Showing posts with label macaroni. Show all posts
Showing posts with label macaroni. Show all posts

Monday, January 6, 2014

Kale & Cherry Pepper Mac & Cheese

kale hot cherry pepper mac n' cheese recipe. easy. inspired by the kale, lil mama's peppers mac n' cheese at the celler at beechers nyc.

Well hello from 2014! I realize there has been radio silence from my end since the start of this new year. Honestly, I was debating what my obligatory resolutions would be. I still really don't know but I have a giant list & have definitely been inspired by BexLife's list.  When I figure it out I'll let you know. What's yours?

In any event, the start of the new year makes me want to be a better person - by bettering my relationships & trying new things.  Right before the holidays I was spoiled by some much needed girl time with some of my best friends.  We visited The Celler at Beecher's in NYC (twice for some of us in a week's time) & all agreed that their kale, mama lil's peppers mac & cheese was worthy of multiple repeat orders during the same dinner (!!!). So naturally, I wanted to try to recreate it at home & I think I came pretty close.  It's not baked but rather more of a macaroni with cheese sauce which means less cooking time - yay! Plus, if you're skipping out on carbs this year (or first full week of 2014 at least until you realize that is for the birds) you could probably just make the cheese sauce (although there is a tiny amount of flour in it) & pile it on top of steamed broccoli or spaghetti squash for a low-carb option. Try it yourself & see what you think.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Lobster Mac & Cheese


lobster mac & cheese. heatheromade.

To kick off the new year I had a tough decision to make, what to do with a bunch of leftover lobster meat.  That's right for the first time in O'Hara history there was leftover lobster at our house. Perhaps a bit of background would help.

Chris loves lobster. Usually when something is this 'loved' there are no leftovers.

He's been cooking lobster for me ever since we were dating - I know I'm a very lucky girl.  Every New Years Eve ShopRite seems to have lobster on sale for ridiculous prices. This year Christ got it for $2.99/lb.  Since it was offered at such an incredible price Chris decided the more the merrier, only thing was that it was just the two of us spending some quality time on the couch to ring in the new year. 

After Chris cooked & cracked open all of our fresh lobster I think both of our eyes got bigger as we stared at the pile of lobster meat.  Fear not, we ate as much as we possibly could & then wrapped up the rest for the next day.

I was determined to find something to use the lobster with. Pinterest had a ton of things. Then I was flipping through the pages of the Barefoot Contessa's Foolproof cookbook Chris's mom gave me for Christmas (thank you Mary!) & it was right there, staring me in the face: Ina Garten's Lobster Mac & Cheese.  I promised the resolutions I had mentally made that I would start soon, but for now it was game on with the lobster mac & cheese.

Click through for the full recipe & oodles of photos.