Roasted Vegetable Mac & Cheese

For several years I have recorded the meals I prepare in my planner/organizer/journal. I am certainly not 100% with my journal entries and I'm not sure why I even started this practice. And I am surely much less diligent since I starting photographing my food and blogging.

Sometimes, when I can't decide what I want to cook, much less eat, and Pritchard Parker says, "I don't care, anything you make will be fine", I refer back to the same time last year or the year before. Spring can be extra tricky for meal planning (not to mention deciding what to wear). This morning it was 31 degrees, yet it is supposed to get up to 80 this afternoon.

I first saw this recipe by Chef Martha Beakes of Mountain Magnolia Inn in Hot Springs, North Carolina in the April 2008 issue of a local news magazine. I made it a few times then promptly forgot about it. I was reminded by looking back in my journal. The Chef recommends serving it with Heinz Ketchup but I don't know about that!

Roasted Vegetable Mac & Cheese
1 lb. penne, rigatoni, or spiral pasta
1 red onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 small eggplant, diced
1 zucchini, diced
4 cups shredded cheese (any combination)
1/4 cup butter
4 cups milk
3 Tbsp. flour
Bread crumbs
Olive oil
Fresh thyme
Salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Hot sauce, to taste


Toss vegetables in olive oil, thyme, salt, and pepper. Roast, on a sheet pan, at 400 degrees, until lightly brown, about 35 to 40 minutes.

While veggies are roasting, cook pasta until al dente, drain and set aside.

Melt butter in a large pan, add flour and stir until smooth, but not brown. Slowly whisk in milk and bring to just under a boil. Reserve about 1/2 cup of cheese for topping, and add the remainder to the milk mixture. Stir until cheese is melted. Stir in roasted vegetables, then the pasta, mix well but gently. Season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste.

Pour into greased casserole dish, top with bread crumbs and reserved cheese, and bake at 400 degrees, until bubbly and golden brown, about 25 minutes.

Roasted Asparagus Almondine

My husband I can I easily polish off a pound of asparagus in one setting. We've been through a few pounds of it so far this spring, raw, steamed, marinated, in pizza, in chicken salad, to name a few. This time I decided to roast it and further, to include almonds. The taste of this dish was scrumptious and the texture of the toasted almonds with the asparagus was extremely satisfying.

Roasted Asparagus Almondine
1 pound asparagus, rinsed, tough stem ends snapped off
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 - 2 cloves garlic, pressed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sliced almonds

Marinate asparagus in the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper for about 30 minutes. Arrange the asparagus, in a single layer, on a foil lined baking tray and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Roast in a preheated 400 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until just tender and beginning to brown.

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins

This is one of Nigella Lawson's seriously delicious yet perfectly uncomplicated recipes. They were a breeze to make and a huge hit with the sweets eaters of my family.

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins
1 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus more for sprinkling later
1 cup milk
1/3 cup plus 2 tsp. vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and fill muffin pan with paper liners. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Combine all liquid ingredients in a small bowl. Mix both together, keeping in mind that a lumpy batter makes the best muffins. Spoon batter into muffin cups and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are dark, risen and springy.

Asparagus and Chicken Salad

I often dream about food. Do you?

Last night, I dreamed someone had given me some deer meat, which needed additional butchering. As I was prissily cutting on this meat, with a small and pointy knife, I was thinking about how I should cook it. I was thinking of people soaking it in vinegar water to help alleviate the gamey taste, so I prepared a marinade, which included apple cider vinegar.

I decided I would put the meat in the oven and roast it. Later, when I took it out of the oven, it looked like a perfectly browned, succulent, roasted chicken! As I brought it out of the oven, I felt such pride in my butchering skills. I'd heard the expression, "tastes like chicken", but never "looks like chicken".

In reality, I have no butchering skills, nor do I want to acquire them. I prefer leaving that task to the experts. Also, I only ate venison one time, which was many years ago, and I don't care to repeat the experience.

All in all, I thought the dream was very funny and I laughed as I recalled it this morning.



Asparagus and Chicken Salad
1 rotisserie chicken, torn into bite-size pieces
1 bunch asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces, and lightly steamed
1 medium red onion, diced
4 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, diced
1/2 cup mayo
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. honey
1 -2 cloves garlic, finely minced
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the dressing, whisk together the mayo, vinegar, and honey. Stir in garlic. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, longer if possible, for best flavor. Combine all other ingredients in a large bowl, pour dressing over, toss to lightly coat the salad. Add pepper to taste.

Amazing Waffle Stack

I do not wake up hungry, never have, don't want to eat right away, and don't even want to think about food. My husband, with his turbo metabolism, gallops straight from bed to the kitchen and starts eating the first thing in sight. I can manage preparing a pot of tea, otherwise I'm afraid he is on his own.

A weekend favorite is a stack of toaster waffles--preferably Eggo Nutrigrain, loaded with butter, peanut butter, and jam, applesauce, or apple butter. I've seen this concoction, in my sleepy, morning indifference, so many times I never really paid attention to it.

Then one Saturday morning, Alice saw Pritchard Parker's breakfast. She didn't say anything, of course. But later, and on several subsequent occasions, she spoke to me about that amazing stack of waffles, and about how her eyes practically bugged out by the quantities of his toppings. One day she said I should take a picture of it and post it on my blog.

When I told my husband I wanted to do it, he felt a little shy about it. But he was a good sport this morning, and held his plate out for me to photograph, before eating. Here is his recipe.

Amazing Waffle Stack
4 toaster waffles
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup jam, applesauce, or apple butter

Toast waffles. Place first waffle on serving plate and top with 1/4 cup peanut butter. Top with second waffle and coat with butter. Top with third waffle and add another 1/4 cup peanut butter. Finally, top with fourth waffle and spread with 1/2 cup jam, applesauce, or apple butter.