Homemade Mac and Cheese

Who can so no to a comforting bowl of ooey gooey homemade macaroni and cheese, especially when there is bacon! One of my good friends, blogged about how she was craving some stick to your bones homemade mac and cheese so a midnight she started making it, and it was horrible. After reading her post I wanted mac and cheese so bad I decided to make it for dinner tonight and I'm making enough for her and her family so her craving can be satisfied as well!  It's a classic and a good one!

1 lb bacon, diced and fried
1 T bacon grease
7 T butter
3/4 cup flour
1/3 Cup cream cheese
5 cups milk
2 lbs cheddar cheese grated
1/2 medium onion with core still attached
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1 large bag elbow macaroni

Add the bacon grease and butter to a pan and melt, add flour to make your rue. Cook for about 3 minutes, add about a cup of milk and mix well with the rue. Add Remaining milk and seasonings. Add the onion and a bring to a boil. Cook for a few minutes so that the rue is thickened. Reduce heat to a simmer and add the cheese in small amounts so that it melts completely. Meanwhile cook the macaroni till al dente`. Add the cheese sauce to the noodles and toss well, add the bacon and place in a baking dish. Top with either more grated cheese or bread crumbs or even crushed potato chips, or leave it plain. Bake for about 15 minutes so that it gets crispy. Serve hot.

Oh the Popcorn...

So for Christmas we got a Popcorn popper like this...

I admit I hadn't opened it until this past weekend. The kids LOVE popcorn, but the convience of a microwave had prevented me from opening it from it's packaging until Conference weekend. Now for family home evening we do things alittle different than the traditional family. You see having four and a half kids under the age of six one can imagine they RARELY sit still let alone not touch and pester one another for more than five minutes... Enter two items, laundry baskets and popcorn. We place each kid in their own basket, complete with pillow and blanket if requested and give them each a bowl of popcorn. This allows us to get through a still brief lesson with out arguing about so and so is touching me, breathing on me, looking at me etc.... 

So Conference seemed like it called for laundry baskets and popcorn. They did pretty darn good for being under 6! We got them to watch quietly 1/2 of the Saturday morning session(holy cow temple being built in my home town! Fort Collins!! AWESOME) and they watched all of the Sunday morning session! Good job kids. Now on Sunday I made my good friend Michelle's AMAZING caramel popcorn, recipe is top secret and (tear) will not be shared here, as it is top secret, held under lock and key and I kid you not I could eat a bath tub full of it and still want more of the gooey caramel goodness... drooling yet? however I thought I would share a few tried and true wonderful popcorn recipes, my children's favorite, regular buttered and salted popcorn and plain M&M's. Here is one of my favorites,

  

Garlic Parmesan Popcorn

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp garlic powder *more if you want more garlic flavor

dash of black pepper

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

2-3 T melted butter

Pop the popcorn according to machine's specifications. Toss the popcorn in the melted butter and then toss with the spices. Serve immediately.

Another tasty popcorn idea is popped corn melted butter and dried ranch dressing mix, toss and serve.

What are your favorite Popcorn ideas and recipes? Now that I've busted out the popper I just can't seem to stop! :)

Porter turns 4!! WHAT?

This weekend we celebrated Porter's fourth Birthday. I got emotional..I know surprise surprise, as I thought about my sweet boy. He has gone through so very much and there was a time that we really didn't think that we would be blessed to have him remain in our family for this long.
Since hsi surgery I have seen him struggle with his speech and headaches, it seems so little in comaprison as to what it could have been.
We are so blessed adn grateful for this sweet little boy in our home, he loves all things cowboy lately and has quite the attitude lately...something we are working on :) He is extremely OCD which is hard to manage sometimes, he likes to have things a certain way, his way and can through one heck of a temper tantrum. On the flip side though he is very kind and loving. He is tender and sweet and tells the funniest stories! He has the most vivid imagination! He has pretend friends, Dinasour and Dinasour, and he has to have his "crunchy" blanket every night inorder to fall asleep. ( it is a striped afghan my Grnadma Murphy made him) He is such a character and we love him!

For his cake he wanted cowboy.. so I thought I'd go the easy route and use a horse pan, well aparently it looked to girly and Porter would have nothing to do with it. So I had to rush his cake and it didn't turn out the way I pictured it but it served it's purpose and he loved it!

Spicy Dr. Pepper Shredded Pork

Oh my goodness, I LOVE Pioneer Woman! HSe has some of th ebest recipes...other than myself of course ;) I saw this on her web site and decided I had to try and my oh my was it tasty. I served it with my cilantro lime sauce, and fried corned tortillas. It was fabulous and will definately do it again!

Ingredients

■1 whole Large Onion

■1 whole Pork Shoulder ("pork Butt") - 5 To 7 Pounds

■Salt And Freshly Ground Black Pepper

■1 can (11 Ounce) Chipotle Peppers In Adobo Sauce

■2 cans Dr. Pepper

■2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.



Peel the onion and cut it into wedges. Lay them in the bottom of a large dutch oven.



Generously salt and pepper the pork roast, then set it on top of the onions in the pan.



Pour the can of chipotle peppers over the pork (include the sauce.) Pour in both cans of Dr Pepper. Add brown sugar to the juice and stir in.



Place lid tightly on pot, then set pot in the oven. Cook for at least six hours, turning roast two or three times during the cooking process. Check meat after six hours; it should be absolutely falling apart (use two forks to test.) If it’s not falling apart, return to the oven for another hour.



Remove meat from pot and place on a cutting board or other work surface. Use two forks to shred meat, discarding large pieces of fat. Strain as much of the fat off the top of the cooking liquid as you can and discard it. Return the shredded meat to the cooking liquid, and keep warm until ready to serve. (You can also refrigerate the meat and liquid separately, then remove hardened fat once it’s cold. Then heat up the liquid on the stovetop and return the meat to the liquid to warm up.



Serve on warm flour tortillas. Top with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, grated cheese, avocado slices, salsa, and whatever else you’d like.

The Relief Society Birthday Cake

 Months before Darwin got his new job I was asked to make a cake for the Relief Society Birthday Dinner, that was on March 17. I wasn't sure what to do and frankly once Darwin left I lost any and all enthusiasm I had for the cake. Lucky for me I have a wonderful friend who loves to assist in the cake making fun. She searched for ideas and she designed the cake. Our other friend Tamara who is starting her own cupcake business wanted to come and help and learn. It was fabulous I must say to be the executive chef and teach. I baked all of the cakes, made the buttercream and fondant, and fillings. Then we all got together and decorated the cake. I showed them how to do each step and then let them go for it, and was there if they needed me. It was a great team effort and was a huge hit!



 The bottom layer was a french vanilla cake with a fudge and fresh strawberry filling. The middle layer a chocolate cake with a creme de menthe filling with andes mints, and the top layer a lemon cake with a lemon blueberry filling. All covered with homemade buttercream and marshmellow fondant.

The three of us with the finished project. Tamara will do fabulous in her cupcake business and I would hire Michelle ANY day as an assistant, cook, babysitter, teacher, friend, pretty much whatever!

I'm sad to know that this is probably the last cake I will do for the public in Harney County, I've got Porter's Birthday this next weekend. I'm trying not to dwell on the friends and ward we will be leaving and focus on the great opportunity and exciting adventure that is before us.

Parker's 3rd Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday on the 12 to my dear sweet devious and mischeivious Parker! He loves big trucks so I made him a truck cake. He loved it!

Front view

Other side and back...I left it on the stove like an idiot and melted the orginal back off, of course this happened before I took any pictures. So a quick fix and it turned out ok..

He love the cake and was sad to cut into it. He is such a sweet boy and we are so blessed to have him in our family! We love you Parker!

My Birthday

So my Birthday was also Darwin's first day of work in Lakeview. I was stressed out because he was leaving and I was worried about him traveling and then there was the fact that he was still homeless. We woke up around 5 to get him ready and out the door. I cried of course, that is one of the things I do best. Then decided to open my card from my family, bad idea more crying insued as I read the comments of we love and are so proud of you... Then decided to check my email, harmeless right? Wrong, First email I read was from my Dad, water works again....I should have prepared myself better emotionally that I would be a wreck. Now you might be thinking come on now, really it is only during the weekdays and you get to see him on the weekends....But here is the simple facts, Darwin and I have been married for almost 7 years of those seven years we have only been away from each other 3 times(other than a night here or there while in the hospital) and each time was for no longer than a weekend. Plus, Hello, I have four kids under the age of five that now during the week I am a single mom to! AGHHHHHH! 

Anyhow, so the day wasn't really the best but that evening my dear friend Michelle and her wonderful husband Ryan and Emery's finance Brigham came and brought me dinner! It was so wonderful! She even brought me a present! Now Michelle is the best and so very thoughtful. I LOVE the Pioneer Woman( a blogger, cookbook writer woman extrodinare etc...) I think I love her so much because she is city girl like in the middle of NO WHERE and makes the most out of it. anyhow, Michelle bought me her cookbook, yipee! But then as I open the front cover I find this... don't mind me in the picture I look awful, no makeup and really tired... 

oh that's right it is Birthday card to me! signed by the one and only Pioneer Woman!! Oh my goodness! So exciting to know that my name was written by her hand! So amazing!

Overall it was a decent day, would have been better if I could have been with my hubby but oh well.