Easy Macaroni and Cheese

The title says it all. You really can't find an easier recipe for homemade macaroni and cheese. It's not extra creamy or topped with a fancy crumb topping, but this dish is consistently good. On top of that, it only takes one dish to prepare. No precooking noodles or sauce.

This recipe is courtesy of my mother-in-law, Carole. As the mother of four, I'm sure she loved the simplicity of the dish and the fact that it is agreeable to most tastes. She was known to have many more than her own four kids at the table -- friends were always welcome.

Easy Macaroni and Cheese
3 Tbs. butter
2 1/2 c. uncooked macaroni
1/2 tsp. salt
dash of pepper
1/2 lb. sharp cheese grated
1 quart milk

Melt butter in the baking dish. Stir in the macaroni to coat with butter. Add the salt, pepper and cheese and stir. Then, add the milk and DO NOT STIR. Bake at 325 deg. for 1 hour.

Note: If you are cooking something else in the oven at a different temperature, just adjust the length of time you cook the macaroni and cheese as needed. It is done when top starts to brown.

Soupe a l'Oignon Gratinee

My husband is a big fan of French Onion Soup. And, really, what's not to like about sweet onions, broth, bread and cheese? It is featured on so many menus for a good reason.

A few years back, I decided to try my hand at making this tasty treat. Somewhere along the line, I came across a full page, fully illustrated McCall's "Cooking School" lesson on how to make French Onion Soup. The results were pretty good. In the intervening years, we've enjoyed this home-version of a restaurant favorite many times.

Earlier this week, I found I had all of the ingredients on hand for French Onion soup. The changing leaves and cooler fall weather has me longing for soup. As I went looking for my old standby recipe, though, it occurred to me that maybe McCall's isn't the way to go for this dish. On a whim, I opened up my copy of "The French Chef Cookbook," by Julia Child to see what she had to say on the subject. As it turns out, she devoted a whole episode of her show to this marvelous soup.

According to Julia, "to achieve true homemade taste, you'll need a homemade bouillon -- beef bones and shank meat simmered for several hours with the usual carrots, onions, celery, seasonings, and herbs. If your own bouillon is lacking, substitute canned beef bouillon."

Well, I admit, I don't have THOSE ingredients for making my soup. An already opened box of beef stock in the fridge is the real impetus for this particular soup-making adventure. So, guess I'm going to have to take the easy route this time. Maybe someday I'll get myself organized enough to have beef bones and shank meat on hand at the same time I'm craving French Onion Soup. I really like the idea of starting from scratch, but that's just not in the cards at this point in my life.

Julia uses a few more ingredients that McCall's, but I have most of what it takes so I decided to proceed with Julia's Soupe a l'Oignon Gratinee.

Note: I used gruyere cheese instead of swiss and omitted the cognac.

3 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 1/2 lbs. (5-6 cups) thinly sliced yellow onions
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
3 Tbs. flour
2 qts. hot beef bouillon (or dilute canned bouillon with 2 c. water)
1 c. red or white wine (I chose red)
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. sage
salt and pepper to taste
sliced french bread
olive oil or melted butter
optional: 1/4 c. cognac
peeled, 2-in. raw onion
2 oz. piece of swiss cheese
1 1/2 c. grated swiss and parmesan cheese, mixed

pictured: onions at the start of cooking process.

Melt the butter with the oil in a heavy 4-quart saucepan; add the sliced onions and stir. Cover and cook over moderately low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender and translucent.

Uncover pan, raise heat, and stir in the salt and sugar. [I've never used sugar before, but according to Julia, "sugar, by caramelizing, helps onions to brown."] Cook, stirring, until onions are deep golden brown, at which point you need to lower the heat to medium and stir in the flour. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes to brown the flour a bit, then remove from heat.

pictured: browned onions after whisking in flour.

Add a cup of hot bouillon, stirring with a whisk to blend. Add the rest of the bouillon and wine, bay leaf, sage and bring up to a simmer. Simmer over low heat for 30-40 minutes and season to taste with salt and pepper.

At this point you can let the soup cool and store in the fridge until you are ready to put on the final touches for serving. Or, if you are ready for dinner (as I was, at this point I had already spent a couple of hours cooking), ladle the soup into a broiler-proof soup tureen, casserole, or individual soup bowls.

Grate a bit of raw onion into the soup, add a little shredded cheese (again, I used Gruyere, but Julia calls for Swiss), then top the soup with a few toasted pieces of French bread (brush the bread with olive oil before toasting). Top the bread with a generous mound of Swiss/Gruyere cheese and a sprinkle of Parmesan.

Cook in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes (this really depends on whether you are starting with soup from the fridge or from the stove). When soup is hot, run it under the broiler for just a minute to brown cheese a bit.

It's raining (with a chance of meatballs)

Though I haven't yet seen the movie, I couldn't resist the reference. Tonight we're enjoying the first of two back-to-back nor'easters. The rain is falling on the windows and the temperature is dropping. A good night for a nice warm dinner of spaghetti and meatballs.

As written in an earlier post, my sauce "recipe" (I use quotes as I almost never actually look at a recipe, rather just throw ingredients in the pot) is borrowed from my sister-in-law Erin, who borrowed it from her mother-in-law Janet. Well, it's the same story for my meatballs. The same day I followed Erin around her kitchen watching her make sauce and guessing at the quantities of ingredients she was including, I also watched her whip up a batch of delicious meatballs. Thank you Erin and Janet for sharing your wonderful dishes!

My variation of Janet's meatballs has varied a bit (possibly quite a bit) from the original. This is due in part to me misplacing my notes from watching Erin cook that day so many years ago. Up until this year, I would follow my instructions written on Hello Kitty! notepaper when it came to making meatballs. I don't make them all that often and liked the reminder so I could get the proportions correct. Well, I've lost my notes. So, I'm left with my memory. Yes, I could have just picked up the phone and asked Erin, "how many eggs do you use?" But, I thought I'd made them often enough to swing it. Below is the recipe I came up with tonight.

Note: the red pepper flake makes for a spicy meatball. Adjust the amount you use (if any) based on how much heat you like. To test the spices in your meatballs before cooking the whole batch, make up a small patty of your mixture and cook it up in a fry pan. Then you can adjust your seasonings as necessary.

Ready to go into the oven...








Meatballs
1 lb. ground beef
3/4 lb. sweet Italian sausage
2 slices bread, soaked in water and squeezed in your hand to get most of the water out
2 eggs
1 Tbs. onion powder
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. ground pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 c. bread crumbs (plain -- if you want to use seasoned crumbs, adjust the following herbs as needed)
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. basil
1 1/2 tsp. parsley
1/4 tsp. thyme

Mix all of the ingredients together in a big bowl by hand. You are going to get dirty (take off any rings before you begin), but it's the only way to go. Roll 1 inch balls in your palms and put on a jelly roll pan or a cookie sheet with a 1 inch rim. Put the meatballs right up next to each other, no space in between. Cook at 375 deg. for about 35 minutes, or until nicely browned. Serve with sauce on sandwiches or with pasta.