Strawberry Birthday [Short]cake

Sometimes the best things happen by accident. Child knew she wanted to bake a cake for her birthday and it should have layers and strawberries.

So we started with a Betty Crocker Starlight Yellow Cake adapted slightly since I didn't have shortening.

I used a jelly roll pan for one layer and the corresponding sized cake pan for the second.

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease and flour pans.

The cake:

(Put all ingredients in, 30 seconds mixing on low, 3 minutes on high.)

- 2 1/4 cups flour

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

- 1 heaping tablespoon baking powder

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 1/4 cups soy milk

- 3/4 cup butter (softened)

- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla

- 3 eggs

We cooked ours 30 minutes.

The filling:

I had leftover cooked strawberries frozen from a previous dessert and used fresh strawberries and homemade lemon whipped cream to stretch it out

The whipped cream:

(In a cold mixing bowl with a cold blender)

- one pint heavy whipping cream

- one tablespoon powdered sugar

- one teaspoon lemon extract 

Mix until it "creams"

Take the layers out of the oven. Cool the pans on wire racks for ten minutes. Invert them and the layers should fall out. When cool, spread strawberries and whipped cream on one layer, top with other layer, ice with more whipped cream. Decorate with strawberries. Store in fridge.

My ten-year-old did all the work. I supervised.

Watermelon cupcakes

My daughter did my blog post today:

We made cupcakes in our free time before I went to school.we used two eggs and a single serving cup of apple sauce instead of three eggs .they took 15    min.to cook .5min.in the tray to cool and a half hour to cool out of the tray .they tasted wonderful !

Banana Breakfast Cake

I have committed a culinary crime. I have just noticed that I have had a Kitchen Aid big mixer for more than a year and I have forgotten to use it!

This recipe is based on a Betty Crocker Banana Bread recipe from the 25th Anniversary cookbook.

It can easily be made vegan by replacing the egg with applesauce and the butter with your favorite margarine.

I decided to try my hand at using the bundt pan, basically for the amusement of my daughter.

BANANA BREAKFAST CAKE
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- about 3 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
- about 3 tablespoons agave nectar
(OR use 1 1/4 cups plain old sugar, but I love to mix it up)
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 single serve cup unsweetened applesauce
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 5 medium ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk spiked with one tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or 1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup milk with the vinegar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup unbleached white flour*
- 1 1/4 cup oats*
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour*
(* OR 2.5 cups flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground sea salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts plus whatever odds and ends are left in the bag

Preheat to 350. Grease bundt pan.

Cream sugar(s) and butter. Add eggs and applesauce and cinnamon. Stir well. (I had my daughter beat.) Add 'milk,' vanilla and bananas. Beat until smooth.

Add everything else except nuts, stir until moistened. Add nuts.

Starting with 60 minutes in oven...

60 minutes worked beautifully.

Now for a glaze I mixed 1/2 cup peanut butter with 1/2 cup JIF Mocha Cappucino hazelnut spread, heat in microwave, stir, add a tablespoon very vanilla soy milk to thin. Stir. Heat. Stir. Spread on cake with rubber spatula.

Dust with powdered sugar.

A masterpiece!

Biscuits and gravy

The kids (mine and her playmate) made biscuits and gravy. The kids made the multi-grain biscuits (adapted from a Betty Crocker recipe) and I believe I've posted that recipe before.

The gravy was also a Betty Crocker recipe:
- 2 tablespoons meat drippings
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup liquid (broth, water or milk)
- pinch salt and pepper

Mix and heat until bubbly

I used frozen beef drippings and soy milk.

Sesame Turkey Barbeque

So, I cook like a spaz. Sometimes I start mixing so many flavors that in the end, I don't know what made the recipe work and what was completely unnecessary.

We have turkey left that had been frozen. We've been eating those super yummy spicy turkey mash up wraps.

I decided to make turkey barbecue, except my family isn't keen on barbecue so I thought I'd try something
more Asian inspired.

The base of this recipe was Betty Crocker's barbecue sauce. As written:

BARBECUE SAUCE
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Boil. Then stir in:
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

What I did:
3/4 cup no HFCS ketchup
1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon black strap molasses
About 1/2 cup Iron chef orange teriyaki sauce
About 1/4 cup Newman's Own sesame ginger dressing
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon walnut oil
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup sesame seeds

Bread stuffing

This is my third year hosting Thanksgiving at my house. And despite this, somehow, I have never posted the Betty Crocker recipe for stuffing.

Usually, I make homemade bread for my stuffing, but this year I bought white bread from Bottom Dollar because it was cheap. Last night child and I watched an episode of Ugly Betty and ripped bread into cubes.

We have about 16 cups of bread.

BETTY CROCKER STUFFING:
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cups chopped celery with leaves (I omit, I hate celery)
- 3/4 cup finely chopped onions (I hate onions so I usually use chives from my garden that I froze)
- 9 cups soft bread cubes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sage
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Heat butter in Dutch oven over medium- high heat. Cook onions and celery for two minutes. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients.

Now, I'm going to probably use done fresh parsley that I froze from my garden as a substitute for celery. I have that country herb blend that I will probably use instead of straight thyme. But I won't mess with sage, because that's the key to that real stuffing flavor. I will mix fresh and dried, though.

Cranberry orange bread

I decided to modify my cinnamon raisin bread into a cranberry orange loaf. I started with the Traditional White Bread from my 25th anniversary Betty Crocker cookbook.

CRANBERRY ORANGE BREAD
- about 2 cups whole wheat flour
- about 5 cups unbleached white flour
- 1.5 tablespoons local honey
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 teaspoons (or did I use a tablespoon?) yeast
- 1 cup triple sec, heated (plus more for bowl)
- 1 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 cup raisins and craisins

Mix the wheat flour and 2 cups white flour with the butter, salt, sugar, honey and yeast. Add liquid. Stir thoroughly with wooden spoon.

Add fruit and enough remaining flour until the dough is elastic and not wet to the touch. Need ten minutes.

Sprinkle light amounts triple sec into the bowl (straight from the bottle), and drop the dough in. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise for about an hour.

Now, my house is always low so I preheat my oven to 200, turn the oven off and open the door and let most of the hot air out. Then I put the dough in and close the door.

The dough is ready when it doubles in size. Push a finger in and if the indentation remains, it's ready.

Knead again. Grease two loaf pans. Divide dough in half. Make rectangles, roll them tightly and then tuck the ends under. Put them in the loaf pans.

Preheat oven to 425. Cover dough and let rise 30 minutes. Until they double. I place my loaf pan on the burner where the oven exhausts so that hot air will keep it warm.

Bake 15-20 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Another Banana bread

According to my last banana bread making adventure, this was the best banana bread I ever made:

http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2011/04/dairy-free-banana-bread.html?m=1

But knowing that, and not having the ingredients to replicate it, it doesn't help me.

INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
- 4 ripe bananas mashed
- almost 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/2 (slightly more)cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons cashew butter
- 1/4 cup almond butter

Now this is another adaptation of Betty Crocker's recipe.

I preheated the oven to 375, hoping to shave some time off the 350 degrees/ one hour cook time.

Mash bananas with lemon juice in bowl.

In separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add bananas, egg, applesauce, and vanilla. Stir vinegar into milk. Add that to batter. Mix. Add remaining ingredients. Mix until moistened. I used beaters to mix in the nut butters.

Pour batter into loaf pans with bottoms only greased. I'm thinking 40 minutes in the oven.

Strawberry pancakes

Yesterday my daughter requested pancakes, so we whipped up possibly the fluffiest pancake batter ever, courtesy of the Betty Crocker recipe, adapted. I love "her" opening to this recipe: "Pancakes are easy to personalize..."

Ingredients
- a ridiculous amount of sliced fresh strawberries (probably 3 cups)
- 1 egg
- 4 tablespoons no sugar added applesauce
- 1 1/4 cup unbleached white flour
- 3/4 cups oats
- 1.5 cups sour milk
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons canola oil
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- about 1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat egg until fluffy. Add applesauce and whisk thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients, folding in strawberries last.

A Special Tea Party

Today we had some friends to our home for a tea party, though the tea was iced. We wanted to thank our friends Bart and Phyllis for being one of my sets of friends who made soup for me when I couldn’t eat.

The menu was planned by my daughter. I made the iced teas. The first tea was decaffeinated organic green tea with rose (the Tazo rest I adore). Two bags of Tazo Rest to three bags of Bigelow organic decaffeinated green. The second pitcher was Archer Farms Earl Grey with berry and chocolate. Good stuff.

I didn’t take many photos, because in the thrill of entertaining I forgot.

My daughter wanted peanut butter crackers and so she selected Market Pantry sandwich crackers, the Ritz style, and a box of Keebler Club multigrain crackers. We saw spinach artichoke dip in Target and got inspired to make our hot spinach dip.

We bought some Market Pantry bagged frozen cut spinach (and it had a lot of big stems with no greens, a bit of a turn off).

We ended up making a platter of sandwich crackers, club crackers and rye crackers with sides of peanut butter, almond butter and cashew butter on the side. We had a big bowl of whole strawberries. A dish of unsalted almonds and cashews.

Then we made spinach dip in the crock pot and scones. Phyllis made heart shaped cupcakes with chocolate icing and my daughter made some cake in her Easy Bake Oven.

TODAY’S SPINACH HERB DIP:

In the crockpot
drizzle some cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
add garden fresh herbs. In my case, today, I used about
        2 teaspoons oregano
        5 large stalks of chives, chopped
        2 teaspoons parsley
        3 large leaves French sorrel, shredded
        3 leaves basil, shredded
        1 teaspoon dill
add 1/4 cup minced garlic

Cook about twenty minutes.
Cook spinach until thawed in microwave. Does not have to be hot. Reserve 3/4 cup of the liquid. Add spinach and liquid to crockpot. Cook at least one hour on high. Preferably 1.5 hours (more is fine, though you may have to reduce heat.)

Thirty minutes before serving, add cheese. Today I used about 4-5 ounces mozzarella, 4 ounces sharp cheddar, and 2 ounces pepper jack. It tasted sweet, so I added a tablespoon of garlic powder.

SCONES

We made two kinds of scones, adapted from the Betty Crocker 25th Anniversary Cookbook. One was honey walnut. One was blueberry.

From memory:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together 4 tablespoons butter and 3.5 cups unbleached white flour, 4 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons honey, 5 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon (?) salt. Use a pastry blender to make it the consistency of crumbs. Then add one beaten egg and four tablespoons applesauce. Add milk by the tablespoon until the dough becomes soft and dough like. I used one tablespoon vanilla silk, then 4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream, then about 3 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk and one tablespoon water.

I divided the dough in two, and added blueberries to one half and lots of honey and walnuts to the other. Turn dough out on floured surface and press to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into diamonds. Bake 10-12 minutes. My honey walnuts started to burn on the bottom after 10.

Vegan Brownies

I used to make killer vegan brownies all the time, but I haven't made them in years. My daughter needs to contribute to her Daisy crossover today, so I volunteered to make brownies to protect her dairy-free status.

The original Betty Crocker recipe:
Melt
2/3 cup butter
5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

Mix separately
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs

Add chocolate
One cup flour

Mix and bake in greased pan for 40-45 minutes at 350 until brownies pull from side of pan
My version

2/3 cup margarine
3 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 ounce dark chocolate (in candy bar form because I ran out of the other)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon canola oil

For pre-batter:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons vanilla

And the flour as directed

Vegan Blueberry Steusel Muffins

This is based on the recipe from the Betty Crocker 25th anniversary cookbook.

I love muffins. They freeze easily, transport easily and feed an empty belly in a hurry. I normally add nuts for protein but this time I didn't because of my broken teeth.

Heat oven to 400.

Make streusel topping.

Streusel topping:
- 1/4 cup flour (I used a hair more)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar (as if I measured)
- 2 tablespoons firm margarine
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I used more)
Mix in bowl until crumbly. Now, I always overmix my crumbs and they get soft so then I mix in oats to fix the texture.

For the muffins:

- I cup 'milk' (I used plain soy today. I would also use vanilla soy or almond or rice)
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I didn't measure, and I always use real vanilla. You could also use lemon or almond extract to give the batter more flavor. Putting half lemon and half almond _if I remember correctly_ will replicate a coffee cake flavor)
- instead of 1 egg use 4 tablespoons applesauce. Normally I use natural, unsweetened. Those single serve packs = 1 egg (especially good if you bought a flavor for packed lunches and it was deemed gross) This time I used cinnamon.

Mix.

Dump in dry ingredients:
- 2 cups flour (normally I do half unbleached white and half whole wheat but I ran out of wheat)
- 1/3 cup sugar (I used 1/4)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt

Stir.

Fold in blueberries. I used 1.25 cups frozen, not even thawed.

Scoop into tins. Top with crumbs. Bake 20 minutes.

I made 16 small muffins and could have doubled the crumb recipe.

Dairy Free Banana Bread

I needed something to accompany my sweet potato soup and somehow I thought of banana bread. I adapted this recipe from the Betty Crocker 40th anniversary cookbook.

- 1 cup sugar (mine was more like a 1/2 cup, I ran out)
- 1/2 cup margarine (I used 1/4 cup of Earth Balance)
- 2 eggs (mine are fresh off the farm)
- 4 medium ripe bananas, mashed
- 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- that raisin syrup I had in the back of the freezer for ages

Place oven rack in lowest position. Grease bottom of small cake pan with walnut oil. Preheat oven to 350. Mix margarine and sugar. Add eggs and stir. Add bananas, milk and vanilla. Mix. Stir in remaining ingredients except nuts. Stir.

Put 3/4 of batter in pan and spread evenly. Add raisin syrup and half the nuts. Add the remaining nuts to the remaining batter and top the "cake." bake an hour? Or will it go quicker? Because it's shallower than a loaf.

I cooked it about 40 minutes. It is the best banana bread/cake I ever made!!!

Mommy's five cheese mac

I made Betty Crocker's mac and cheese recipe last night with some classic Angel modifications. I don't have the recipe with me, and I didn't measure as I cooked. So this is a post based on memory.

It tasted incredible. The original Betty Crocker recipe is probably easy to find via the Betty Crocker label under this entry.

I started with about three tablespoons butter melting over medium-high heat with about two tablespoons chopped chives that I froze from my herb garden last summer. After three minutes of hearty swirling, I added about three tablespoons flour, trying not to let it degrade into a solid flour dumpling.

I added some fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Then lowered the heat to extremely low and added one cup heavy cream.  (I discovered I had no milk in the house.) I added a pinch of nutmeg. Once my flour and cream mixture had blended, I added three cups of plain soy milk. (And I am completely aware of how silly it must seem from a culinary perspective to have heavy cream and soy milk in the same dish. I am a big believer in "use what you got" cooking.)

Once that blended, I added the cheese. I probably used four ounces of velveeta (a gift from a friend), three ounces cheddar, and three or four ounces of mozzarella. Then I added the remaining fresh spinach I had on hand (about one cup, ripped into small slivers) and about a cup of frozen peas (again what I had on hand.) I wish I had some broccoli, but I didn't.

I made 16 ounces of small elbow noodles and it made two small casserole dishes full. Before baking at 375 for 30 minutes (and then cooking at 400 just to brown the top), I sprinkled each liberally with grated romano and then shredded asiago.

Fabulous. Truly fabulous. And probably a good thing, since it looks like my cooking might eliminate dairy for the next month to help with the fluid in my daughter's ears. I can survive without milk. Cheese hurts, but I can do it. How on earth am I going to cook without butter? I have a plan...

Creamsicle icing

For the icing on our lemon filled Starlight cake, we made creamsicle icing!

We started with Betty Crocker's creamy vanilla frosting:
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- about 2 tablespoons milk

Except we used 4 tablespoons of juice from clementines instead of milk and added about 2 teaspoons of their grated peel.

Starlight yellow cake with lemon filling

I think it should be official that I can't have fun without food. We had dinner with people over the weekend whom we hope will become good friends, and one of them said something along the lines of "food should be an experience, one as good as something I can't say in front of the child. One where the wine blends with the appetizer and complements the salad and the main dish and it all goes together."

He's Italian, but it's the same theory the French have, without the copious doses of pasta.

Today, my daughter has off from school and we had plans to visit a friend. Those plans fell through. Such is life. Eventually, I was left with no choice but to fill the void with food. And not merely food-- but cake!

I consulted my Betty Crocker 25th anniversary cookbook and selected a Starlight Yellow Cake. In a fit of optimistic insanity, I decided to make a layer cake with the Betty Crocker lemon filling.

I used a jelly roll pan and a matching cake pan to make the layers, as I don't have multiple jelly roll pans or round layer pans or even a brownie pan.

This is my first layer cake. The layers are safely out of the pan and cooling in the kitchen and the filling is setting in the fridge, which doesn't even seem necessary because it tasted perfect and had a fabulous consistency while still in the saucepan.

Now the recipes:
The Starlight Yellow Cake
- 2 1/4 cups white flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar (I usually reduce)
- 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups milk (I used 3/4 cup whole milk and 3/4 cup soy milk)
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs

Preheat to 350. Grease and flour pans. Beat all ingredients on low 30 seconds, scraping sides constantly. Beat on high three minutes. Poor into pan. Bake 40 minutes for a rectangle cake, 25 for two rectangle layers, 30 for two round layers. Until toothpick comes out clean or cake springs back when touched.

Lemon filling
- 3/4 cup sugar (I only used 1/2)
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup water
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (I used two small lemons)
- yellow food coloring if desired

This tastes just like the inside of one of those Hostess fruit pies.

Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in saucepan. Gradually add water, mix and then heat over medium, stirring constantly until boiling and thickened. (mine thickened quickly and into lumps, lumps of a nice consistency that absorbed water without trouble, but lumps)

Boil and stir one minute. Mine thickened totally before one minute.

Remove from heat. Stir in butter and lemon peel, mixing until butter melts. Gradually stir in lemon juice, and then food coloring. Refrigerate 2 hours or until set.

The recipe book suggests icing with White Mounting Frosting. I'll investigate.

Betty Crocker's lemon bars

Betty Crocker's Lemon bars

I have a love affair with my old 25th anniversary Betty Crocker cookbook.  It's a testament to the prepared foods so central to American household cuisine. The marketing guru that decided, "hey, let's make up a woman who's a great cook and have her be our branding device..." The cookbooks are an obvious attempt to develop trust in dear old Betty and I'm sure to get one you had to eat a boatload of Betty's scalloped potatoes and pancake mix...

But despite the falsity of dear Betty, I love the cookbook.

I let my daughter do most of the work for this lemon bars, and for once, I followed the directions.

Betty's lemon bars

1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel, if desired
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, butter and powdered sugar. Press into ungreased square pan, either 8x8 or 9x9. Bake 20 minutes. Beat remaining ingredients until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Pour over hot crust.

Bake about 25 minutes or until no indentation remains when touched in the center. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Crockpot apple stuffing

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/slow-cooker-stuffing-2/Detail.aspx

My stuffing recipe is an apple variation of the basic version in Betty Crocker's cookbook. Tomorrow I plan on using this technique from "All Recipes" to open some space in the oven... The Thanksgiving link should take you to last year's feast.

Another Mac and Cheese

Okay, so I had a craving for mac and cheese. Guess that means Thursday's event was a success.

I used up all my noodles on this.

I started with a saucepan:
- two tablespoons butter
- about 2 cups garden fresh tomatoes, diced
- 3/4 teaspoon four color organic pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
cook until bubbly.
I added:
- one crumbled Morningstar breakfast patty
cooked a while.
Added:
- 1 cup heavy cream
Simmered. after five minutes simmering I added
- I cup milk.
Meanwhile, I layered broccoli in the bottom of the casserole dish, and topped with the noodles.
Brought the milk base to a boil as the oven preheated to 325.
Removed milk from heat and added:
- About 2 ounces mozzarella
- About 3 ounces extra sharp provolone
- About 2 ounces vermont cheddar
- About 2 ounces smoked gouda
Once melted and combined I mixed the pasta and broccoli with the sauce and stuck about 1 ounce worth of mozzarella chunks between noodles. It's in the oven now for a half hour.

Exotic Mac and Cheese

Why do I always have dinner parties on the hottest days of the year?

I have guests coming tonight for the mac and cheese party, but due to some confusion and some scheduling upheaval, I appear to be the only one cooking. I made about 4 quarts of mac and cheese. 2 varieties. One rather plain and French/ croque monsieur inspired. The other artery-clogging and Italian-inspired.

Neither are cheap.

The French-inspired Mac and Cheese

mixed in saucepan, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes:
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon four color organic fresh ground pepper
Once bubbly, add
- 2 tablespoons flour, still and heat until bubbly
Warm separately
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
Add to the butter base and heat to boiling.
Remove from heat and add
- 1/3 pound shredded gruyere
- 1/4 pound smoked gouda, grated or chopped
Stir and add to noodles. Bake in oven as you would with normal mac and cheese.

The Italian-inspired mac and cheese

- Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- one teaspoon garlic powder
- about 1 teaspoon fresh oregano
- about 8 leaves fresh basil, chopped
cook until fragrant and sizzling and add
- two tablespoons flour
cook a few moments and add
- about 1 cup diced proscuitto (spelling?)
- about six pepperonis, diced
when the meat seems glossy and done, add
- 2 cups milk
slowly bring to a boil
remove from heat and add
- about 6 ounces extra sharp provolone, chopped
- about 2 ounces mozzerrella
Combine with noodles
Top with chunks of mozzerella
Add pepperonis.
Bake.

How to make basic mac and cheese, according to Betty Crocker:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/2009/06/spinach-herb-apple-meatloaf-and-simple.html