microwave safe measuring cup, 15 seconds at a time until it was 110-120 degrees as measured by a thermometer.

Recipe developed by Donna Elick - The Slow Roasted Italian 

Copyright ©2014 The Slow Roasted Italian – All rights reserved.

Carbonara Alfredo Sauce

I participated in the 2017 North Central Latin Club Spaghetti Sauce Cook-off, as I have every year for about 10 years now, since I helped start the event when I was a student there.  As well as participating in the event itself and providing music entertainment, I also made a sauce.  You may remember that I won it one year, when I made my grandmother's traditional alfredo sauce.  This year, I decided to try something completely new, that I had not seen anyone else attempt.  I made a carbonara alfredo sauce... basically my version of a combination of two delicious sauces.  I mean, what could be better than copious amounts of both bacon and cheese?!

I forgot to get a picture of the sauce when it was finished, so there won't be a picture with this one... but it really did come out tasty.  I encourage you to try it and let me know how it comes out!

Carbonara Alfredo Sauce

by Brandon Signorino

Ingredients:
- ½ lb bacon, chopped into 1-inch strips
            `-> (pre-cooked bacon works well in this recipe, but fresh is obviously fine!)
- olive oil, if using pre-cooked bacon (just enough to crisp the bacon and sauté onions)
- ½ small onion (thinly sliced – I used a mandolin)
- ~3 tbsp garlic (minced)
- ~1 qt half & half (use heavy cream if you want a thicker sauce)
- 1-2 cups grated romano cheese
- 5 egg yolks (have them already separated into a medium mixing bowl)
- ½ lb frozen peas, completely thawed (canned works, if necessary)
- salt, white pepper, and dried parsley (to taste)

Procedure:
1.) Heat a large saucepan over med-high heat.  If using pre-cooked bacon, add enough olive oil to just coat the bottom of the pan, then crisp the bacon.  If using fresh bacon, simply cook the bacon.  You will use the rendered bacon fat to sauté the onions.
2.) Once the bacon is crispy, add onions & garlic and sauté until the onions are soft and the garlic is lightly toasted.
3.) Add the half & half, and heat until it is simmering, stirring frequently.  Once bubbles begin to appear, turn heat to low.
4.) Slowly add grated cheese, stirring constantly.  Make sure there are no lumps of cheese.  Once the cheese is incorporated, keep heat on very low and let simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from burning.
5.) Have the bowl of egg yolks ready, as well as a whisk; this next part must be done very efficiently, to avoid overcooking the eggs.  After letting the sauce simmer, turn the heat off.  Take a ladleful of it and add it to the mixing bowl with the egg yolks.  Immediately whisk to combine.  Move over to the saucepan, and gradually add the egg mixture to the sauce, whisking to incorporate.  Do not stop moving the whisk.  This part is very important, as you are tempering the eggs without scrambling them.
6.) Once the egg has been incorporated (you should not see any floating bits of egg yolk), add the seasonings and the peas to the sauce and combine well.  Serve over any pasta.

Notes:
- Try this recipe using bacon Spam diced into small cubes instead of real bacon… it crisps up the same way and is less messy than bacon, plus it is delicious.  Try it, and I promise you will be surprised how good it is!

Pasta carbonara!

Made pasta carbonara tonight... It didn't end up beautiful, but it is delicious!

Cook pasta.  Sauté bacon, garlic, then peas.  Mix two eggs (beaten) with a cup of parmesan.  Drain pasta, reserving half a cup of pasta water.  Turn off heat on sauté pan and add pasta immediately to it.  Add eggs mixture, and mix well until eggs are cooked.  The heat has to be turned off to avoid scrambling the eggs.  Very tasty!