Mason's Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:
1 lb. small pasta, like penne, gemelli, or corkscrew
3 T butter
3 T flour
3 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar
1 1/2 cups shredded mild cheddar
1 cup shredded mozarella
2 T mustard
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Method:
0. Preheat the oven to 375 if eating immediately.
1. Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water. Drain the pasta back into the same pot.
2. Once you add the pasta to the water, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, and whisk to combine. Let the butter and flour, now a roux, cook for 3 minutes, stirring every 30 to 60 seconds.
3. Get ready to whisk. Add the milk 3/4 cup at a time, whisking constantly, waiting for the milk to get hot before adding more. Once all the milk is in, cook the mixture for about 5 to 7 minutes, until the milk has reduced/condensed a little.
4. Add the 2 1/2 cups of the cheese to the milk, 1 handful at a time, stirring (not whisking) very often. Wait until the cheese melts before adding more.
5. Meanwhile, grease a 9 x 13 baking pan with butter or oil.
6. When the cheese is totally combined from the milk, take the saucepan off the heat.
7. In the large pot that you cooked the pasta in, pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and stir to combine. Pour this into the greased baking pan. Sprinkle the reserved cheese and panko bread crumbs over the top.
8. Loosely tent foil over the pan of macaroni and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, switch the broiler on, and cook the top for 5 to 15 minutes: however long it takes to become golden brown and delicious.
9. Remove from the oven and wait 5 to 10 minutes before eating. If you don't wait, the macaroni will not have time to set and will flop all over the place when you try to get it out of the pan. Waiting is critical! After you patiently wait, eat!



With some steak and greenery:

South East Asian Kedgeree

Ingredients:
1 lb. cod filets
2 1/4 cups cold water
2 limes, quartered
2 T oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t tumeric
1/2 t garlic powder or 1 clove garlic
1 cup basmati rice
Fish sauce, optional
3 eggs, scrambled
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Poast the fish: In a baking pan with high sides, put the cod, water, and 1 lime inside with some salt and pepper. Cover with foil. Poach in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and drain the liquid into a measuring cup (pour out 2 1/4 cups). Put the foil back over the baking pan until you need the fish later.
3. Five minutes before the fish is ready, heat the oil in a medium or large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the onion, ground spices, and fish sauce to taste. Stir around for 1 minute. Add the rice and stir around for 1 or 2 minutes. Add the reserved cooking liquid and reduce the heat to medium low. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring once. You can wait for up to an hour at this point before eating.
4. When you're ready to eat, flake the fish. Combine the rice with the fish, cooked eggs, juice of the second lime, and cilantro. Stir gently, and eat.

Potato Crusted Tilapia with Chive Oil

Serves 2

Ingredients:
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 Russet potato
- 2 6 oz. tilapia filets
- Salt and pepper
- 2 T chopped rosemary
- 1/3 cup chopped chives
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Method:

1. Slice the potato on a mandolin to about 1/8th inch thick.
   
2. Salt and pepper the tilapia filet.
3. Wrap the potato around the tilapia, overlapping the potato pieces.
   
4. Salt and pepper the potato, and sprinkle 1 T of rosemary over the top.
   
5. Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 1 T extra virgin olive oil to the pan.
   
6. When hot, carefully place the tilapia and potato in the pan. Flip once after 5 minutes, or when potato is browned on the bottom.
7. Meanwhile, whisk together 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, chive, and rosemary.
   
8. Once the other side of the potato is browned, remove tilapia from pan onto a plate. Drizzle 1/2 the oil over each piece of fish.
   
9. Serve with a cheese bread and simple salad.
   

EAT

Deconstructed Apple Pie

Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 apples (I used 2 red, 1 green)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 t ground cloves
2 cinnamon sticks

Method:

1. Slice apples to about 1/2-inch thick wedges
2. Combine apples with other ingredients in a large bowl
3. Heat a medium-size saute pan over medium heat
   
4. Once the pan is hot, add apple mixture to the pan
5. Cook, stirring often, for 4-5 minutes, until the apples have softened somewhat and the sugar has melted
6. Remove from heat and serve with ice cream on top and whipped cream, for a special treat. (This would also taste really good with melted cheddar cheese, if you're into that sort of thing)
   

Breakfast Tacos

This morning, I wanted tacos and I wanted breakfast. These breakfast tacos were what I came up with.

Makes 4 tacos

Ingredients:
- 8 small corn tortillas
- 4 eggs
- 4 slices bacon
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- Sweet and spicy salsa (I used Sweet Jalapeno dressing)
- Sliced cheese (I used Jarlsberg, but most anything would be fine)

Method:

1. Fry the bacon to whatever level of done-ness you like (I like it crispy!)
   
   
2. When the bacon is almost done (about 4 minutes away), fry the eggs. Put 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a pan, and let it get hot over medium high heat. Crack the eggs into the pan, trying to keep the egg together. It will spread out, but do the best you can. Cook the eggs for 2 to 3 minutes, until the whites are almost all the way solid and the yolk is starting to cook on the top. Don't cook the eggs all the way in the pan because they will continue to cook even when they're off the heat.
   
3. After you take the eggs out of the pan, heat up the tortillas in the same pan. Stack the tortillas on top of each other, and put them in the hot pan, flipping once after about a minute.

Assemble the tacos:

1. Take two tortillas, stacked on top of each other.
   
2. Put in one fried egg, and one piece of bacon (break it into two pieces).
   
3. Top the bacon with the cheese, salsa, and sour cream.
   

Enjoy!

Above: Breakfast tacos!
Below: Close-up of the finished product.

Shepherd's Pie

I created this version of Shepherd's Pie with the intention of making it on the weekend and reheating it during the week. But, it smelled too good, and I couldn't wait to eat it!

Ingredients:

- 4 large Russet or Idaho potatoes
- 3 T olive oil
- 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef or stew beef chunks
- 1 large onion
- 3 large carrots
- 3 celery stalks
- 4 large cloves garlic
- 3 T flour
- 3 T butter
- 2/3 cup shredded cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Peel and cut potatoes. Put them in a large pot of cold water. (Yes, cold water. Starting the potatoes in cold water allows them to cook more evenly). Put the water and potatoes on the stove to boil.
   
2. Start a large saucepan over medium high heat with 1 T of the olive oil. Once it's hot, add the ground beef. Cook until heated all the way through (no pink remains).
   
   
3. Meanwhile, cut the onion, carrots, garlic, and celery. Reserve on a plate.
   
4. Once the beef is browned, remove the beef to a plate, but leave the remaining oil and beef juice in the saucepan.
   
5. Add the veggies to the saucepan, cooking for 7 to 10 minutes until the veggies are softened.
   
   
   
6. Once the veggies are cooked, sprinkle the flour on top of the veggies. Heat and stir until the flour has been thoroughly mixed with the remaining liquid.
   
7. Add 1 cup of room temperature water to the pot. Stir, until the flour and water have combined. Add 1 more cup of water and stir.
   
   
   
8. Heat the water, beef, and veggies until the water starts to slow boil.
   
   
9. Meanwhile, drain and mash the potatoes. Stir in the butter, 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.
   
   
   
10. Put the beef mixture into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Spoon the mashed potatoes on top of the beef. Spread the potatoes into a layer with a greased spatula.
    
    
11. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the pie.
    
    
12. Put a piece of foil on top of the pie, tenting it so that it does not touch the cheese.
    
13. Put the pie into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until the remaining liquid has been absorbed into the pie.
    
14. Once the liquid is absorbed, or you're ready to eat, switch the broiler on, remove the foil from the pie, and brown the cheese. Keep a close watch on this. You can pop open the over to watch once the broiler gets hot.
    
15. Remove the pie from the oven, and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Once the pie has rested, enjoy!
    
    

Pork Ribs, Smoker Style

For Labor Day, I wanted to make pork ribs, but didn't want dry ribs. I decided to use a vinegar-based "mop", which I used to baste the pork ribs every 30 minutes.

To start:
Make a fire using charcoal or wood logs.

• We have a backyard smoker, so I used oak logs. You'll be waiting until the fire has mellowed to a low flame.
  
• You'll also want to make sure your smoker/grill/fire pit has a lid. This isn't necessary, but it will help you control the fire temperature and add more smokey flavor to the ribs.

Meanwhile:
Prepare the ribs. I used pork back ribs, St. Louis style. Baby back ribs are nice, but too small for me, and country-style ribs are too big.

• If you have the time, put a dry rub on the ribs the night before and let them sit in the fridge overnight.
  
• If you don't have the time, put a dry rub on the ribs as early as you can.
  
• Take the ribs out of the fridge about an hour before you're going to cook them (about when you've put the logs on the fire).
  

Ingredients:
- 3 racks of St. Louis pork ribs

Vinegar mop:
- 1 cup vinegar (I used white vinegar, but apple cider vinegar would be excellent)
- 1 T chili powder
- 1 T garlic powder
- 1 T onion powder
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 T salt
- 1 T black pepper

In a small sauce pan, heat the vinegar over medium heat with the other ingredients until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Set aside until you're ready to use it. Put it in a squirt bottle (like the ones they have at diners for ketchup) for easy application.

Dry Rub:
- 1/4 cup salt
- 2 T black pepper
- 2 T chili powder
- 1 T garlic powder
- 2 t cayenne pepper (if you like it spicy)

The flavors of the dry rub are really up to you. You could do a mole style rub with unsweetened chocolate, or a sweet rub with sugar. The possibilities are endless.

Ready to Grill?

• Once you're ready to grill, put the ribs on a platter and bring them to the grill.

• Stack the racks on top of each other on the grill (this lets the juice/flavor fall on to the lower racks of ribs and helps to keep them moist).
• After 30 minutes, rotate the racks, moving the bottom one to the top. Squirt the ribs with your mop, about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup of mop.
  
• Every 30 minutes, rotate the ribs and add more mop.
  
• After about 2 hours, start checking the ribs for done-ness. They're done when you can rotate one of the rib bones and it starts to separate from the meat.
• When the ribs are done, remove them from the grill and let them rest for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Chop the ribs (I like to use a cleaver or anther heavy knife for this) and serve.
  
  
  

You may have noticed that I didn't put BBQ sauce on the ribs. I like to serve at least 3 sauces on the side of the ribs so that everyone can choose whatever flavor(s) they like. I use homemade BBQ sauce when I'm feeling up to it, or store-bought if I'm crunched for time.

Happy cooking!