"It tastes better than it looks!"

That's what I had to tell Ryan last night when he looked, very skeptically, at our supper of Chile Relleno Casserole. It was tasty, but horribly unattractive. It looked a bit like radioactive sludge. (Seriously, if the three-eyed fish from the Simpson's had leapt out of it, I don't think anyone would have been shocked.) I was actually a bit glad that my camera is on the D.L., because it gave me a good excuse to not photograph it. As I said, though, it did taste fine. Not so fine, though, that it's going to make the Repeat List. It basically tasted like enchiladas sans tortillas. And I like my enchiladas a lot better. In fact, how about I share that recipe instead? (I'll just post all the recipes at the end of the post.)

Supper tonight was delicious, but, once again, not photo-worthy. Ryan had to work, so I took the easy route: I heated up some of the frozen leftovers in the freezer. We had Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole and Corn Choup (ala, Rachel Ray). The casserole is super easy. The Choup involves a bit more effort, but is more than worth it.

In the oven now is my attempt at Sourdough Bread. Can I first say that I really can make a good loaf of bread. I'm quite proud of my bread baking abilities. But I'm pretty sure this is not going to be my best effort...

I strongly suspect that it would have turned out better had I not messed around so much with it. Normally people make bread, well, normally. Make the dough, let it rise, shape the bread, let it rise, bake it. Oh, but I'm not normal, oh no....

I started it last night after supper. I planned to finish it last night. Unfortunately, I hadn't realized that sourdough takes longer to rise than traditional yeast breads. So while I got a beautiful rise out of it, it was nearly 11:00 p.m. by time it was doubled. I was not going to wait up another 3 hours to let it rise again and then bake it.

For the first rise, I put it in the oven on warm. For the second rise, since I didn't need it to rise as fast, I shaped the loaves and left them on the counter over night, with plans to bake them this morning. Unfortunately, because I had covered them, when the dough raised, it raised out of the pan, rather than up. Not so attractive. I smooshed them down and put them in the fridge.

At lunch, for reasons I still don't quite understand, I thought that I had enough time to get them to rise in the oven AND bake them. Not hardly. They did rise beautifully, but not quite as much as I wanted. And I had to go back to work. I put them back in the fridge, expecting them to continue to rise, just more slowly. Um, not quite. They fell, pitifully. I quickly smooshed them down again, reshaped the loaves, and set them on the counter again, hoping they'd rise some by time I got home from work.

And they did. A little. So at 7:00, after supper, the oven went back on warm and back in the oven they went to rise. Sadly, they didn't rise so energetically this time. After two hours, I have only about half the rise that I got in one hour at lunch. I decided to give up and just bake the damn things. I'm assuming that these are going to be brick-like, and I plan to try again tomorrow, making the bread straight-through, like normal people do. When I get a good loaf and am confident in the recipe, I'll share. For now, though, I don't want to lead anyone astray.

Enough talk about my lame excuse for bread. How about some recipes that I know are good?

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Harvest Cream Corn "Choup" courtesy of Rachel Ray. This makes a LOT, but it does freeze really well.

Enchiladas
1 lb. ground beef
1 can refried beans
1 pkg. taco mix
Tortilla shells
Salt, pepper, onions
1 can cream of onion soup
1 pt. sour cream
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chiles
Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Brown meat; season to taste. Add beans and taco mix. Fill shells and roll; place on jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. Combine soup, sour cream, and green chiles. Spread over filled shells, sprinkle cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

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Chicken Bordon Bleu Casserole
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed
8 slices Swiss cheese
6 slices ham
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/3 c. milk
2-3 c. dry seasoned stuffing mix
1/3-1/2 c. melted butter

Rinse and pat dry chicken breasts. Place chicken on bottom of ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Top with Swiss cheese, then ham. Mix soup with milk and pour over layers. Mix melted butter with stuffing and spread over casserole. Bake for 50 minutes at 350.

Lots of cooking....

...not so many pictures. As in, no pictures. I'm not quite certain where my camera is. So if you're Catholic, say a prayer to St. Anthony for me. Everyone else, just say a prayer ;)

One of my favorite foods--okay, my absolute favorite food-- is this:

Not the most healthy meal under the best of circumstances, and certainly not when you're pregnant and have a tendency towards high blood pressure and swelling. When my ankles started to swell Thanksgiving night, it ocurred to me that maybe now was the time to cut back on my sodium intake. Which, sadly for me, means cutting out my beloved mac 'n' cheese.

The obvious solution, for a normal person, would just be to make mac 'n' cheese. Unfortunately, I'm spoiled, and I've never liked homemade macaroni and cheese. It's always tasted grainy and gross to me. Yesterday, though, I was flipping thru my copy of America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and found a recipe for "Creamy Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese." What the heck, I thought. I don't have much to do today, I'll give it a whirl.

I was pleasantly surprised. I'll be honest--it's not the same as the delighfully creamy Kraft version. But, for a girl who's a confessed addict of the "real" thing, it was a pretty decent substitute. It's very smooth; not at all grainy. When I reheated the left overs today, I did put in a bit of milk, and it was just as good today. Not only did I enjoy it, but Darren seems to be in love with the stuff. I felt more than a little guilty when I gave him bites of the processed Kraft version, but felt no quilt about giving him the homemade stuff. I mean, it's noodles, milk, and cheese. Certainly not a balanced diet, but in conjunction with other foods, it seems pretty healthy to me. (Recipe will follow at the end of this post.)

Last night, for supper, we had Farmhouse Chicken. This is so easy, and so delicious. I think next time I make it, I'm going to just make my own stuffing, rather than using StoveTop.

Today, on a bit of a whim, I made Burnt Sugar Cake. The first time I made it, about a year and a half ago, I had never heard of it. A friend/old man/bar patron told me I should make him one (his mom always used to make it). Always one for a challege, I went looking for a recipe. At the time, I could only find one recipe on the internet, and I had to look hard for it (it was some archived page). Of course, a couple of months later, I found several recipes in various cookbooks I owned (including my beloved Betty Crocker cookbook, listed under "Caramel Cake also called Burnt Sugar Cake").

I'll always be grateful to that man, though, because it's now one of my favorite cakes. The recipes for it vary greatly, but what follows is my favorite. I'll admit, 7-Minute Frosting is a bit of a pain to make, but it's definately my favorite frosting, so I endure the hassle.

"Aunt Mae's Burnt Sugar Cake with Burnt Sugar Frosting"
From The Pioneer Lady's Country Christmas, by Jane Watson Hopping

3 tbsp. burnt sugar syrup (recipe follows)
3 c. cake flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
.5 tsp salt
.75 c. butter or margarine, softened
1.75 c. sugar
1.33 c. milk
1 scant tbsp. vanilla
4 egg whites, beaten into stiff peaks
Burnt Sugar Frosting (recipe follows)

Burnt Sugar Syrup
.5 c. sugar
.33 c. boiling water

Place sugar in a heavy-bottomed (I used cast iron) frying pan; cook over medium heat until sugar becomes a bubbly rich golden brown syrup. Remove from heat. Very carefully add .33 cup boiling water to the sugar (the water will make the syrup boil up). Set aside until needed.

Cake
Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13 cake pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt three times, ending with it in a medium-size bowl. Cream the butter; gradually add the sugar, beating until light and fluffy. In a small bowl, combine the milk, Burnt Sugar syrup, and vanilla. Stir into the butter-sugar mixture sifted flour alternately with flavored milk. Lightly fold the egg whites into the batter, being careful not to decrease the batter's volume. Gently spoon into pan. Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, about 25-30 minutes. Once cool, frost.

Frosting
3 tbsp. Burnt Sugar Syrup
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. cream of tartar
a few grains of salt
2 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla

In the top of a double boiler, combine the syrup, sugar, cream of tartar, salt, and egg whites. Place over boiling water and beat with a rotary beater for five minutes. Add the vanilla and continue beating two minutes more. Remove from heat and use immediately.



Creamy Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese
From America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

2 c. macaroni
salt
2 lg. eggs
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
1 tsp. dry mustard, dissolved in 1 tbsp. water
.25 tsp. Tabasco
Pepper
4 tbsp butter
3 c. shredded cheese (I used half cheddar, half colby-jack)

Boil pasta until tender. Meanwhile, mix together eggs, half of the evaporated milk, mustard mixture, Tabasco, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper. Drain pasta and return to pan. Set over low heat and stir in butter until melted. Stir in egg mixture and half of the cheese. Continue to cook on low, gradually stirring in remaining milk and cheese until hot and creamy (about 5 minutes).