For the obsessive Mac'n'Cheese lover

From scratch.

Here.

Freeze and bake meals

Creamy Enchilada Bake
(Quick meal to have on hand to give to friends after having a baby.)
1 lb ground beef
1 can refried beans
1 onion
1 package taco seasoning
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz sour cream
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese
Tortillas (Deal Diva Tip: Buy the large packs from Costco to save money.)
Tomatoes – chopped

Brown ground beef and onions. Mix in beans. In a separate bowl, mix sour cream and soup. Spoon half of sour cream mixture on the bottom of a baking pan. Fill tortillas with beef mixture, roll up, and arrange in baking pan. Spoon remaining half of sour cream mixture over the tortillas. Cover with shredded cheese. Sprinkle tomatoes on top. Freeze. Bake at 350° for 25 - 30 minutes or until cheese melts and tortillas are golden brown.

Here’s another simple and tasty make-ahead recipe that freezes well and takes mere minutes to throw together.

Creamy Chicken Bake
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream

Mix soup & sour cream. Spread half in pan. Add chicken. Spread remaining half of mixture on chicken. Freeze. Bake @ 375° for 30 minutes.

Finally, here’s another hearty dish great for a cold, winter night:

Hamburger Hot Dish
1 lb Ground Beef
1 cup Elbow Macaroni
1 cup Frozen Corn
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
½ cup Sour Cream

Brown beef. Cook noodles. Drain. Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish. Freeze. Bake @ 375° for 30 minutes.

Crockpot recipe blog

Just got a new crockpot this week. Looking forward to 6.5 quarts of slow cooking goodness!

To honor low-key cooking, here is a blog where the author's goal was to use her crockpot 365 days in 2008. Every day. Yikes.

Let's hope she's hit a few success along the way, even if her pics make the food look disgusting. :P

Martha Stewart "Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies"

We'll see about that!

Here.

Orange Sage Turkey with Gravy

This is close to the one that is in the oven RIGHT NOW! Looking forward to it!

Roast Turkey with Sage and Orange Gravy
1 12- to 14-pound whole fresh or frozen turkey, thawed
2 tablespoons kosher salt
8 large oranges, scrubbed
1 large bunch fresh sage
3 heads garlic, cut crosswise in half
1 5.2- to 6.4-ounce package garlic-herb cheese spread (such as Boursin)
4 large carrots
3 small leeks, trimmed and rinsed, or 2 large onions, cut into quarters
Olive oil
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Remove the giblets, then rinse the turkey. Dry with paper towels. Rub the cavity with the salt. Cut 2 of the oranges into 2-inch chunks. Set aside a few sage sprigs for garnish later. Place the remaining sage, cut-up oranges, and garlic in the cavity. Loosen the skin from the breast and spread the cheese under the skin. Tuck the wings under the back; tie the legs together. Arrange the carrots and leeks in the roasting pan to create a "rack" and place the turkey on it; rub with oil. (The turkey can be prepared to this point up to 1 day ahead. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate.) Heat oven to 350ºF. Roast for 1 hour. Place a foil tent over the turkey and continue roasting for 2 1/2 to 3 hours more or until an instant-read thermometer registers 180ºF when inserted in the breast.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Carefully move the turkey to a platter, pouring any cavity juice back into the pan. Cover with foil to keep warm. Set oven to 500ºF. Cut the remaining 6 oranges into quarters and arrange in a shallow baking pan. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes or until brown.

Meanwhile, discard the vegetables from the roasting pan. Pour the pan drippings into a 4-cup measure. When the fat separates and rises to the surface, spoon 1/3 cup of it into a medium saucepan; discard any remaining fat. Squeeze the juice from 12 of the orange wedges into the defatted broth; if necessary, add water or chicken broth to make 4 cups. Whisk the flour into the fat in the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Add the broth mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the gravy thickens and boils, 5 to 7 minutes.

Arrange the remaining baked oranges with the sage on the platter around the turkey. Serve with the gravy.

Time-savers: Use a bed of carrots and leeks instead of a roasting rack. The vegetables flavor the drippings, and there's no rack to scour. Spread garlic-herb cheese under the turkey skin instead of the traditional mixture of butter and herbs. It adds flavor to the turkey and eliminates extra chopping and dirty mixing bowls. Roasting the turkey unstuffed shaves about 30 minutes off the cooking time.

Yield: 10 servings, with leftovers

Turkey gravy

INGREDIENTS: turkey neck and giblets 1 onion, chopped 1 carrot, chopped 1 stick celery, chopped 2 bay leaves few sprigs fresh thyme 3 tbsp plain flour gravy browning salt and freshly ground black pepper

PREPARATION: 1. Place the turkey neck and giblets in a saucepan with the vegetables, herbs and 600ml cold water. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes. Drain and reserve. 2. To make the gravy, pour 3 tbsp fatty juices from the turkey roasting tin into a pan and stir in the flour. Cook, stirring, for about 1-2 minutes until lightly browned. 3. Pour in the giblet stock and 150ml turkey juices (or wine) and bring to the boil, stirring. Add a llittle gravy browning, season to taste and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. You now have a delicious turkey grav. From here.

A few new recipe sites

Hungry monster

and

GSN

Hold the onions

and

Downright delish

and

For the love of cooking

and

My finds

and

A Pinch of This, A Pinch of That
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Recipes for hot chocolate ...

CREAMY HOT CHOCOLATE

Prep time: 6 minutes. Cook time: 8 minutes. Serves: 2.

Tested with the Spanish chocolate Valor Chocolate a la Taza (available at the Web site www.tienda.com), this fast and easy recipe yielded a pretty cup of hot chocolate whose caressing texture lived up to its name. The recipe is from Gourmet magazine.

1/3 cup well-chilled heavy cream

1 tablespoon sugar

4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)

2 cups whole milk

In a bowl, with an electric mixer, beat cream with sugar until it just holds stiff peaks.

Chop chocolate and reserve 2 teaspoons. In a small saucepan, heat milk with remaining chocolate over moderate heat, stirring, until it just comes to a simmer.

Pour hot chocolate into 2 large mugs and top with whipped cream and reserved chocolate.

MOODY'S HOT CHOCOLATE

Prep time: 5 minutes. Cook time: 15 minutes. Serves: 6.

Kathy Cooney, pastry chef at Moody's Bistro & Lounge in Truckee, Calif., created this unusually thick and intense version of hot chocolate. "It isn't served by the mugful, but more like an espresso with a spoonful of freshly whipped cream," she recommends. At the restaurant, she uses the Venezuelan chocolate El Rey Gran Saman (available at the Web site www.amazon.com). "It is slightly more acidic and flowery than some domestic chocolates," she says. "It is a dessert by itself or with a fresh churro," she says of the hot chocolate it yields. People who prefer a thinner cup of hot chocolate can thin it with more water and then reheat it.

2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup water

1 cinnamon stick

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

1 tablespoon almond liqueur

Bring milk and 1/2 cup water to simmer in saucepan. Turn off heat.

Meanwhile, combine cinnamon stick, sugar and 1/4 cup water in heavy-bottomed medium saucepan. Over medium-high heat allow sugar to caramelize as you swirl the pan. As it reaches a deep amber color, remove from heat and slowly whisk in milk-water mixture. Return to low heat and gently stir till it is smooth. Whisk in melted chocolate. Heat till edges start to bubble. Remove from heat. Take out cinnamon stick. Add the almond liqueur. Whip hot chocolate with immersion blender for a minute. Serve immediately.

NEW MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE

Cook time: 10 minutes. Makes about 8 2/3-cup servings.

Cinnamon and nutmeg spice up the flavor. The recipe is from Cooking Light magazine.

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup honey

5 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 cups reduced-fat milk (2 percent)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk and vanilla extract, stirring constantly with a whisk. Heat to 180 degrees or until tiny bubbles form around edge, stirring with a whisk (do not boil).

VIANNE'S SPICED HOT CHOCOLATE

Prep time: 15 minutes. Cook time: 10 minutes. Serves: 2.

Flavors of chili pepper, cinnamon and vanilla come through lightly in this hot chocolate from "My French Kitchen" (Morrow, $24.95) by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde. Harris is the author of several popular novels, including "Chocolat."

1-2/3 cups milk

1/2 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise

1/2 cinnamon stick

1 hot red chili pepper, halved and seeded

3-1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, preferably 70 percent

Brown sugar to taste (optional)

Whipped cream, chocolate curls, cognac or amaretto, to serve

Place the milk in a saucepan, add the vanilla bean, cinnamon stick and chili, and gently bring it to a shivering simmer for 1 minute. Grate the chocolate and whisk it in until it melts. If you must, then add brown sugar, but do try to go without it. Take off the heat and allow it to infuse for 10 minutes, then remove the vanilla, cinnamon and chili. Return to the heat and bring gently back to a simmer. Serve in mugs topped with whipped cream, chocolate curls, or a dash of cognac or amaretto.

RICH HOT CHOCOLATE

Prep time: 10 minutes. Cook time: 5 minutes. Serves: 6 to 8.

Berkeley, Calif., chocolate doyenne Alice Medrich includes this recipe in her newest book, "Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales From a Life in Chocolate" (Artisan, $35). It yields a hot chocolate exceptionally rich and representative of the quality of the chocolate used. It won't be for everyone, just people who want a melted bittersweet chocolate bar for breakfast.

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1-1/2 cups boiling water

1-1/2 cups milk

Place the chocolate in a small saucepan. Pour about half of the boiling water over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Stir in the rest of the boiling water and the milk. Heat over medium heat, whisking continuously, until hot but nowhere near boiling (the texture and flavor are both best if the hot chocolate never exceeds 180 degrees). Serve immediately, or set aside and reheat just before serving.

Variations:

Mocha hot chocolate: Make this hot-chocolate mocha using only 3/4 cup water and adding 3/4 cup espresso or strong coffee with the milk.

Ancho chili hot chocolate: Dried ancho chilies are also called pasillas. They are deep chocolate red and heady with an earthy musk. After seeing the film "Chocolat," recalls Medrich, she and a friend returned directly home for hot chocolate. "From drawers and cupboards, little jars of dried ground chilies were unearthed from past bouts of Indian and Mexican cooking. Between sips of chocolate, we began to inhale from each jar. The anchos beckoned, and we stirred pinches into our cups _ just enough to feel the heat. Try it," she writes.

Spiced hot chocolate: Following the sniffing ritual described above for ancho chili hot chocolate, experiment with other spices, such as anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, Chinese five-spice, ground vanilla beans, pieces of dried citrus peel or grated fresh citrus zest.