recipes

Gouda Mac-n-Cheese

Hey there foodies happy Monday! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are all ready to take on this week with stride. Speaking of this week, Thanksgiving is on Thursday!!! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I am very excited to celebrate with the ones I love and the food I love. I figured while there is still time to sneak in some food shopping, I would share my absolute favorite Mac-n-Cheese recipe! It took me a few tries to perfect it but now it is perfect and would make a great addition to your holiday table.

What you need:

  • 1 16oz box Elbow pasta
  • 2 7oz wheels smoked Gouda cheese, cubed or shredded
  • 1 8oz bag Cheddar cheese, shredded
  • 2 1/2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 1/2 cups milk
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tsp salt

Method:

  • Bring to boil a large pot of water (around 5-6 cups) and add pasta. Cook until noodles are tender. Drain noodles but do not rinse.
  • In a sauce pan: melt butter and sprinkle in flour. Mix together to create a roux (This helps thicken the cheese sauce).
  • In same pan add in milk, black pepper and salt.
  • Occasionally stir until milk starts to thicken. You can tell it’s thick by placing a spoon into mixture and milk will stick to the back of the spoon.
  • Cube or shredded Gouda cheese
  • Add Gouda cheese and half a bag of Cheddar to thicken milk and stir. At this time take the sauce off the heat and stir until cheese melts.
  • Pour cheese sauce over cooked pasta and mix well.
  • Pour into an oven safe dish, top second half of cheddar cheese on top and bake in the oven on 375 for 15-20 minutes
  • Let cool and enjoy!
recipes

Vegetable Pot Pie

Good Morning Foodies! I hope you all are having an amazing week and getting all prepared for the upcoming holidays! Today I wanted to share a recipe with you that I am so excited about! Honestly, this might be one of the best meals I have ever made and it was a huge hit with my boyfriend.

I little background story first: I have never been that great of a baker but over the past year or so I have really been trying to sharpen my baking skills. So far, I have made some pretty great things that I am proud of. The other day, I decided to make a pot pie. I didn’t want to use biscuits or a pre-made crust, so I decided to try for a homemade pie crust instead. Also, I decided to try my luck at making this inside of the pot pie, right off hand. I told myself I would use my knowledge that I already have for cooking, throw something together and hope it works. One thing they teach us in culinary school is ‘to trust yourself and your palate’ and I am happy I did! This is my favorite recipe to date and I hope you all enjoy it too!

What you need

Pie crust

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp salt
  • 6 tbsp of unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
  • 3.4 cup vegetable shortening, chilled
  • 1/2 cup ice water ( if not ice, place cup of water in freezer for 10 minutes or until really cold. NOT FROZEN)
  • 1 egg, beaten

Pot Pie

  • 4 medium potatoes
  • 1 cup carrots, chopped
  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup fresh green beans, chopped 1 inch long
  • 2 1/2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 2 1/2 cup 2% milk
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, salt, garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • Pinch of ground clove
  • Pinch of crushed red pepper
  • Optional: 1 container of your favorite veggie meat product or 1 1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped.

Method

Pie crust:

  • In a large bowl, mix flour and salt together. Add cubed and chilled butter and vegetable shortening.
  • If you have a pastry cutter, cut the butter and shortening into the mixture. It should start to look like course meal. If you do not own a pastry cutter, with clean hands, you can mix the dough that way or use two forks.
  • Slowly start to incorporate your ice water, 1 tbsp at a time. Mixing dough until it start to become thicker.
  • If too sticky, sprinkle in some additional flour
  • Roll dough into a large ball, cut the ball in half and use plastic wrap to cover each half.
  • Place in refrigerator for 2 hour or up to 5 days.
  • Once pie crust is chilled, on a floured surface, roll out dough, 1/2 at a time, starting from the middle, outward in long even strokes, until you have a circle. Make sure to occasionally spin dough, so that it doesn’t start to stick to the counter tip. (Circle does not need to be perfect).
  • Note: Do this last step after you have completed you pot pie filling.

Pot Pie:

  • Clean, peel and cube potatoes. Add in boiling water and cook until you are able to stick a fork through them. (Do not over cook or make cubes too small)
  • Melt butter in a pan and add in onions and fresh garlic.
  • Once onions become translucent, add carrots. Saute until carrots become tender.
  • Sprinkle in flour and mix
  • Lower heat a little and add in milk, Italian seasoning, paprika, salt, pepper, fresh thyme and garlic powder.
  • Occasionally stir. Once mixture starts to thicken up, add in green beans and simmer until mixture is thickens.
  • At this time if you chose to use a veggie meat (that you have already cooked separately) or mushrooms, add them in, as well as the potatoes. Mix together.
  • Take off heat and add a pinch of ground clove and crushed red pepper.
  • At this time you can roll out pie dough 1/2 at a time.
  • Place 1/2, rolled dough in a glass baking dish (or pie dish). Use knife to cut off extra dough around the edges.
  • Poke a few whole with a fork at the bottom of crust and place in the oven for 10 minutes on 375 degrees. This will help make sure the bottom crust cooks all the way.
  • Take crust out of the oven and add pot pie mix.
  • Place second 1/2 of your rolled dough on top and use knife to cut off extra around the edges.
  • Make small slits in the middle of dough with knife (2 or 3)
  • Use a cooking brush to brush on egg wash to help get a nice golden crust on top
  • Place in oven for 30-35 minutes on 375 degrees
  • Let rest of 10 minutes before cutting
  • ENJOY!
blog post

Updates & Great News!

Hello foodies! I know some of you are probably thinking “girl, where have you been!?” I know I know, I have not blogged in so long. At first, I wasn’t blogging because I was sick for awhile but then life took a sharp right turn and I became busy adjusting to it. One of my biggest updates, as you can see in the picture above, I AM IN CULINARY SCHOOL! I wrote a post some months back, mentioning that I was considering it but I was unsure when I should. One thing I’ve learned in life is there is no such thing as the right time, do it now! And so I did. It was a long process getting prepared for school and I just started on the 11th of this month. It is such an amazing feeling, learning about the thing you love. So far we have been learning a lot about different cuts and knife skills. I never thought I had good knife skills but I have impressed myself and I can’t wait to grown, learn and become a professional in the kitchen.

Below is me showing off some of my cuts I’m most proud of!

Aside from school, I have also started a new job! It’s a work from home, data entry position and it is perfect for work-life balance. If you never worked from home before, it was the best experience! A 15 minute break means so much more, when you’re in your own comfort zone, then it does when in an office. So far so good on the new job!

I also had the opportunity to cater my first event a few weeks back! I won’t go into a lot of detail about that here, as I want to make a separate post about it. I will say however, that it was the most exciting/stressful/amazing experience I have had in awhile and I really hope to have more opportunities to cater!

Here is a sneak peek at the cookies I baked & gift bagged individually for the event. They were a huge hit!

As far as being sick, I am okay. I am still trying to find a balance to keep my health on track but I am alive and happy! These past few months have been so stressful but great at the same time. I think I am in a space now where I can get back to blogging, which I am excited for because I’ve missed it.

Just to let you guys know, I do have some recipes I have perfected recently and I am very excited to share them! Thank you all for sticking around and being patient. Much love from TLKitchen ❤

-T. Cannon