Lorri’s Diner | The Mac and Cheese Chronicles

Chicken or Pork Adobo

Another quick and easy recipe (it’s all I ever make) that can be doubled without a lot of math. Adobo is traditional Filipino dish, though I’m not sure if this is my family’s recipe or not.Â You can make it with either chicken or pork.

Chicken or Pork Adobo

2 lbs chicken or pork, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1/2 Tablespoon peppercorns
1 bay leaf

At all ingredients to a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, 45 minutes.

See, I told you it was easy!

Mix 2 Tablespoons cornstarch with small amount of water and add to sauce to thicken. Serve over hot rice.

I usually fish out the garlic cloves and bay leaf before serving. You’ll probably want to pick out the peppercorns while you’re eating. It’s ok to eat them if you like, but they are pepper after all. My children call them “hotcorns”.

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Boo Cooks (Baked Ravioli and Meatballs recipe)

This month’s recipe is brought to you by Boo. It’s a baked ravioli and meatball extravaganza, resplendid in its use of pre-packaged food. It may not be good for you, but it’s good. And quick and easy. If you have a big enough freezer, you could even keep the ingredients on hand (even the cheese) for last minute dinners.

Bake Ravioli and Meatballs

1 25 oz pkg frozen cheese filled ravioli
1 20 oz pkg frozen cooked meatballs, thawed
1 28 oz jar spaghetti sauce
6 oz (1 1/2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray 13×9 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Cook ravioli to desired doneness as directed on package.

Drain ravioli; place in sprayed dish. Top with meatballs and sauce; sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at for 30-35 minutes or until thoroughly heated and cheese is melted.

See how easy that is? Don’t go crazy trying to find the exact right sizes of the ingredients. Just use what you can find. Better yet, have your 9 year old son make dinner for once. Maybe you should help him drain the ravioli, though.

Boo dumps the cooked ravioli into the baking dish…

…and pours on the sauce. (Please note that where he is working is my entire kitchen workspace.)

Dinner is ready!

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Pumpkin Bars

February 15, 2008
Lorri
Lorri's Diner
dessert, Holidays

These pumpkin bars are quite yummy and as an added benefit, they are made with Fiber One cereal.Â They are perfect for getting things moving post-partum, if you know what I mean.Â I also like to make them when someone gets stuck and needs a little help in that area.

Pumpkin Bars

1 1/2 cups Fiber One Ceral
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 can (15 oz)Â pumpkin (2 cups)
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup raisins or chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees.Â Grease and flour jelly roll pan (I just use a 13×9 pan).Â Crush cereal. Stir together ceral, sugar, oil and pumpkin in large bowl; let stand 10 minutes. Â Stir in eggs until well blended.Â Stir in remaining ingredients.Â Spread in pan.Â Back 25 to 30 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly.Â Cool completely.Â Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.Â Cut into 7 by 7 rows.Â Refrigerate any remaining bars.

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Albondigas Soup

January 15, 2008
Lorri
3 Comments
Lorri's Diner
dinner, meat, soup

Today is the 15th, so we are halfway through the month.Â In honor of that, I present my grandmother’s recipe for Albondigas (meatball) Soup, as requested by Renee.

Albondigas Soup

1 pound ground beef
1 Tablespoon rice
1 egg
1 small can tomato sauce
1 tsp Mrs. Dash
1 small onion, sliced
1/4 cup barley
3-4 carrots, sliced
4 small potatoes, cubed
lemon juice

Fill soup pan 3/4 full with water and tomato sauce.Â Bring to rapid boil.

While waiting for water to boil, beat egg, add rice and mix with meat.Â Form into balls.Â When water has reached boiling, add meatballs, onion and Mrs. Dash.Â After the meatballs have resurfaced, lower heat and simmer for 45 minutes.Â Add barley and simmer an additional 15 minutes.

Bring soup back to boil.Â Add carrots.Â Continue to cook for 10 minutes, then add potatoes.Â Boil (slow) for 20 minutes.

Garnish individual servings with several drops of lemon juice to taste.Â (If you add too much lemon juice, mix broth with someone else who hasn’t added lemon yet or return your broth to the pot.)

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Answers – Part 4 (Cornbread Recipe)

Q:What is your favorite recipe?

I don’t know that I have one favorite recipe. I’m fond of what our family calls “The Halloween Dinner” as well as Albondigas (meatball) Soup. Both come from my grandma. But here is a recipe for the best sweet cornbread you’ve ever had. It’s probably our family’s hands-down favorite thing to eat.Â Or close to it. I could eat it for breakfast. I’ll give you that recipe, too.

Corn Muffins

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
salt
1 cup shortening, plus more for greasing
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and dash salt in large bowl. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg in small bowl. Stir in milk and vanilla. Add to corn meal mixture, stirring just enough to moisten. Do not over-beat.

Fill each of 12 muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake muffins at 350 degrees until golden, 20-25 minutes. Note from me: I bake the entire batter in one cast iron skillet for 40 minutes.

Let cool thoroughly in muffin cups before loosening from pan or they will fall apart. Carefully remove from pan.

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Recipe for Mac and Cheese

I’m in a blogging desert right now. You know, writer’s block. I almost wrote a post about laundry, fer cryin’ out loud! That was during my headachy-hungry fasting Ash Wednesday. I’m no good without my daily dose of vanilla chai tea. It seemed a little decadent for a fasting day, even if it was consumed as part of one of my small meals. Was it Sister Mary Martha that said, “If it doesn’t sting, it doesn’t count”? Anyway, going without my chai made me a little punchy and prone to posts about laundry. My husband and I just had to go bed early on Wednesday to still the hunger pains. We even considered setting the alarm for midnight so we could get up for a snack.

Moving on…

With a name like “The Mac and Cheese Chronicles,” it stands to reason that I should have at least one mac and cheese recipe on my blog. It is probably the most common Google search that leads people here. That and people looking for the Fly Lady (it’s my “Do NOT Call Me Fly Lady” post that Google picks up). Other interesting searches have been “does mac and cheese go bad” and “how can you tell if mac and cheese goes bad”.

Let me just answer those questions right now.

Yes.

By the mold.

Ok…moving on again.

So it occurred to me that with all the Google searches for mac and cheese leading to my little ol’ blog having absolutely nothing at all to do with cooking or mac and cheese, except that we eat it almost daily, I should probably share my mac and cheese recipe. It’s so simple, you don’t even need to write it down. Are you ready?

So now you know.

But because it’s Lent and all us good Catholics are going meatless on Fridays, I will provide you with my friend Jen’s Mac and Cheese recipe (hi Jen!). She says it always gets rave reviews. It’s cooked in the slow cooker, so you can just plug it in and forget about it, but it doesn’t take long to cook. That’s good for people who suddenly remember at 3 pm that ohmygosh, I was supposed to put dinner in the crockpot! Not that that ever happens to me.

Jen’s Mac and Cheese
8 oz dry macaroni, cooked
2 tbsp. oil
13 oz can evaporated milk
1 1/2 c milk
1 tsp salt
3 c (about 1/2 lb) of cheese (velveeta, shredded cheddar, american or combination)
2-4 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp onion chopped fine (though she notes that she never adds this)
In slow cooker, toss macaroni in oil. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low, 2-3 hours.

(I actually double this recipe for my family)

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Busy Little Bakers

December 21, 2006
Lorri
Lorri's Diner
Holidays

We’ve been busy little bakers over the last few days. We started with White Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies for our UPS driver and our mailman. The recipe is from my friend Heidi and they are probably some of the best cookies I’ve ever tasted. The recipe makes around 6 dozen cookies, depending on how much dough you eat. Our UPS driver, Anthony, is the best! He’s friendly, always addresses us by name, sets heavy packages inside the door for me, and waves at us when he sees us around base. I do almost all my shopping on the internet, so if I’ve bought it, chances are, Anthony has delivered it. He definitely deserves some cookies. Our mailman is great, too. First class service all around, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Today we tackled our own Christmas cookies. I usually make 3 different types of cookies: Yum-Yums (aka Seven Layer Cookies), thumbprints and candy canes. Pumpkin Girl was able to do most of the Yum-Yums herself this year. Her favorite part was crushing the graham crackers with a molinillo.

We also made pumpkin bars for our homeschool group tomorrow. I got the recipe off a box of Fiber One right about the time I had Pumpkin Girl. They are so tasty and all that fiber does a great job of getting the ol’ postpartum digestive system back in order, if you know what I mean. They also help get things moving when the children are a bit stuck, too.

Depending on how the rest of the day goes, I’ll get started on the thumbprints and candy canes tonight. If time allows, I’ll make a Cherry Eggnog bread on Saturday. If I run out of time, I’ll save it for New Year’s Eve.

~~Heidi’s~~ Lorri’s White Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 c butter
1 c sugar
Cream until fluffy. Then add:
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
3 c flour
Do not over beat once flour is added.
Stir in
1 bag chocolate chips
1 bag white chocolate chips

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Pumpkin Bars
1 1/2 c Fiber One cereal
2 c sugar
2/3 c vegetable oil
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
4 eggs
1 1/2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 c raisins

Grease and flour jelly roll pan (I just use a casserole dish). Crush cereal. Stir together cereal, sugar, oil and pumpkin. Let stand 10 minutes. Stir in eggs until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients Spread in pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Cut into 7×7 rows. Refrigerate any remaining bars.

Cherry Eggnog Bread
3/4 c maraschino cherries, chopped and well drained
2 1/4 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp salt
1 c sugar
3/4 c butter, softened
3 eggs
1 c eggnog

Glaze:
1/2 c powdered sugar
3 to 4 tsp eggnog
1/4c toasted, sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray bottom only of loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt; set aside. In another bowl, beat sugar and butter on high speed of electric mixer until mixture is light and fluffy. On medium speed add eggs, one at a time, beating until blended. Add one third of the flour mixture, beating on low until just blended. Beat in one half of the eggnog. Add another one third of the flour mixture, the remaining eggnog and then the remaining flour mixture, beating after each addition just until combined. Gently stir cherries into batter; pour batter into pan.

Bake 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean and top s golden brown. Cool in pan 5 minutes. Loosen sides of loaf; remove from pan to cooling rack and cool completely.

For glaze, mix powdered sugar and eggnog until smooth. Drizzle half of mixture over cooled loaf. sprinkle evenly with almonds. Drizzle remaining glaze over almonds.

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Category - Lorri’s Diner

Corn Muffins