me make food

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Was gonna take a good amount of gravy so I made a bunch of roux.

the skillet was pretty full, but it worked. I blotted off most of the grease after this pic.

She should get a good 4-5 meals out of this.

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Picked up some soup bones from Hollenbeck Farms and browned them up a bit. Some onion, celery, garlic, carrots, and peppercorns got pressure cooked for 50 minutes and the resulting broth looks awesome. Should make a delicious gravy for our roast tonight.

The soup bones were pretty big so I only got one in on the first batch then strained everything out and pressure cooked a few more bones in the broth to kick it up even more. Smelled awesome.

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Cook up some bacon. We used about 6 slices.

3 tablespoons of butter to make the roux

3 tablespoons of flour to make the roux

let the roux brown just a bit. Will hide the flour flavor a bit.

3 cups of milk

a bay leaf, cayenne pepper, and black pepper

Let that thicken and lightly boil till you only see a few bubbles for 10 minutes.
Temper in 1 egg after the 10 minutes.

Get the pasta going. We use shells. Any type of pasta that can hold stuff will work fine.

can’t hurt to salt it

brown the meat. Bigger chunks make it a bit more fun.

I did about 10 ounces, mac and cheese takes 12

with the stove on med low mix in the cheese.
Do not let it get above med low if you use any heat at all. If the mix is too hot before you add the cheese, or let the cheese get too hot it will go grainy and ruin everything. Melt, not cook.

get that cheese melted and mixed in

we rinse off the beef to get rid of the fat.
Although it is cheese, bacon, and beef we in no way want to have this be greasy.

pasta should be al dente, or just still a bit hard. Not all the way done for sure.
Still have to bake it in the sauce, so if they get overdone it ruins it as well.
Cool the noodles once they get there so they stop cooking.

mmmmmmmmm bacon mixed in

time for it all to come together

we split it up into our thingies we freeze / bake in and add some cheese on the top.
the one we eat we cook at 350 till the cheese is melted.
Frozen ones get foil @ 350 till the center hits a decent temp. Remove foil to get the cheese melted to serve.

kicks hamburger helpers ass and feeds us 3 times. Love it

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Did the carrots and taters for 2.5 minutes and they were perfect

Made up a roux to thicken it a bit and it was done. It is insane how fast it was and how it tasted like we cooked it all day.

I took the chicken we got from Sam’s and one we had roasted a few nights before and made some uber stock with them and the pressure cooker.

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resh Pasta:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

By Hand: On a clean surface make a well with the flour. In a measuring cup mix the eggs, water and oil and salt. Pour the wet mixture slowly into the flour and mix with your 2 fingers until all of the wet is incorporated. Do not force the dough to take all of the flour. If you are going to use a pasta machine to roll out the dough you may at this point form the dough into a disk and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour to rest. If you going to roll this by hand you should knead the dough on a floured work surface for 8 to 10 minutes.

Kind of reminds you of american pie, but it is not warm. Actually it is a pretty big mess, but it works pretty good.

get them into the fridge for at least an hour. Ours sat in there for a day or two.

I did not get the pic of our pasta roller in action, but it is your normal hand cranked model. Takes a bit, but not having to knead it by hand makes it so worth it.

browned the meat.

threw in some ricotta, parm, mozz, spinach, and an egg. Chopped it up pretty good.

For the cheese ones it was the 3 cheeses, sun dried tomato, garlic, spinach, basil, and an egg.

mmmm refrigerated goop. Makes dishing it out with a disher much easier.

got the sheet down to the setting of 3 and dished the goop out. Theresa brushes on the egg wash which will be the glue.

fold it over and squeeze all the air out.

same with the meat ones.

made two trays of them. They freeze well.

Theresa whipped up a red dipping sauce, I made my basil, sun dried tomato, garlic, cheese sauce.

for the fried ones we boil just like the others. Once they float they are done.

Breaded with breadcrumbs with a little parm cheese in there. Fried in some oil. Only takes a minute to fry.

adding the basil at the last moment traps in the flavor

An awesome meal with a salad on the side. So nice knowing we made all of it from fresh ingredients.

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