My Cup Overfloweth . . .

My cup overfloweth . . . or at least my herb garden does!

We even abandoned it for 11 days of 95F+ heat with no rain, no watering and it thrived!

The only thing not completely happy is the mint. It's in front. You can see that we still have plenty for Greek salad and mojitos though so I'm not worried.

School has already started here in the Greater Kansas City area but the heat certainly hasn't dissipated.

So after the kiddos were settled on the buses some girlfriends and I decided to assuage our grief over the separation with cocktails and pool time.

And snacks! Gotta have snacks!

After buying school supplies for three and shipping various electronic devices to my Airman I had no money for anything but emergencies. Now, generally I do find the need for good snacks an emergency but I was trying to control myself and decided to dig around the house and check out what I had on hand. I considered it a challenge.

Two packages of cream cheese! Woohoo! Ding, Ding, Ding! Cream cheese just screams party to me.

I was raised in a household where cream cheese and cream soups were never, ever used for meals.

Between the cream cheese and all those herbs I just knew I could make a spread of some sort. These were my friends! They'd be kind. They'd just avoid it if it wasn't good.

I wanted just one large clove of garlic. It'd give it a garlic undertone but it wouldn't be the star of the dip. Mince it up! I just throw mine into a dry work bowl of a food processor that is running. I'm lazy.

Then I peeled some tarragon leaves off of them stem and threw them in too.

I threw them in and they promptly flew to the sides and stuck. So I had to stop and scrape everything down to the bottom . . .

Now a little salt. It'll help release the oils of the herbs . . .

Now for some thyme! Just drag your fingers down the stem . . .

Some beautiful fresh basil . . .

A little scallion . . .

A tad bit of olive oil just to get things moving and mingling while it whirls around.

Now for the cream cheese!

Now for a little taste! Hmm, the cream cheese is so rich and creamy it can handle a LOT more herbs.

Thyme in all its bright bitterness reminiscent of Thanksgiving! Basil with its grassy, aromatic, Italian flavors!

Tarragon with that lovely anise flavor! It'll remind you of fennel, liquorice, and Italian sausages!

After I got the flavors right I added some smokey ground chipotle pepper. You could just add a shot of Tabasco if you like. It just makes the cheese seem cheesier.

Tarragon ended up being the star of this dip. It was creamy, cold, and herbalicious. It was like pesto met its girlfriends Italian sausage and cheese lasagna for a GNO!

Creamy Herb Dip

1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground chipotle pepper (optional)
1 scallion, chopped finely
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, finely chopped*
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh tarragon leaves, finely chopped*
1 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves*

Mix all ingredients together.

*If you don't like really strong herb flavors start out with just small amounts of these herbs. You can always add more. Since they're fresh the flavor of the dip really isn't going to get a lot stronger while it sits. If you want it "greener" add some flat leaf Italian parsley.

Macaroni & Cheese

My family loves macaroni and cheese.  I find myself bringing it to all the church potlucks because it's a full on entree for the children.  It's also our goto dinner most sunday evenings. A girl's tired after that post church breakfast after all!

Go ahead and fill a pot with some cold tap water.  I'm going to make a pound of macaroni so I really only need a large saucepan.

Add a couple of teaspoons of salt to the water.

Now I know there are those of you who say, "but why would I add salt to the water when I'm going to put a salty sauce on the noodles?" I will say, "this is your only chance to get a flavorful noodle."

Unsalted noodles taste like flour and warm tap water. Ick! A good helping of salt NOW will prevent you from having to add more later.  I will now get off my soap box . . .

Go ahead and put a lid on your pot and turn the heat on high. You want to get a good hard boil going.

Okay, the following steps are very complicated . . .

. . . break up half a box of Velveeta and put it in a microwave safe 1 quart measuring cup. 

What's that? . . . You wanted a roux? . . . You wanted seven natural cheeses?

Why would I deny myself the use of this beautiful product? Chemicals, you say? Preservatives, you say? We're made of chemicals! Who doesn't want to be preserved? Seriously!

Break out the mustard!

You want to add a nice heaping teaspoon of it to the cheese-like product in the bowl.  You can use a grainy stone ground type mustard if you like but you're going to have to tell the kids it's pepper floating around in their macaroni and cheese!

In it goes! You could use a half teaspoon of dry mustard powder or a half teaspoon of hot sauce at this point instead of the prepared mustard.  You're looking to kick up the sour-bitter ratio! It'll make it taste cheesier . . . aren't our tongues weird?

Now add milk until you've got 4 cups of stuff! Any old milk will do! I used skim and whole milk today. I've even used up a little leftover evaporated milk and leftover half and half in this dish. It's definitely a good one to get rid of excess dairy products in the fridge! 

Now into the queen of the kitchen . . .

Now, cheese doesn't like high heat. It makes it seize up into stringy, rubbery, chewy, gobs of grossness. That's why we're using Velveeta!  It can HANDLE THE HEAT!

I only make it handle the heat for two minutes at a time though because I don't want anything to boil over!  Then I check on it and give it a stir. How long it takes depends on how cold your milk is and whether you had your Velveeta in the fridge. You want to continue heating and stirring until it's all melted.

Select some cheeses from your refrigerator. I decided to use the mozzarella since it was a little past its date and I was only cooking for the family. Besides cheese making was designed to preserve milk! It's not like there was anything growing on it . . .

Cheddar is really good too! My favorite is to add a little Swiss cheese to it. Oldest son doesn't make it without at least 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan. I've even used up a little leftover cream cheese!  Go wild with it! The Velveeta will overcome all textural issues your cheese choices might cause in a normal bechamel based cheese sauce.

You're going to need a cup of it! I go ahead and heap it up because I don't want to press it down into the cup. I let it stay nice and fluffy and easy to mix in. 

Meanwhile you've been stirring your cheezy milk in the microwave right?

Ah, it's all melted! It's plenty hot at this point. Perfectly hot in fact . . .

. . . for melting your grated cheese!

Give it a few stirs every once in awhile and your cheese sauce will take care of itself! If it's not completely smooth it's okay. You're going to add it to hot pasta. It'll look like cheese soup at this point but it's supposed to! It hasn't hit all that starch from the macaroni yet,

Oh yeah, it's MACARONI and cheese isn't it? Better get on to it!

Your SALTED water has probably been boiling for a couple of minutes by now! Go ahead and add a pound of macaroni or rigatoni or rotini or shells or whatever floats your boat! My mother used to use these ginormous elbow macaroni that I can only find randomly!

So here's the deal on the macaroni. Cook them till they're just el dente and they'll soak up a ton of the cheese sauce and you'll end up with a nice firm side dish you can pile high on a plate. Cook them till they're soft yet still shapely and you'll end up with something more slippery and creamy. Something you'll want to put in a bowl.  Mother liked them in the bowl with lots of butter and Parmesan! I go somewhere in between. About 6-7 minutes for our family. Make sure to give it a GENTLE stir one minute in and then every two or three minutes after that.

Drain the pasta . . . please imagine the pasta being drained in a nice colander in a beautiful clean sink, my children drug me away to see some lightning-hurricane-drago-bey-baku-poke-ultra-cool thing on the computer and I somehow became distracted :-(

Add the cheese sauce and stir it around.  It'll appear overly soupy at first but you have to give the sauce time to slide into all those macaroni tubes! By the time I get all six of us assembled at the table and prayed over we'll have . . .

Family happiness!

Now what goes good with some macaroni and cheese? It's salty and sour so we like something kind of sweet and tangy with it such as some BBQ or a tossed salad with a sweeter vinaigrette. My hubby and I like it because it's super quick. I find a small bowl of it accompanies most leftovers we have in the fridge too.  

Macaroni and cheese

1 lb of Velveeta
1 lb of dried macaroni pasta
2 tsp salt
1 tsp mustard
2-3 cups of milk
1 cup grated cheese (about 4 oz.)

Put 8 cups of water and salt into large sauce pan. Bring to a boil, covered. Break up Velveeta into large chunks and place in 4 qt. measuring bowl. Add mustard and enough milk to bring level up to the 4 cup line.  Microwave milk mixture on high until it's melted, stirring every 1-2 minutes. Add grated cheese to measuring cup stirring gently until it mostly melted.  Cook pasta in boiling salted water until it's slightly past el dente. Drain. Mix pasta and cheese sauce gently and thoroughly.