this recipe is one of the easiest i’ve come across and that is equally as delicious as well! i found it on Pinterest of course and it is supported by Carnation Milks on verybestbaking.com. it serves as a more fancy alternative to mac and cheese.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

2 cups (8oz.) dry penne pasta

8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (about 1/3) cup

1 can (12 oz.) of evaporated 2% milk

2 cups of shredded Italian-style four cheese blend

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

(yields 7 servings of 1/2 cup)

1. Prepare pasta according to package; add sun-dried tomatoes to boiling pasta water for the last two minutes of cooking time. drain.

2. Meanwhile, combine evaporate milk, cheese, basil, garlic powder, and pepper in medium saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until cheese is melted. Remove from heat.

3. Add pasta and sun-dried tomatoes to cheese sauce; stir until combined. YUM!

we successfully grew potatoes on our apartment’s porch! i found the directions in the BUST DIY Guide to Life and we gave it a shot. all summer, we watched the greenery grow and die until harvest in September. when we went sifting through the dirt, what did we find? little baby potatoes! i ended up making some fresh, homemade mashed potatoes out of our small crop :)

I made these recently for a birthday party and man were they a hit! I modified the recipe from one a friend had given me for mini cherry cheesebake bites. Since I don’t care for cherry and I had regular sized cupcake liners on hand, chocolate cheesecakes were the next option in my mind.

mini chocolate cookie cheesecakes

makes approx. 22-24 cupcake sized cheesecakes.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

8oz. cream cheese + 8oz. chocolate cream cheese (new from Philadelphia brand)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

package of Chips Ahoy! or equally sized chocolate chip cookies

mini chocolate chips to top each cake

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Place cupcake liners in pan; place one cookie in the bottom of each liner.

3. Mix cream cheeses, sugar, and vanilla until well blended. Add egg; mix well. Stir in sour cream.

4. Pour batter into liners, fill approx. halfway to three quarters full. Top with mini chips.

5. Bake 18-20 minutes or until filling is almost set. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, overnight is preferable.

thecheesepusher:

There are few things I love as much as cheese. One of these few things, however, is garlic.

I’m the kind of person that nearly doubles the amount of garlic a recipe calls for because I feel like I can never get enough of it, and you can bet I always pair garlic bread with my pasta. This time,…

haven’t cooked anything new in the last couple of days, but i did pick up this awesome towel at crate & barrel for a friend. i think i may go back for another.

you can pick it up online HERE.

thingsorganizedneatly:

SUBMISSION: Kitchen 101 Volume Conversion Poster from Chasing Delicious. 

as you may have read on my main blog, my boyfriend and i headed to vermont over my st. patty’s birthday weekend. in addition to going snowboarding and dragging him antiquing, we enjoyed some delicious meals and picked up some yummy vermont specialities to bring home.

we dined at two particularly delicious places up at mount snow. for breakfast, we tried out West Dover Joe’s that was just down the street from the lodge. holy moly, was it a memorable breakfast- incredibly fresh, delicious, and filling. we each enjoyed egg platters that came with these dense, homemade english muffins with homemade butter, in addition to flavorful potatoes and hearty breakfast meat. seriously- one of my favorite breakfasts ever, the competition being breakfast at The Blue Plate Diner in Salt Lake City, UT. 

for dinner, we used Opentable (one of my favorite apps!) to find and reserve a table at 1846 Tavern and Restaurant in downtown West Dover, VT. the small bar/restaurant is attached to the historic West Dover Inn. we were really impressed with their beer selection- Otter Creek even brews a special beer (1846 Pale Ale) specifically for their restaurant that you won’t find anywhere else. the food was wonderful - we each indulged in macaroni and cheese and a crispy chicken sandwich with pesto mayo. YUM. 

the next day, we headed eastward to Brattleboro and stopped at various places along the way. we first stopped at the top of Hogback Mountain, where they had a beautiful view and gift shop full of VT maple goodies. we picked up some honey and dark maple syrup from Butternut Mountain Farm, as well as a local cookbook full of maple syrup recipes. i’m very excited to try my hand at making their recipe for pumpkin/maple cheesecake. 

after lunch at Panera-esque The Works in Brattleboro, we stopped in briefly at Saxton’s River Distillery to find out what they were all about. it turns out that they produce a maple liqueur called Sapling that is a vodka base and aged in old oak Maker’s Mark barrels with Vermont maple syrup. They give you recipe ideas along with a bottle- Nick loves a good manhattan, but the white maple sounds right up my alley. down the road from Saxton’s is a store for Grafton Village Cheese. after discovering our love for aged cheese with the Cabot 3 year cheddar I used in the macaroni and cheese recipe i posted, we decided to stop in. we left with a wedge of their Duet cheese, an aged cheddar and aged blue cheese combo. it has a lot of bite and is reminiscent of gorgonzola- all i could think about it what a great sauce it would make for pasta. once we get through the enormous block of Cabot 3 year, this will be next!

nick and i found ourselves with two open bottles of red wine, one of which we didn’t particularly care to drink. whenever we have some kind of leftover or excess, i think of it as a challenge- how can i use this to create something delicious? 

… so i found a recipe for chicken with red wine sauce and it was a total success! i did add a couple of ingredients (shallots and mushrooms) to give the sauce a little more texture, but i’m not sure how much flavor they ultimately added to the dish- i would consider them to be optional. The end result ended up with a sweet, almost Asian flavor. The sugar and the wine worked perfectly hand-in-hand :)

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/2 cup/handful of mushrooms, chopped 

1 shallot, minced

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

paprika and salt

unseasoned bread crumbs

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of red wine 

chicken broth

1. I dredged (coated) each chicken breast in a paprika/bread crumb/salt combo before cooking to give it a light, crunchy coating, and to prevent any burning of the chicken in the skillet. You can use any sort of combo of each. In the end product, we didn’t really notice much paprika taste so that might not even be necessary, but the original recipe called for it.

2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and cook the garlic/mushrooms/shallot until tender. Place chicken in the skillet and cook approx. 10 ten minutes, flipping each side. You don’t need to cook entirely since it will spend time cooking with the sauce. The original recipe calls to drain the oil, but I found it burned off itself. I don’t like to have a dry skillet, so I added small portions (approximately a tablespoon at a time) of chicken broth to keep things moist and cooking.

3. When the chicken is 75% done, lower the heat and sprinkle the chicken with the brown sugar. It really seems like a lot, but will cook down and add a lot of flavor. Pour the red wine around the chicken. Bring the heat up a bit and cook for about 15 minutes. The sauce should be boiling slightly; keep flipping/basting the chicken while cooking. Sauce should thicken up slightly when cooking without it covered, but will still be a little thinner ultimately. 

We paired this dish with rice and asparagus for a well-rounded meal :) The chicken came out so tender as it spends so much time cooking in juices. NOM.

most of the time, i’m cooking for two- my boyfriend nick and i. last week, we went on a mini shopping spree at a costco and i fell in love with the extensive cheese department. who knew they would have such a selection? so we ended up coming home with a two pound block of Cabot 36-month cheese. whoops.

the cheese is fantastic- worth every penny, but it is just too much for just two people. since we’ve already started digging in and we don’t want to waste a single nub, i resorted to one of my favorite comfort foods: macaroni and cheese.

i’ve been a blue box fan for eternity (spirals all the way!) and i wanted to find a quick recipe that didn’t involve a casserole dish and the oven. so here it is: creamy mac and cheese, a modification of a recipe i found on the all recipes dinner spinner app. the photo is of the next day leftovers on my lunch break at work- i thought this dish was great fresh, but it actually tasted even better the next day. hurray leftovers!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

1 pound of bite sized pasta (e.g.- elbow macaroni noodles)

1 small container of light cream

1 cup chicken broth

3 tablespoons of butter

1 tablespoon of mustard powder

1/2 cup of shredded parmesan cheese

black pepper

1 pound of grated extra-sharp cheddar (mmmm 3 year cabot cheese …)

3 tablespoons of cream cheese

1/3 cup of flour

1. boil the noodles until al dente

2. microwave the cream, broth, cream cheese, and mustard powder in a pyrex cup

3. melt butter in empty pasta pot, whisk in flour, followed by the hot cream/broth mix

4. on very low heat, whisk until thick and bubbly

5. turn off the heat and stir in the cooked noodles and cheese. add more cheese if desired!

i figured it would be appropriate to kick off the blog with my new recipe box that i bought off fab from 1canoe2! i saw their work when i was in chicago for renegade and lusted so hard after it. i can’t wait to fill this puppy up :)