Cooking It Up

I've been doing a bit of cooking recently.  And I really do mean a bit.  Living at home has its perks, one of which is that I'm not expected to cook ever.

Sometimes I do anyways.

This weekend I made homemade mac and cheese.  It was delicious.  I didn't follow a recipe for it, but here's a breakdown:

• Boil pasta to al dente - it's going to bake anyways so you don't want it soggy
• Cook diced bacon, set aside
• Make cheese sauce - I melt butter in a small amount of the bacon grease for flavor, then cream cheese.  To that I add milk.  Finally I mix in my desired cheeses (this time it was white cheddar, monterey jack, and Cougar gold).
• Chop and briefly steam broccoli - I used two crowns of broccoli and cooked it in the microwave

Finally I mixed all of those elements together in a 9x13 pan, topped it with parmesan and panko bread crumbs, and baked it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

It was a hit and provided plenty of left overs.

Dish #2 I made this afternoon after work was cancelled (don't worry, I was still paid).  I had picked up a head of cauliflower to make Pioneer Woman's soup.

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Unfortunately I didn't have all the ingredients, so I made it up a little as I went.  Again, I'm not much of a measurer.

I didn't have any carrots, so I used extra celery.  I also put sour cream in each individual bowl to serve, instead of mixing it into the whole soup.  I probably simmered the soup a little long and my flour/milk mixture was a little clumpy, but it was delicious.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

I never claimed to be a health-food addict.  Both these dishes are heavy on the dairy (cheese, milk, butter, cream, etc.), but for me food is all about taste.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with some pumpkin.  I already made pumpkin pancakes, which were amazing.  The pumpkin bread pudding on tonight's Throwdown with Bobby Flay and Ree sounded pretty good.  Any other ideas?

Tonight I'm thankful for an expected day off from work (and still getting paid).