Pimento mac & cheese featuring leftover cheeses from Thanksgiving. Don’t ask for exact measurements, because my secret to fabulous m’n’c of any kind is feeling. Sounds kind of existential, but as the hallmark comfort food, it’s very true. I had a half each of the following cheeses leftover from the big meal this week, so they were the base of this meal: reduced fat cream cheese, extra sharp cheddar and monteray jack.

Make sure to cook the pasta al dente. In a small saucepan, bring a little butter, some milk and the cream cheese to a soft melted state and begin to incorporate half of the other two cheeses. I threw in some paprika, black pepper, and garlic powder. Stir in a few spoonfuls of diced pimentos (the jarred kind).

In a casserole dish, add the remaining cheese and a spoonful of pimentos to some panko breadcrumbs. Add the drained pasta and the cream sauce and stir, making sure to coat the pasta evenly. Top with some more bread crumbs and put in a 350F oven for 10-15 minutes.

Korean short-ribs done in the crock-pot.  You know you want them!

Apple turnovers…totally cheated and made with Pilsbury pie crust. And I didn’t jam enough filling in there, nor did I make ‘em Food-Networky enough.

Chicken pie….I am kind of ‘meh’ about this one. It needs more liquid and less crust, so I am tailoring my details below accordingly.

Heat the oven to 400’F. No need to grease the pie dish for this one:
- 1 can cream of chicken soup (if you’d like a different flavor, by all means go for it)
- 1 heaping cup of cooked chicken…I used leftovers from a rotisserie one bought from the supermarket
- 1 1/2 cup of veggies, thawed frozen or blanched cooked…I had carrots, onion and broccoli from the share so I went with blanched fresh ones.
- 1/4 a cup of water

Add all of those ingredients and hit it with some salt into the pie dish and mix, distributing evenly once it’s to your liking. I added a little poultry seasoning and some fresh chopped parsley from the share too.

In a separate bowl mix the following:
- an egg
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 3/4 cup of Bisquick…yes, you read that correctly.

Once it’s combined, pour on top of the chicken mixture and put into the oven for 25 minutes. Keep an eye on it though because my turned golden brown a bit early.

That’s it! It’s not as saucy as a classic chicken pot pie, so serve with cranberry sauce if you want more moisture. I’m planning on trying this again with Thanksgiving leftovers!

This incredible looking thing deflated soon after leaving the oven. My second attempt at making it succumbed as well. It’s still outrageously delicious, and as I recently discussed with some work friends, I am traditional-pancake challenged, so this hit the spot and is great cold with a cup of coffee for a few days afterwards. The preferred method of inhaling is of course warm from the oven with a little dash of powdered sugar—no maple syrup needed because of the natural sugar-run off from the apples.

Here’s the ingredient list:
- 4 large eggs
- 2/4 cup of flour
- 3 tablespoons if sugar
- 2-3 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced…I used a bunch if different once in different sections of the pan to experiment and liked a Macintosh/Empire combo, but the Golden Delicious was a close second. Do NOT use Granny Smith.
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 stick of butter

Heat the oven to 425’F and put the 13” by 9” glass or ceramic pan in with half a stick of butter to melt. It’s important you heat the pan up because it will help everything cook evenly and the dish to rise accordingly.

Meanwhile slice the apples and combine all the other ingredients separately in a bowl, minus the brown sugar.

Take the dish out and lay out the apples in slightly overlapping rows. It’s a little high maintenance for me, but it ensures even distributions! Put back in the oven for 10 minutes, until the edges brown a bit and it starts to smell scrumptious.

Remove from the oven and carefully, slowly pour the batter you made over the apples. If you go to fast they’ll scatter all over the pan and that hard work spent Martha-Stewarting them in pretty rows will be for naught. Sprinkle the top with the brown sugar and put back in the oven for 20 minutes.

This is important: don’t peak while it’s in there! The drastic temp changes are what cause the soufflé-like concoction to seize up. Once your timer (or in my case, iPhone) goes off, shut off the heat and leave it in the oven for a few more minutes. When you’re ready to eat, take it out and admire—photograph even and submit here!—in case it falls. It doesn’t taste any different if it does, but it is certainly less impressive.

Bosc pears were in the farm share this week; delicious, but bittersweet since this is the last of the fruit for the calendar year. I decided to do something different and poach them. Here’s how it went down:

- peeled and cored the pears from the bottom, leaving the stems intact

- brought 5 cups of water, 2 tbsp of fresh grated ginger (from last week’s share), and 2 cups of sugar to a boil

- reducing to a simmer, plopped the pears in for 15 minutes, rotating them every 5 minutes

- turned the heat off and let them cool in the water for an additional 10 minutes

I then sprinkled with cinnamon and served with fresh whipped cream…nothing beats real whipped cream. Nothing. One of the websites I read called to reduce the poaching liquid to a syrup, but I was far too impatient—and even for my sugar-loving self—found these plenty sweet. Next time ice cream would be an even more homey accompaniment!

Today’s brunch special - pimento cheese biscuits!  I was tempted to make my own dough seeing as how I’ve done biscuits before, but for expediency’s sake (my little sister’s train ran late for our brunch), I opted to buy the Pilsbury kind.  Two packages of the homestyle ‘Grands’ buttermilk variety, to be exact.  To prep do the following:

- pre-heat the oven to 375’F

- lightly flour a cookie sheet and press the biscuits together so that they cover the entire sheet

- grease/spray a muffin tin

Here’s the recipe I made (based on lots of research online) for the pimento cheese:

- 3 oz low fat cream cheese…start by whipping this with an electric mixer

- 1 cup monteray jack shredded cheese

- 1 cup sharp cheddar shredded cheese

- 3 tbsp of diced pimento peppers (I found the perfect little jar at the grocery store that was less that $2)

- 1/2 cup of plain, non-fat greek yogurt (traditional recipes call for mayo here, but in an effort to cut calories where I can, I substituted yogurt)

- 2 tsp salt

- 2 tsp black pepper

- 1 tsp garlic powder

- 2 tbsp diced chive (optional)

Be generous and thorough in spreading the cheese on the biscuit base, like frosting a cake.  Roll the dough up length-wise and slice into 1” pinwheels, fitting them into the muffin cups.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

I’m trying to be healthier (and shed a few lbs I’ve put on at the current desk job) so I’m making more of an effort in the salad department.  This is almost entirely ingredients from the share—hardboiled eggs, carrots, cukes, and lettuce.  I made the vinaigrette myself (can’t you just see my chest swelling with pride?!), as follows:

- 2 tbsp apple-cider or rice vinegar

- 1 tbsp honey

- dash of salt

- 1 heaping tbsp of dijon mustard (I prefer the whole grain variety)

- 1/2 tbsp of pepper (fresh cracked is best)

…I put it all in a mini-tupperware and shake the pants off it till it’s combined—it’s perfect to transport it to work in too! 

We were lucky enough to get fresh edamame—soybeans—in the share this week.  They came still attached to a bunch of huge leafy branches, so the gatitos and I had great fun snapping them off an disposing of all the extra vegetation.  All I did was rinse the pods, then add them to boiling, salted water for 4 minutes.  I tossed with a little extra sea salt afterwards, then promptly inhaled an entire bowl for lunch.  Yummmm!

Full disclosure, soup and salad fall into the same category of general loathing for me. It takes a rare jewel to change my mind…this happens to be one such gem.

Step-by-step scrumptiousness (make sure you serve with some crusty sourdough or italian bread at the end! It’s especially vibrant with a dash of lemon juice added at the end):

1. In a stock-pot, heat 2 tbs of olive oil and stir in 3 cloves of gahhhlic (from the farm-share this week, of course) that’s been minced

2.  Here’s where, as Robert Frost would say, two road diverge in the wood—I opted to brown SPICY italian sausage for incorporation later, so I left out the red pepper flakes, but definitely add them if you have a mellower sausage.

3.  Empty a can of cannelli beans (white beans) into the pot—after rinsing them of course.  I bought a small one, 15oz, and would definitely go bigger next time since a lot of the bean yumminess broke down during the course of subsequent cooking.  Saute for 2 minutes.

4. Add 5 cups of chicken broth & a parmesan cheese rind (note: you have to buy actual brick cheese, not the Kraft sprinkle kind, lol)—I did half low sodium broth and then ended up having to add salt later, so screw your health and go all out!

5.  Add kale—I took the entire bunch from my share, so roughly 5 cups, and tore it off the stalks and added it to the pot.  I wish it’d done a better job of making it ‘bite-sized,’ because despite getting tender, it didn’t break down as it cooked.

6. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring as often as you feel like :P

7. Add the sausage you browned earlier and cook an additional 2-5 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  FIsh out the softened parmesan rind and discard.

8.  You’re done! Enjoy! It’s hearty and yummy beyond belief.