Mac'n'Cheese

One of my favorite foods is Mac’n’Cheese. This is what I always got at Cracker Barrel. I love making Mac’n’Cheese, I make it every Wednesday and Friday, but I never really had a recipe. Then one day we went to a friend’s house, and she made Mac’n’Cheese. It was soooo good so we asked her for the recipe. I have changed it just a hair. Here it is.

          Mac’n' Cheese

500g macaroni noodles

360g (or if in Indonesia, 2 blocks Kraft Quick Melt Cheese) quick melting cheese, shredded

1 stick butter (half a cup)

1 cup milk

Salt

Pepper

·         Cook noodles according to the package. Drain and put back in pot.

·         Add stick of butter. And stir til’ butter is melted.

·         Then add milk and shredded cheese all at once. Stir until cheese is melted and is creamy.

·         Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pumpkin Scones

I love pumpkin breads, pie, etc. so I was looking for some kind of pumpkin bread recipe to make for a friend. I came across this recipe, and we had all the ingredients so I went and made it (a couple days later, maybe 5?). They turned out really good. Even my dad liked them (he doesn’t really like pumpkin stuff). But it has loads of sugar so who wouldn’t like them? I don’t know. So here it is with my changes.  You can see the original recipe at the link below.

                                                                     
        Pumpkin Scones

  

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

6 Tablespoons cold butter cut into 1-inch (or almost 1 inch) cubes

½ cup fresh pumpkin

2 Tablespoons whipping cream

1 Tablespoon milk

1 large egg

        Powdered Sugar Glaze

1 cup plus 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons milk

        Spiced Glaze

1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons milk

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of ground nutmeg

Pinch of ground ginger

Pinch of ground cloves

·         In a mixing bowl, whisk together pumpkin, whipping cream, milk, and egg. Set aside.

·         Sift together in a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer), the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Add the cubed butter on top.

·         With a knife, cut the butter into the flour (if using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment on medium speed) until you reach the consistency of coarse cornmeal (butter should be no larger than a small pea).

·         Now gradually fold the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. I used a spatula to do this, but I had to use my hands in the end to get the last bit of flour to incorporate into a well formed dough ball. My dough was pretty ragged, but that’s just fine. The important thing is to make sure all the dry ingredients have been moistened well.

·         On a well-floured surface, flatten and form the dough into a 12”x4”x1” thick rectangle.

·         Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, divide the rectangle into 3 equal pieces, then slice each piece into 4 triangular pieces by making an ‘X’ through them, then cut right down the center of the rectangle in the 12” direction. (http://theshoeboxkitchen.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/pumpkin-scones/)

·         Preheat your oven to 220C (425F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (wax paper works great).

·         You should have 18 triangles. Put the triangles on the pan and bake for maybe 15 minutes or until light brown (mine only took 13 mins, but they were still kinda’ burnt on the bottomL) Remove to a cooling rack or to 2 plates and let cool before icing.

·         Make the powdered sugar glaze by mixing the milk and sugar until smooth, then paint the tops of the glaze using a pastry brush or spread the glaze with a spoon.

·         While the first glaze is drying (10 mins), make the spiced glaze combining all ingredients and mixing till’ smooth. Drizzle onto the scones by putting the spiced glaze into a ziplock and snip off the corner.

The glaze is supposed to dry for an hour, but we waited about 30 mins since it was about 9:00 and we were hungry. These are the BEST scones ever!