Uncle Philip's Macaroni & Cheese

My uncle first introduced me to this mac & cheese, and I love it. When I was making a list of meals to freeze for after baby comes, this was at the top of the list. It's been a long time since I made it because Patrick is a Kraft blue box mac & cheese kind of person. I had my share of Kraft blue box mac & cheese cravings during my pregnancy, but it's time for the real deal. I think it originally called for cream of mushroom, so I'm not sure if I made the change to cream of celery soup, but that's what I use. If you've read my blog for a while, you know that we don't like mushrooms at my house. You can also use cream of chicken if you want to mix it up a bit. The only other thing that I add that wasn't in the original recipe is minced garlic. Here's a pic of my Uncle Philip with Patrick and me at our wedding.

Patrick and I usually eat Kraft mac & cheese with hot dogs, so that's what we did with this mac & cheese. I have to say that I didn't really think they went well together. This mac & cheese doesn't taste like junk food the way the Kraft stuff does. It would go much better with grilled chicken and a nice salad. It's so good!

Uncle Philip's Mac & Cheese

• 12 oz. elbow macaroni, cooked and drained
• 2 cups milk
• 18 oz. grated cheese (Colby & Monterey Jack)
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese
• 1 (10.5 oz) can cream of celery soup
• 2 Tbs butter
• black pepper to taste
• 3 gloves garlic, minced
• Italian style bread crumbs

In a bowl, mix together milk, soup, garlic, parmesan, and about 2/3 of the grated cheese.

Pour your cooked macaroni into a bowl. Normally, you can pour it right into the pan you will cook it in, but because I split it into two portions and froze them, it was easier to mix it in a bowl.

Add the butter to the pasta and mix until melted.

Add pepper to taste (and any other spices you like). You don't need any extra salt. Stir.

Pour the soup mixture into the pasta.

Stir to combine.

Pour the pasta into a greased rectangular baking dish.

Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top.

Sprinkle bread crumbs over the cheese. Use as much or as little as you prefer.

This is the point where I covered the dish and put it in the freezer. Thaw for 24 hours before baking on 350° for 45 minutes.

Cranberry Apple Bread

I've had a bag of cranberries in my freezer that I bought for the Cranberry and Apple Crumble that, oddly enough, I made exactly one year ago today. I decided it was time to use them before they got freezer burn. Cranberry and apple goes really well together, but it is purely coincidence that I decided to pair them again tonight. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and decided to give it a shot. I substituted pecans for the walnuts because that's all I had on hand. It turned out really tasty. I wish I'd had Granny Smith apples to balance the sweetness (especially since I accidently added an extra 1/4 C of sugar), but I used Pink Lady apples because that's what I had. It took way longer than 35-45 minutes to bake, but I'm not sure exactly how long because after the timer went off, I just kept an eye on it. It was at least an extra 30 minutes. The top was nice and crisp, and the inside was very moist. Considering that there is only 2 Tbs of oil in this recipe, I imagine it's fairly healthy. I didn't figure the nutrition information, though. I plan to start counting calories again soon. I've lost 37 of the 50 lbs I gained while pregnant, but I've hit a plateau, so it's probably time to start paying more attention. I did start swimming this week in addition to our evening walks, so hopefully that will help!

Cranberry Apple Bread

• 2 C peeled, cored and chopped apple
• 3/4 C white sugar
• 2 Tbs canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 C fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1/2 C chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9x5 in bread pan.

Stir together apples, sugar and oil.

Add egg; mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.

Stir flour mixture into wet ingredients, mixing just until dry ingredients are moist.

Stir in cranberries and pecans.

Spread batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.