Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash

This mac & cheese recipe is the standard one around our house. Usually we add cherry tomatoes to it but since we are in the middle of the tundra right now tomatoes are not really at their best. We do though have a lot of squash right now so I thought that roasted it would add a nice sweetness that the tomatoes usually do.

It really was a nice addition to the mac & cheese. Its not quite as sweet as the tomatoes but it is a richer sweetness. The creamy texture blends in really well with the pasta & cheese sauce as well.

Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash

1 1/2 c butternut squash, peeled & cut into 1/2-inch cubes
olive oil
3/4 lb penne pasta
1 medium onion
1 Tbs butter
1/8 C flour
1 C milk
1/2 C heavy cream
1 1/2 C grated cheddar cheese
3/4 C grated gryere
dry mustard
salt
pepper
panko

Put the squash in a small roasting pan & coat with a little olive oil. Roast at 400 F for 30 - 45 minutes until soft & starting to brown. Set aside.

Cook pasta according to directions drain and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 F

Heat a small skillet over low heat. Slice onion very thin. Add onion to skillet and saute slowly until brown and carmelized. Mix into pasta.

In a small saucepan melt butter over med-low heat. Add flour an stir constantly for 1 minute. Do not allow to brown. Slowly whisk in milk and cream. Stir until hot and smooth and slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Turn heat to low and add cheese. Whisk until melted. Add a pinch of dry mustard and salt and pepper to taste.

Butter a glass casserole dish. Add pasta, onions, butternut squash and cheese sauce. Mix well until cheese sauce covers everything. Sprinkle panko over the top.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Serves 4

Cowgirl Chocolates

We recently joined the Tastemaker program on Foodbuzz which gives us the opportunity to try out some different products on the market. What a treat when we received our first product, Cowgirl Chocolates. Matt & I are big fans of good chocolate so we really enjoyed this.

The chocolate came beautifully packaged, wrapped in red paper then in a ribbon tied box with a silver charm.

Inside were 9 shiny wrapped chocolates & one caramel plus a flavor card. Apparently, Cowgirl is into adding peppers like cayenne & habanero to their chocolates which made Matt exclaim they were all for him. Luckily for me there were also 4 non-spicy varieties.

We tried the Spicy Raspberry Dark Chocolate first, oh was it good. The raspberry filling was very berry but not too sweet & the chocolate was great. The spice hits you towards the end of eating the chocolate with a warming sensation but was no where near hot enough to bother me at all which was perfect.

Next Matt went for the Habanero Caramel. The caramel was amazingly good but woah, did it hit you with some heat at the end. Definitely shows you the difference between cayenne & habanero. Matt loved these & said he could sit & eat a whole box if he had them.

We've eaten our way through most of the chocolates in two days & they have all been wonderful. I've found in the past that spicy candies sometimes skimp on the other flavors & what I liked about these is the spice is there but so is the quality of the rest of the ingredients. I'm tempted to try a few other things off of their site now like the Cayenne Caramels & the Roasted Hazelnut Toffee.

8 Weeks of Cookies - Pfeffernusse & Chocolate Covered Pfeffernusse

The baking for the Christmas cookie tray continued in earnest today with these little bite-sized treats.

I had never had pfeffernusse before (ok, I've had the Swedish peppernut but it's quite different from these) but they are traditional for Matt's family. Apparently, they are originally Dutch but many other countries have versions of this crunchy, spiced cookie but all include a small bit of pepper in the recipe. To me, they tasted a a lot like gingerbread cookies without the ginger. Matt's mom said she usually adds more pepper or even cayenne than called for but Matt asked me not to for this batch. Then after he tasted them he decided a little cayenne would have actually added a tasty extra kick.

I thought they were a little plain looking & decided to dip half of them in chocolate. Matt said if I was going to do that I might as well add some cayenne to the chocolate too. So, we ended up with three different versions of pfeffernusse; plain, chocolate covered & cayenne chocolate covered. They are all good but I think the cayenne chocolate covered are the best.


Pfeffernusse (three ways)

1/3 c molasses
1/4 c unsalted butter
1 egg
1/4 c packed brown sugar
3/4 t cinnamon
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t cardamon
1/4 t allspice
1/8 t pepper
2 c flour
6 - 7 oz chocolate, melted (optional)(we used leftover Hershey's Special Dark candy bars from Halloween)
1/2 t cayenne pepper or more to taste (optional)

Put the molasses & butter into a saucepan & heat over low heat until the butter is melted. Pour into a large bowl & let cool to room temperature.

Beat the egg into the cooled molasses & butter. Stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, cardamon, allspice & pepper. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, incorporating each addition completely before adding the next. Cover the bowl & chill the dough for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Divide the dough into 12 even pieces. Roll the piece each out into 10-inch lengths. Cut each length into twenty 1/2-inch pieces. Place the pieces 1/2 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 -12 minutes until the sides of the cookies are firm & the bottoms lightly brown.

Chocolate covered pfeffernusse:
Dipped the cooled cookies into the melted chocolate coating about 1/2 of the cookie. Place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Chill in the refrigerator until the chocolate hardens.

Cayenne chocolate covered pfeffernusse:
Do the same as above but mix the cayenne pepper into the melted chocolate.

Makes 240 cookies
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8 Weeks of Cookies

Anise Mandelbrot

Candy Cane Cookies

Apricot Foldover Cookies
Swedish Peppernut Cookies

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies
Chocolate Truffle Cookies

Weekly Menu 12/15 - 12/20

We spent last week in San Francisco & now were back home in Minneapolis where the high today is supposed to be -2 F! We have a wind chill alert warning of windchills between -25 & -35 F. I love the fact that the National Weather Service cations in their alert that if you must go out wear a hat & gloves. Luckily we don't have to leave the house today & have plenty of warm satisfying meals on the menu for the rest of the week.

I seem to have caught a bug while in traveling but luckily Matt made me a big pot of homemade vegetable soup last night. Just the thing with a few crackers & some ginger ale.

Matt's Vegetable Rice Soup

1 T olive oil

1 c diced onion

20 oz whole canned tomatoes, drained

3 c vegetable stock

1 turnip, peeled & diced

2 medium yukon gold potatoes, peeled & diced

4 medium carrots, peeled & sliced

1 c cabbage, chopped

2/3 c rice

1 bay leaf

1/8 t dried thyme

salt & pepper

In a large soup pot heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions & sauté for about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes & smash a little with your spoon then cook for 5 more minutes. Add the vegetable stock & use immersion blender to process until smooth. Add remaining ingredients & bring to a boil. Cover & turn heat to low. Simmer for 45 - 60 minutes until rice is cooked & vegetables are tender.

Serves 4

On to Menu Planning Monday....

Mac & Cheese with Butternut Squash

Chile - Always a spur of the moment creation by Matt & always good

Roast Pork Tenderloin & Vegetables

Meatball Sandwiches

Twice Baked & Stuffed Potatoes

Thai Coconut Curry Chicken Soup - We've made this soup from from Culinary Adventures of a New Wife before & its so good!

8 Weeks of Cookies - Chocolate Truffle Cookies

This is another cookie recipe from Matt's mom & a request from Matt for our Christmas cookie tray. 

These cookies are all about the chocolate. The original recipe called for semisweet chocolate chips but I decided to us bittersweet instead since we like the flavor better. Another change I made was to use 2 squares of unsweetened chocolate & 2 of bittersweet chocolate instead of all unsweetened because I made a mistake while shopping. I figured that since I was using bittersweet chocolate it would be ok & the cookies wouldn't turn out too sweet. 

These cookies are so rich & chocolaty, they do taste a lot like a truffle. They stay soft & moist even once cooled & remind me a lot of a brownie. I can see adding flavors to them like espresso or chile though they are pretty perfect just the way they are.

Chocolate Truffle Cookies

4 oz unsweetened chocolate squares (or mix it up like I did half bittersweet & half unsweetened)

2 cups chocolate chips (I used bittersweet)

1/3 c butter

3 eggs

1 c sugar

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/2 c flour

2 T baking cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark)

1/4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate, 1 cup chocolate chips & butter together. Set aside & let cool for about 10 minutes.

Beat the eggs & sugar together until light about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla & melted chocolate mixture, beat until blended. Beat in the flour, cocoa, baking powder & salt until well combined. Stir in the remaining cup of chocolate chips. (The dough will seem very runny) Cover the mixing bowl & chill the dough for at least 3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Working with a small amount of the dough at a time, roll it into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes until puffed up & set. Allow to cool for a couple minutes on the cookies sheet before moving to a rack to completely cool. Dust with powdered sugar.

Makes about 4 dozen (we got 51)

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8 Weeks of Cookies

Anise Mandelbrot

Candy Cane Cookies

Apricot Foldover Cookies
Swedish Peppernut Cookies

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies