Caprese Mac and Cheese

Summer is here! You know what that means... fresh tomatoes... fresh basil... this calls for "caprese-ing" everything! I've made caprese risotto, caprese orzo pasta salad, caprese bruschetta... adding tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella to everything is what it's all about. This time, I made Caprese Mac and Cheese.  I seriously love this recipe.  It's so easy, but looks fancy.  You can serve it with anything on the grill and it's not as "boring" as regular mac and cheese.  Serve it to your guests and you will blow them away... or just make it for a quick and easy dinner! We served it with BBQ chicken sandwiches and it was a huge hit for our 11 month old.  I seriously have never seen him eat that much for dinner in his little life.  I'm adding it to his "favorite meals" list so we can make this more often.  Enjoy!

Caprese Mac and Cheese

Serves: 10-12 as a side dish

Ingredients:

1 16 oz package of elbow noodles (rice noodles for gluten free)

2 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. flour (use rice flour for gluten free)

1-2 cups of milk (I used whole, but use what you have on hand)

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 pint of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

10-12 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a medium sauce pot, boil noodles according to package instructions (7-10 minutes, don't overcook as they will continue to cook in the sauce) Strain and set aside until needed.

Meanwhile, make a roux in a large sauce pot.  Melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk butter and flour for 2 minutes on low heat and then add 1 cup of milk.  Turn heat to medium high and whisk until there are no more flour clump.  Turn to low and let thicken gradually whisking as you go.  Add the shredded cheese and whisk until melted, adding milk if needed.  

Pour the noodles into the sauce and stir. Add more milk to make creamier.  At the very end, add tomatoes and basil and give a quick stir.  Salt and pepper to taste. 

That's it!

Homemade Bagels with Cinnamon Cream Cheese

I've been making a lot of bread items lately because... well they are just so much better than store bought anything!  I love love love bagels, but am finding that the store bought ones are just tasting fake to me. I know, I'm a bread snob.  But you just can't get home made fresh awesomeness in the store.  

These were terrific!  Exactly what I needed to get my fix.  And the cinnamon cream cheese was just an added bonus, I just happened to have cream cheese on hand.  These would be awesome and easy to make ahead and serve to overnight guests with some fruit and a cup of coffee! Oh man, I think I might have to make these again this weekend!  

Baby is up from his nap so I'll stop yackin and let you get to baking!

Enjoy!

Bagels
Makes: 6

Ingredients:

Dough
1 Tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup lukewarm water
3 1/2 cups unbleached organic flour

Poaching Liquid
2-3 quarts water
1 1/2 tablespoons honey (optional)
1 Tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt


Directions: 
To make the dough, stir the honey, yeast and water into a large mixing bowl or bowl of your stand mixer.  Let sit for 5-10 minutes until it becomes foamy.  Add the flour and salt to the mixer and mix with the dough hook on lowest speed for 3 minutes, until well blended.  The dough should form a stiff ball, but should be plenty hydrated.  If it isn't add water. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. 

Resume mixing with dough hook on low for another 3 minutes, or transfer to a floured work surface and knead by hand for 3 minutes. The dough should be stiff, but barely tacky feeling.  If it seems too soft or tacky, add flour. 

Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or wet towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. 

To shape the bagels, prepare a sheet pan with parchment paper or silicone mat, then lightly coat it with oil. Divide the dough into 6-8 equal pieces.  Form each piece into a lose ball.  Roll the ball into an 8 inch rope.  Hold one end of the rope in your hand and wrap around hand, overlap the two ends by 2 inches and press the ends together to seal.  You can then play with it to even out the thickness. 

Place each shaped bagel on the prepared sheet pan and mist with a light coating of oil. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night. (I made these once refrigerating the and once without and there wasn't a huge difference, they are better refrigerated, but it's not going to ruin them if you don't have the time.)

Remove bagels from the refrigerator 60-90 minutes before you plan to bake them and let them rest.  About 30 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 500 F.  

To make the poaching liquid, fill a large pot with 2-3 quarts of water, making sure the water is at least 4 inches deep.  Cover and bring to a boil, then lower heat to maintain a simmer.  Stir in the honey, baking soda and salt. 

Gently lower each bagel into the poaching liquid, making sure not to overcrowd the pot. They should float to the surface within 15 seconds.  After 1 minute, use a slotted spoon to turn each bagel over.  Poach or another 30-60 seconds, then use a slotted spoon to transfer it back to the baking pan. 

When all bagels are poached, transfer the pan of bagels to the over, then lower heat to 450F.

Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate pan and bake for another 8 minutes, until bagels are golden brown. 

Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before slicing. 

Serve with cinnamon cream cheese spread. 

Cinnamon Cream Cheese

Ingredients: 
4 oz softened cream cheese
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Cream all ingredients together until smooth.  Serve over bagels.  Store in refrigerator. 

Fondue Chocolate Truffles

Welcome back to me! It has been a while.  Not that I haven't been cooking and even taking photos of my food, I just started a new website and wanted to incorporate my food blog into that. Turns out, my indecisiveness and lack of time will prevent me from doing said task.  Meanwhile, I have plenty of recipes to post!  I wanted to start with my favorite (or the one I could find a pic to... I'm not very organized these days).  I know it's not fondue season (september-march), but I made these after my Oscars fondue party (back in february) and they were amazing!

I love having fondue parties!  They are quite simple as long as you don't go overboard (and you don't need to), but they seem very fancy and fun!  I always start with cheese, then meats and finally end with chocolate for dessert.  Sadly, sometimes we indulge so much on the cheese and meats that the poor chocolate barely gets dipped in to.  Shocker... I know. I had a ton of chocolate left over from this last fondue extravaganza and I didn't want to waste it... but I also didn't want to reheat it the next day for just the two of us.  So I decided to make truffles. Boy were they amazing!! It was kind of one of those "well if they don't turn out, they were going to go to waste anyway" sort of recipes and, for once, they didn't become a disaster!  I loved them so much! They were gone within a day in our house. Now that I think about it... that was a lot of chocolate for us to eat in a short amount of time... oh well, that was February.  

Enjoy!

Fondue Chocolate Truffles
Makes: a couple dozen depending on how much chocolate you have left over

Ingredients:
Left over fondue chocolate (see fondue chocolate recipe below)
Dippers (Chopped nuts, sprinkles, cocoa powder etc.)

Directions:
Place chocolate in a container and refrigerate over night to harden.  Once hardened, take a spoon or melon baller, scoop out by the tablespoon and roll into balls.  Roll into various dippers like crushed nuts or cocoa.  You will have to work fast with these as they tend to melt quickly.  I stored mine in the refrigerator.  You'll also want to eat within a day or the nuts will become soggy. 

Fondue Chocolate Recipe:
1 lb good quality chocolate chips (I use Simple Truth Organic, they are amazing)
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

Add 2 cups of cream to the fondue pot. Gradually stir in 1 lb of chocolate chips until melted and add vanilla at the end.  Serve with strawberries, marshmallows, banana, pineapple, cookies, brownies, rice crispy treats... whatever is good dipped in chocolate!!