Baked Macaroni and Pimiento Cheese

Last week I was reminiscing and looking through one of my recipe notebooks from the restaurant.  (I still miss it!) I found a recipe that I'd always wanted to try, but had forgotten about - Golden Baked Macaroni and Pimiento Cheese.  Let's see - macaroni and cheese!  Pimiento cheese!  Two stand-alone favorites - combined they must surely be the epitome of comfort food.

The recipe was on a page torn from a Southern Living magazine, and was originally for an appetizer - Macaroni and Pimiento Cheese Bites - which is why I kept it, but tonight I followed the altered recipe for the casserole. I thought it would be a nice side dish, along with blackened green beans (another new recipe, see below), to have with the rib-eye steaks we were planning to grill.

The macaroni was amazingly good.  We love macaroni and cheese at our house and have accumulated recipes for several favorite versions.  This one goes into our notebook of "keeper" recipes. It was easy to make and baked in only 20 minutes.  As it baked, that wonderful cheesy smell filled the kitchen, and I could hardly wait to take a bite when it came out of the oven.

Here are the ingredients:

1 (8-oz.) package elbow macaroni (about 2 cups dry pasta)
3 Tbsp. butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1 (8-oz.) block extra sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
1 (4-oz.) jar diced pimientos, drained
3/4 cup fine, dry breadcrumbs
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 large eggs, lightly beaten *
1/2 cup milk *
Vegetable oil *

* Omit if baking the casserole.

I prepared the pasta earlier in the afternoon per the package directions, rinsed and drained it, and placed it in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it.

Melt the butter in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat.

Whisk in the flour until smooth. 

The flour will actually clump instead of looking smooth, so don't panic when you see this happening.

Gradually whisk in 2 cups milk (I used 2% instead of whole with no adverse results) and the salt, ground red pepper (I used cayenne) and garlic powder. 

Whisk constantly for 3 - 5 minutes or until thickened.  It will blend together nicely.



Stir in the shredded cheese and pimiento until melted and smooth.

 

 

 

Stir in the cooked pasta and remove from heat.

 

Pour macaroni mixture into a lightly greased 9x13-inch baking dish. (Do not chill.)   Stir together breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese; sprinkle over mixture. Bake at 350F for 15 to 20 minutes or until bubbly.

 

 

 

If you want to try the appetizer version:

Prepare the macaroni mixture per the above directions through the step of adding the pasta.

Line a 9x13-inch pan with plastic wrap.  Allow a few inches to extend over edges of pan. 

 

Pour the prepared mixture into the pan.  After it has cooled slightly, cover and refrigerate for 8 hours.

 

Remove macaroni  mixture from the pan, and cut into 1-inch squares.

 

Combine the breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese in a shallow dish.

 

Whisk the eggs with 1/2 cup milk in another shallow dish.

 

Dip macaroni bites in the egg mixture and dredge in the breadcrumb mixture.

 

Pour oil to 1-inch depth in a large skillet or frying pan.  Fry in batches for 2 minutes on each side or until golden.

 

www.southernliving.com

 

I have not tried the appetizer version, but if the casserole is any indication, I'll bet they are equally delicious.

 

As for the aforementioned blackened green beans.....they were a complete disaster.  I found this recipe also - I'd printed it from the Food Network - one of Guy Fieri's recipes.  Since we are always looking for new ways to prepare green beans, I thought I'd give it a try.  I blended the spices together (even made a trip to the grocery store because I was missing two spices - isn't that how it always goes?) and followed the directions exactly.

 

After tossing those beans in all those spices (the blend had salt, lots of paprika, cumin, lots of pepper and a few others), I put them in my wok/skillet and let them sizzle.  The pepper smell was almost immediately overwhelming.  Too much!  I could barely breathe. I had to step outside to breathe in some clean air.  I turned on exhaust fans all over the house, opened windows, and ran it all down the disposal to get rid of the smell.  J. did keep a small amount to try, but the beans were so salty that they were inedible, and we quickly disposed of his portion as well. 

 

Blackened Green Beans = Epic Fail.

 

Needless to say, we were without a vegetable to round out our meal, which was disappointing, but the macaroni was so good that we didn't mind so much this time. 

 

I think you'll like the macaroni and cheese.  Give it a try sometime.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 



 





 

 

 



Gooey Butter Cake

Last week, I had a pizza night with my mother-in-law.  For dessert, she made ooey gooey butter bars from a Paula Deen boxed mix.  They were pretty good.

This gooey butter bar originated back in the 1930s in the St. Louis area, and is firm in texture, similar to a brownie in that you can cut it into squares, yet has a pudding-like, or gooey, layer.  There are all sorts of variations and flavors - lemon, pumpkin, chocolate - of this recipe.

Paula Deen has made this particular confection famous in recent years.  I watched her cooking show from the beginning, especially in the early days of my shop, and found that many of her recipes were the same ones that my mother prepared for us when I was a kid.  This dessert - this ooey gooey butter bar - was one of them.  My mother was making these for us when I was in the seventh grade, long before Paula's show hit the airwaves.  We called it by several names - gooey butter cake, ooey gooey butter bars.  I remember thinking it ought to be named something a little more appetizing.  What sounds good about gooey butter?  That word "gooey" put me right off, although it didn't stop me from eating it.

Tasting these bars again made me feel a little nostalgic, and I hadn't made them in a long time, so I pulled out my mother's recipe and decided to make a batch myself.

First, assemble your ingredients.  

For the crust:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 egg
1 stick butter, melted

For the filling:

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Prepare a 9" x 13" sheet cake pan.

My sheet cake pan has been used quite often during the past ten years - as have the other three that I have - so I prefer to line it these days, either with foil or parchment paper, before baking in it.   (This is a Wilton pan, which I highly recommend for all your sheet-cake size baking requirements.) 

You can also bake this cake in a 9x13 glass baking dish.  A glass dish will absorb heat faster than a light metal pan, so you will need to adjust the baking temperature down to 325 F.

Combine the cake mix and melted butter in the large mixing bowl of your electric mixer.




Note that I used my trusty dough hook for this job.

Add one egg.

Mix the three ingredients at low speed until combined.  Use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of the mixing bowl and fold in any loose cake mix.  Continue to mix until thoroughly combined





It's ooey and gooey.

The cake mixture will be thick and gooey.  I have seen photos of this mix that looks much drier at this point, but the end results appear to be the same.  (Maybe the butter wasn't melted in those recipes.)

Spray the foil lightly with baking spray.  Spread the cake mixture evenly in the pan.  I used an angled spatula to do this (another invaluable Wilton product).  If you use foil to line your pan like I did, you will need to hold it in place as you do this.




Still gooey.

For the filling, mix the remaining ingredients and beat until creamy.




More goo.  Now I get it!

I added them all together at once before giving it much thought, and had a little difficulty completely incorporating the cream cheese, even though it was very soft (at room temperature).  I think I may beat it until it is creamy first when I make this again, and add the other ingredients afterward. 

Spread the cream cheese mixture over the cake mix layer.  The cream cheese mixture will be easily pourable.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.  The edges will be lightly browned.  Don't overcook because the cake layer will be "heavy".




Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

You can see the differences in texture.  The top layer is reminiscent of cheesecake, which must be why I always liked these bars so much.  I am a huge cheesecake fan.  Plain cheesecake.  Thick New York-style cheesecake.  Which I eat maybe once a year, but would love to eat every day.

Paula Deen's recipe is almost identical to my mother's, with one exception:  Paula's uses a 16-oz. box of powdered sugar - about 4 cups - in the filling, while I only used 3/4 cup, which would explain why her bars have a thicker, "gooier" top layer than mine do.  I remember having this with a much more gooey, crackly top than what I made this time.  You can adjust to your taste.  This recipe is not overly sweet, but sweet enough.

How many of my southern friends remember this recipe from their childhood?