Macaroni and Cheese

I found this recipe in the French language Metro newspaper that they hand out here.

• 450g macaroni
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup chanterelles, chopped (we didn’t use)
  2 tablespoons butter (because we didn’t use the mushrooms we didn’t use this either)
• 225g ground beef
• 150g prosciutto
• 1/2 cup 35% cream
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup basil (we used less than this, maybe a couple of teaspoons)
• 1 onion, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook noodles as directed.

2. In a skillet, brown the mushrooms in the butter (we didn’t use mushrooms). Add the beef and the prosciutto and cook until the beef is no longer pink (we also added the onions in here, because in the original recipe they are raw, but we don’t like eating them that way).  Add the cream and the Parmesan cheese and let cook 1 minute.

3. Drain the noodles and add to skillet along with the onion (if using raw, like in the original recipe) and the basil. Salt and pepper to taste (considering prosciutto is pretty salts, we didn’t add anymore and just added pepper).

4. Serve with more sprinkled Parmesan.

Verdict: This recipe made a lot of food, though that could be because we used elbow macaroni. Maybe a different pasta wouldn’t have made as much. Considering the title, I would expect this dish to have a cheesier taste, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of cheese in the dish. It wasn’t a bad dish, it was very filling and very hearty, but I did wish that we had added more cheese into the dish.

S’mores Ice Cream Cake

This is a Kraft recipe.

• 32 Graham wafers, divided
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
• 3 cups Cool Whip – not thawed
• 1 tub (1.66L) chocolate ice cream, softened (we used Oreo ice cream and apparently our tubs of ice cream here are a little smaller, at 1.5L)
• 250g mini marshmallows
• 2 tablespoons milk

1. Crush 20 Graham wafers into fine crumbs. In a bowl, mix the crumbs with the melted butter and sugar. Press onto the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan. Bake 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely.

2. Meanwhile, break the remaining wafers into smaller rectangles along the lines.

3. Melt the chocolate and Cool Whip (original recipe said in a microwave, but we did it on the stove). Let stand 15 minutes. Spread chocolate over base. Stand the remaining wafer pieces up, around the edge of the pan. Freeze 20 min.

4. Cover with the ice cream and freeze 4 hours.

5. Reserve 2 cups of marshmallows. Melt the remaining marshmallows along with the milk (again the original recipe says in the microwave, but we did it on the stove). Cool 10 minutes. Top cake with melted marshmallows then sprinkle the 2 cups marshmallows on top.

6. Preheat oven broiler. Broil 6 inches from heat for 1 minute or until marshmallows are toasted (we put our cake back in the freezer for 10 minutes after this, because the ice cream was melting slightly). Remove rim of pan before serving.

Verdict: This was a ridiculously delicious cake. A part of me wonders why bother with the melted chocolate layer on the bottom, especially if we went with the original recipe and used chocolate ice cream, and why have a melted marshmallow topped with more marshmallows, but since it tasted so good it was kind of hard to criticize.

Rice au Gratin

I found this recipe in the French language Metro newspaper that they hand out free here.

• 2/3 lbs ground beef
• 1 796ml can of tomato juice
• 1 284ml can of tomato soup
• 2 cups instant rice
• Chopped onion to taste
• Chopped pepper to taste (we didn’t use any)
• Chopped mushrooms to taste (we didn’t use any)
• Salt, onion powder and garlic powder to taste
• Grated mozzarella to taste

1. Cook the ground beef with any vegetables you are using.

2. In a pot, bring the tomato juice to boil. Add the rice and set aside to let rice absorb the juice.

3. Mix together the rice, beef and tomato soup and place in an oven dish.

4. Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350F for 15 min.

Verdict: This is a type of recipe I don’t normally like, with its vague “to taste” measurements all over the place. We used maybe a half of a small onion and grated enough cheese to just cover the top of the dish. Because I dislike the taste of peppers and my sister dislikes the texture of mushrooms, I thought the dish could use more vegetables. I might look into adding something different, like carrots maybe, next time I make this, because the base of this dish was delicious.

Coconut-Fudge Bars

This is a Kraft recipe.

• 1 cup butter, divided
• 2 1/2 cup Graham cracker crumbs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 250g mini marshmallows
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup flaked coconut, toasted (we didn’t toast ours)

1. Mix 3/4 cup of the butter with the Graham crumbs and press onto the bottom of a 13×9 inch pan.

2. Bring remaining butter, sugar, evaporated milk and marshmallows to boil in a large saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook 5 minutes. Add chocolate and cook until melted, stirring frequently. Pour over crust.

3. Top with nuts and coconut. Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.

Verdict: We made a mistake somewhere in this recipe, but I’m not sure where. I think we may have added a little too much evaporated milk and more marshmallows then what the recipe called for. The end result was a bar that didn’t set properly so ended up more like pudding then fudge and was way too sweet to be edible.

Striped Delight

This is a Kraft recipe.

• 30 Oreo cookies
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tub Cool Whip, divided
• 2 packages of instant chocolate pudding
• 3 1/4 cup milk

1. Process cookies in a food processor until they are fine crumbs. Mix with butter. Press into the bottom of a 13×9 inch dish. Refrigerate until ready to use.

2. Beat the cream cheese with sugar and 2 tablespoons of milk. Stir in 1 1/4 cup of Cool Whip. Spread over crust.

3. Beat the pudding with 3 1/4 cup milk, whisking 2 minutes. Spoon over cream cheese layer. Let stand 5 minutes. Cover with remaining Cool Whip. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Verdict: I am not a huge fan of cream cheese. I’ve tried it in recipes where it has been mixed and then is baked and found that I didn’t mind it so much in a couple of those recipes. Since I think this recipe is pretty similar to others I tried before, I thought it would be a good one to try to see if I minded the cream cheese here. Though my family thought I was weird, I tasted the cream cheese and so did not enjoy the dish as much as I was hoping.  Adding chocolate chips on top did not help, though I think texturally the chocolate chips make sense as a topping.