It might not be as good as the ole fashioned baked stuff your grandma made! But, in my opinion, it’s better than the boxed stuff and pretty simple to make!
What you will need:
2 qt Sauce pan (for noodles).
1 qt Sauce pan (for cheese sauce).
Whisk or large wooden fork or stir spoon.
1 Tbsp of Vegetable or Olive Oil.
1 1/2 cups of small elbow macaroni noodles.
1 “heaping” cup of graded cheddar cheese (mild or medium).
3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream (you can use regular whole milk).
3 Tbsp of butter.
1 1/2 tsp of salt, or to taste
Follow suggested directions on the box to cook the macaroni noodles.
Add about4 and 3/4 cups of water to the 2 qt sauce pan, Tbsp of vegetable or olive oil and 1 tsp of salt and bring to a boil. Add noodles and cook until al dente or slightly firm but not tough. Be careful not to over cook.
When noodles are close to done, melt the 3 tbsp of butter in the smaller sauce pan on low heat. Add about 1/2 tsp of salt and the 3/4 cups of heavy whipping cream, to the pan. Whisk butter and cream together until well blended.
If your noodles are done, drain briefly in a strainer (we want to retain just a little of the moisture so don’t strain it dry) and return it to the hot pan. Set it aside on a pot holder or cool burner on the stove.
Increase heat to medium-low (#3 or #4 on electric stove) on the heavy cream and butter, and whisk or stir a couple of times, until it starts to simmer (decrease heat a little).
Add graded cheese a little at a time and whisk or stir constantly together and melt the cheese until completely dissolved. Keep repeating this step until you have mixed in all the cheese and it is completely dissolved and smooth (if not completely dissolved, it will taste grainy).
Then pour over the done and drained noodles in the 2 qt sauce pan, and mix around until noodles are well coated with cheese sauce.
Note: If it looks a little dry, try adding a little hot water to the pan and stir until blended together and smooth again.
Serve immediately!
I am not good at making these videos with one hand, but here is a video of me making the cheese sauce.
Making delicious homemade pizza from scratch (except the sauce, it’s store bought), isn’t too hard! Here is my recipe!
(makes two 12 inch pizzas)
You will need:
2 1/4 to 3 cups of flour (I use bread flour).
1 package of quick or rapid rise yeast.
1 cup of warm water.
1 Tablespoon of sugar.
1 Teaspoon of salt.
1 & 1/2 Tablespoons of olive oil (and extra for greasing bowls and pizza pans)
1 16’oz block of whole milk low-moisture mozzarella cheese.
Any pizza sauce that you like. I recommend a 5 oz box of Boboli sauce.It needs no refrigeration for unopened packets and can be stored in the cabinet for a while. It contains 3 sauce packets. We use 1 packet for two 12 inch pizza’s. Two 12 inch pizza pans. I recommend non stick.
Your choice of toppings (pepperoni, black olives, hamburger, anchovies, etc.).
Start with 2 1/4 cups of flour (I use bread flour). May need up to 3 cups total.
Add 1 package of rapid rise or quick rise type yeast
Add 1 Cup of Warm Water
1 Tablespoon of Sugar
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 teaspoon of salt.
Mix together with a fork until it starts to looking crumbly
Then use hands to mix all the crumbly flour to form a ball of dough. Knead dough until all flour is incorporated and is smooth and elastic. If dough is too sticky, add a little flour at a time. If dry, add a little warm water (like about a tablespoon at a time)
Separate the dough into two halves as evenly as you can (I just eyeball it) to make two 12 inch pizzas.
Add about 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil to each bowl and coat the walls of the bowls well with the oil.
Put dough in the bowl and coat with the residual oil in the bowl. May add a little extra oil if needed to coat the dough.
Cover each bowl with plastic wrap or towel and set it warm area for 1 hr to rise
I grate the cheese while the dough is rising and then put it back in the fridge until ready to top the pizzas.
Preheat oven at 425
Once the dough has risen, it should look something like this.
Grease the two pizza pans lightly with olive oil and spread the dough out across the pan to form the crust.
Spread sauce over the crust. I found that, a big and more oval shaped (flatter) spoon works best. This ladle I used here didn’t work so good. 😉
Divide your cheese as evenly as you can to cover both pizzas and add your favorite toppings.
For added flavor. Sprinkle garlic salt over the pizza before putting in the oven.
Place pizza on the middle and/or lower oven rack and bake for 12 to 15 minutes on 425 degrees…Note: Time depends on oven. For crisper crust use lower oven rack. For softer crust use middle. The top oven rack to brown the cheese more. You have to kind of just play around with your oven to get the done-ness how you like it. I will bake both at the same time and switch them around the oven racks, about half way through cooking time.
Note: You can use a bread machine or mixer with a dough hook to make your dough if you want. May actually turn out better. But I don’t have one, so I just use my ole fashioned “hand” mixer. lol!
Here is my Homemade Gringo Style Cheese Enchiladas Recipe! Yum!
Nope, it’s not a traditional cheese enchiladas recipe but it works for me and my family. And, they are delicious!
You will need:
A medium size skillet.
8 to 12 corn tortillas.
A steam cloth (cheese cloth) or thin kitchen towel and a couple of large paper towels, to wrap tortillas in.
1, 16 oz block or two 8 oz blocks of mild cheddar cheese, grated.
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped onion.
A 9 x 9 or bigger metal (non stick) sheet pan with sides, or glass baking dish (I was able to fit 9 enchiladas tightly in the 9 x 9 pan).
Enough foil to cover the pan.
Seasonings:
Note: I put all my seasonings in a bowl together (except for the flour and oil which I bowl each separately or just leave in separate measuring cups), ahead of time.
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
1/4 cup Flour
1 & 1/2 to 2 TBS Chili Powder (I use only 1 1/2)
2 tsp Cumin
Optional for spicier flavor: 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1 & 1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Dried (crushed) Oregano
1 tsp Salt
14.5/15 oz can of Chicken Broth.
Chili Gravy The Chili Gravy for this Cheese Enchiladas Recipe is what makes it good, instead of using Enchilada Sauce from a can!
Heat the 1/4 cup of vegetable oil in medium skillet over medium heat.
Then when oil is ready (should sizzle when you drop a pinch of flour in it, add the 1/4 cup of flour.
Stir to completely dissolve all the flour real well and heat until mixture is a very light brown.
Add seasonings a little at a time, and mix in until well blended.
Add the can of low sodium chicken broth and stir frequently until well blended and it starts to thicken. Should be almost the consistency of a thin gravy (maybe just a little thicker). You want it thin enough to mostly cover your enchiladas, but not be runny. Cook and stir longer to thicken. If it gets too thick, you can add a little water at a time to thin it out. Then turn off heat when it’s the consistency you like.
Steaming the Corn Tortillas I know most people fry the tortillas to soften them up, but I steam them in the microwave, which makes the recipe less greasy!
Wet the steam cloth and wring it out good and lay it on a flat surface. Put 3 or 4 tortillas in the center and wrap the cloth around them. Microwave for 1 minute. Repeat for however many enchiladas you are making.
Check tortillas and microwave an additional 20 to 30 seconds, if tortillas are not yet soft and pliable (should be soft but not mushy). Be careful!!! The cloth will be very hot and so will the tortillas, with hot steam.
If you don’t have a steam or cheese cloth.
Take a thin kitchen towel, get it wet and wring it out good. Then set a couple of large paper towels on top of the wet towel. Set tortillas on top and fold over the paper towels to wrap up tortillas and then fold the towel over that. Then microwave for 1 minute. Add 20 to 30 seconds to the time if needed. They should be soft but not mushy.
Add the Cheese and Roll Them Up!
Add a loose handful of cheese (and onions if you desire) to one steamed corn tortilla at a time, and roll it up a like a burrito, a little tight but not too tight, or it might split the tortilla.
And as you roll one up at a time, place in the (non stick) sheet pan with sides, or the glass baking dish, close together.
Add the Chili Gravy and Top With Cheese!
You may need to thin out the gravy with a little hot water if it has thickened up while sitting in the pan. Then pour as much of the chilly gravy from the skillet as you want, over the enchiladas. And then top with the left over cheese (not too much now or it may take too long to melt).
Cover pan with foil and bake in the oven on 350 for about 10 to 12 minutes, or until cheese is well melted and bubbly.
Serve Immediately!
Serve hot with a side of refried beans, chips and salsa!
Hope you enjoy my Homemade Gringo Style Cheese Enchiladas Recipe!
Homemade Alfredo Sauce used on Chicken Wings, Recipe.
Chicken Wings:
I deep fried, 8 to 10 wing pieces (about 4 to 6 wings, with tips removed and parted) for 10 minutes on 350. But you can bake them in the oven if you prefer. Seasoned with season salt and pepper. Keep warm when done, until ready to toss in homemade Alfredo sauce.
Homemade Alfredo Sauce Recipe:
4 tablespoons of butter
3/4 cup of heavy cream
1 cup if shredded Parmesan cheese
Salt, pepper and garlic powder (I don’t know an exact amount for each seasoning but probably be less than I used. Just a few shakes of a shaker, lol)
Melt butter in a skillet on low heat. Add heavy cream, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Heat cream, stirring frequently, until starting to bubble and simmer. Add cheese gradually, stirring constantly to melt and blend in, until smooth. Turn off heat and let sauce stand for a couple minutes. Pour some of the sauce into a bowl and 3 or 4 wing pieces at a time, turning them to coat. Add more sauce as needed. Or just add the wings to the pan itself and turn to coat. Remove from sauce, plate and sprinkle with extra cheese if desired. Serve! Enjoy!
Note: This sauce is great to use on fettuccine noodles or other pasta! Cook your pasta al dente, drain but reserve a cup of the hot liquid you boiled the pasta in. Put your cooked noodles in a large mixing bowl, add sauce and turn to coat and mix sauce in. Add the pasta water a little at a time to thin the sauce out and make it creamier. Add cut up grilled chicken pieces for a delicious chicken Alfredo! YUM!
By the way, the wings were so good! I want to make it this way again, real soon!
Do you like fried chicken? I sure do! But, I really love home fried chicken!
Not only do I like working on computers, but I also love to cook! One of my favorite things to cook is, fried chicken. There are several ways you can make it at home, and I am definitely no expert. But yesterday I made some, deep fried.
Below is my recipe for “extra crispy style” home cooked, deep fried chicken. It’s not a quick and easy recipe to follow and a bit long of a read. But, it turned out so good that I thought I would try and write it up, so I could share it with others. And, I wanted to try to cover as many details that I could. Once you get it down though, it gets easier. Feel free to adjust it as you like!
Enjoy!
What You Will Need
For Brine
4 to 6 hrs for marination.
A large mixing bowl (2 qt).
4 TBS of regular table salt.
1 Cup of hot water.
2 or 3 trays of ice cubes or equivalent in crushed ice.
About 2 cups of cold water.
A sharp butcher knife or boning knife, and a cutting board (if you want to cut up the chicken yourself) .
1 whole fryer size chicken, probably around 3 lbs or less, cut up into 8 or 9 pieces. A roasting chicken is too large. See the video below on how to do it yourself.
For Breading
3 or 4 cups of all purpose flour, or more as needed.
2 large containers, 1 for dusting the chicken with flour and 1 for breading the chicken.
If you don’t have an electric deep fryer, you can probably use a large heavy bottom fry pot, dutch oven or cast iron pot on the stove. But you will need to monitor the heat (300 to 325°) with some kind of cooking thermometer, as you can burn the breading easily before the chicken is done. And, it needs to be large enough to cook 2 or 3 pieces of chicken at a time. Here is an article with some handy tips for deep frying, that might help.
Vegetable Oil
Or you can use peanut oil. I have never tried peanut oil for fried chicken because it is more expensive, but some say it makes it taste better and the oil lasts longer.
You will need enough to cover the chicken and be able to rotate it around in the oil, as it fry’s. Most instructions for electric deep fryers say to fill oil to fill line on the fryer.
I have fried chicken enough as a fry cook in restaurants, to be able to tell when it’s done. But, when in doubt, I use a meat thermometer. The internal temp of fried chicken, should be at 165° when done, and juices run clear with no pink. Nothing wrong with using a thermometer, to just be on the safe side!
How to Cut Up the Chicken
Please be careful with the knife! I highly recommend asking your butcher or meat market clerk to do it for you, if you are not confident in cutting it up yourself. Ask for a 10 piece cut if possible, this will give you 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 breasts, the keel (breast bone) and the back (you can save the back to make chicken stock for soups). Hopefully they know what they’re doing. It’s getting harder to find someone who can still do this, these days! Especially in the big box stores like Walmart!
If you want to do it yourself. Here is a video of a basic way to cut up a chicken, where part of the keel and rib bones are removed from the breast, so it fits in the fryer a little easier. Sometimes I just split the breasts, or I cut the keel out to have 3 piece’s of white meat, depending on how big my chicken is. But, I leave my wings whole, and in the video, she parts them. It takes a little patience! I made a video too, but it’s not very good!
Set your cut up chicken in the fridge until ready for to be added to the brine.
Making the Brine
In the large mixing bowl, add the 4 TBS of salt and cup of hot water, and whisk to dissolve the salt.
Add the 2 or 3 trays of ice cubes or crushed ice to the mixing bowl and stir it around to cool off the water real good (check to make sure, all water is completely cold). Then add your chicken pieces to the bowl and add more water (about 2 cups) to cover chicken so that it’s kind of floating in the bowl, so you have a little room to stir it around once in a while.
Set the bowl in the fridge for around 4 to 6 hrs to marinate. Kind of stir the chicken pieces up once in while.
Alternatively, you can brine your chicken in a gallon size ziplock freezer bag. Mix your salt and hot water in a small bowl, cool it down with ice and then pour it over the chicken in the bag. Add more ice and cold water to cover chicken and then seal the bag. Then once in a while, shake the bag up lightly to move the pieces around in it. But be sure to set the bag in something to put in the fridge, just in case the bag leaks.
Getting It Ready
When your chicken is done marinating in the brine, you will need to drain the chicken.
Then put about 1 or 2 cups of flour in whatever container you are using to flour dust the chicken. And about 1 to 2 cups of flour in whatever container you are using to bread the chicken in. Then add all your seasoning to the container for the breading flour. With a dry whisk, mix all the seasoning and flour for breading together very well, and set aside (just to be clear, you will have one container with the plain flour and 1 container with the seasoned flour).\
Egg Wash
Get a container big enough to fit the biggest piece of chicken you have and enough room for the egg mixture. Beat the 3 eggs in the container and then add the 2 cups of milk. Then beat the mixture together until well mixed.
Heat the Oil
Add your oil to the fryer and heat to 300 to 325°. I know most recommendations are for 350°, but it seems the breading darkens too fast at this temp in my fryer. You can check if the oil is ready, by getting a pinch of flour and sprinkling it in the fryer, and if it sizzles a lot right away, it’s ready. Some fryers have a light that will go on or off when it’s ready. Mine just stays on. So sometimes I test it with a small cut piece of the chicken and if it starts frying right away, it’s ready.
Breading the Chicken
Here is a video of how I bread the chicken.
Toss a couple of pieces in the plain flour to coat it. Shake off excess flour. Then dip the pieces in your egg wash and let it drip off or shake off excess. Then put the pieces in the seasoned flour. Mix pieces in the flour to coat well. Press the pieces down into the flour and then mix around again, about 3 or 4 times. Shake off excess flour and then slowly drop pieces into the fryer. Be sure and leave room for rotating piece in the oil. Only bread and fry a few pieces at a time. The pieces that you don’t bread, store back in the fridge, until needed.
If you notice your flour getting really clumpy, sift it and add more flour. I sometimes dump it and start over with fresh flour and seasoning, using same amounts as listed.
Frying the Chicken
Set a timer for about 12 – 14 minutes. Smaller pieces and white meat might take less time. Larger dark pieces may take more time. When done, pieces will float, and sizzling will be very light in sound. Remove pieces and use your meat thermometer inserted into a thick meaty piece of chicken, to check for done-ness. It should be at 165°. If unsure, cut into a thick piece and it should be white all the way through, with clear juices and no pink. Drain pieces on a plate lined with a few paper towels or on a wire rack set on a baking sheet pan. I put mine in my oven on warm or on a very low temp (150°), until it’s all done and ready to eat.
Eating the Chicken
We like to serve our fried chicken with sides of mashed potatoes, green beans and cream gravy! YUM! I also made some extra buffalo style wings to go with it, because one of the kids doesn’t like fried chicken so much.
Well, that is about it. I know it’s a long recipe! Hope it works for somebody!
It might not be as good as the ole fashioned baked stuff your grandma made! But, in my opinion, it’s better than the boxed stuff and pretty simple to make!
Note
Not only do I like working on computers, but I also love to cook! One of my favorite things to cook is, fried chicken. There are several ways you can make it at home, and I am definitely no expert. But yesterday I made some, deep fried.
1 whole fryer size chicken, probably around 3 lbs or less, cut up into 8 or 9 pieces. A roasting chicken is too large. See the video below on how to do it yourself.
3 or 4 cups of all purpose flour, or more as needed.
A home electric deep fryer (I use a 
on the stove. But you will need to monitor the heat (300 to 325°) with some kind of 
, as you can burn the breading easily before the chicken is done. And, it needs to be large enough to cook 2 or 3 pieces of chicken at a time. 
Or you can use peanut oil. I have never tried peanut oil for fried chicken because it is more expensive, but some say it makes it taste better and the oil lasts longer.
.
I have fried chicken enough as a fry cook in restaurants, to be able to tell when it’s done. But, when in doubt, I use a meat thermometer. The internal temp of fried chicken, should be at 165° when done, and juices run clear with no pink. Nothing wrong with using a thermometer, to just be on the safe side!
Please be careful with the knife! I highly recommend asking your butcher or meat market clerk to do it for you, if you are not confident in cutting it up yourself. Ask for a 10 piece cut if possible, this will give you 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 breasts, the keel (breast bone) and the back (you can save the back to make chicken stock for soups). Hopefully they know what they’re doing. It’s getting harder to find someone who can still do this, these days! Especially in the big box stores like Walmart!
