Crunchy Delicious Macaroni & Cheese

INGREDIENT INTENSIVE, BUT WORTH IT. THE YUMMIEST MACARONI AND CHEESE I HAVE EVER HAD. I LOVE THAT THE PASTA DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PRE-COOKED. NEXT TIME CHEESE GOES ON SALE I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE SPLURGE.
{Picture and Recipe via SmittenKitchen}

Ingredients:
{for a 9x13}

• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  
• 2 cups whole milk cottage cheese
• 4 cups milk (not skim)
• 2 teaspoon dry mustard
• Pinch cayenne
• Pinch nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large block (540g) of sharp or extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 pound (450g) elbow pasta or rotini, uncooked.
• 1 cup of bread crumbs
• 1 cup extra grated cheese
• 2 T melted butter
  

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees and position an oven rack in upper third of oven. Use 2 tablespoon butter to butter a 9x13 baking pan.

2. In a blender, puree cottage cheese. When consistency is extremely smooth, add milk, mustard, cayenne, nutmeg and salt and pepper together. In a large bowl, combine grated cheese, milk mixture and uncooked pasta. Pour into prepared pan, cover tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes.

3. Uncover pan, stir gently, sprinkle with extra cheese and breadcrumbs, held together with 2 T melted butter. Bake, uncovered, 30 minutes more, until browned. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

NOTE: I also added: 3 strips of chopped bacon & half an onion sauteed, plus 1 cup parmesan. And DO serve this with a BIG GREEN SALAD. You will feel less guilty about the fat content of this stuff.

Brownie Cookies

THESE ARE EXACTLY WHAT THE NAME IMPLIES: A PERFECT FUSION OF COOKIE AND BROWNIE. CAN'T LOSE IN THIS EQUATION.

INGREDIENTS:
2 c. chocolate chips
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/4 c. butter
4 eggs
1 1/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 c. chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:
Set oven to 375 degrees
Melt 2 cups chocolate chips, 4 oz baker's chocolate and butter together in saucepan.
Mix eggs, sugar and vanilla until just combined. Stir together dry ingredients.
When chocolate is melted, stir in egg mixture.
Add dry ingredients.
Stir in last 2 cups chocolate chips. OR 1 cup chocolate chips with 1 cup pecans.
Scoop onto cookie sheets and bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies. Timing is important here. This batter cannot really sit or you will not get the pretty crackly crust you see in the picture. If you only have one cookie sheet, you might want to halve the recipe so you can bake them all at the same time recipe. As for baking, do not overcook these. The edges should be set but they should be pretty soft in the middle when you take them out of the oven. They will set quite a bit upon cooling and you definitely do not want to miss out on biting into the perfect mix of crisp edge and squishy middle with melted chips.

{This recipe was found via Welcome to my Pantry}

NOTE: The batter is alarmingly runny. Just glob it onto the cookie sheet and it will be fine. However, I dumped an extra 1/4 cup of flour into my batter, along with a bunch of nuts, to make myself feel better and the cookies turned out beautifully anyways. It's up to you.

Calzones

THESE ARE, BASICALLY, PIZZAS FOLDED INTO A NEW FORM: POCKETS

Dad's Pizza Dough:
1 cup water OR 1/2 cup water/ 1/2 cup flattened beer
1 T shortening
1 T sugar
1 t salt
2 3/4 cups flour
basil & oregano
1 1/4 t yeast

Place in the breadmaker in the order shown above. Create a well for the yeast in the flour. Takes about 1 hour 40 minutes in the breadmaker.

Filling:
Mozzarella
Pepperoni
Bacon
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Red Sauce

1.Roll dough into rounds. Flatten with a rolling pin into circles.
2.Place some filling in the center of each circle. Fold dough in half and press the edges together with a fork. Brush the top with olive oil or melted butter.
3.Bake for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven.