Mac & Chili

From time to time, we enjoy having mac & cheese from a 'box'. Usually, the whole lot is too much for us and there are always some mac & cheese leftovers. On the next day, the meal remains do not taste that good but you can still use them in a sensible and practical way. I learned about it from my husband - he told me about a dish he used to have when he was a boy. The dish made by his mom was called mac & chili.

I thought I would give it a try - I had made chili for dinner so that the new dish did not sound like something very problematic. I simply made our chili and added the mac & cheese leftovers to it.
Since then, it has been a new course on our menu. 

Chili - what you need to make it:

• A bit of oil
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• some onion - diced
• two garlic cloves - diced
• 1/2tsp chili
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1/4 beef bouillon cube
• some black pepper for seasoning

How to make our chili:

1. Warm up the oil on the pan.
2. Saute the diced onion for 3 minutes, add the garlic, fry 1 minute.
3. Add the seasoning - chili, cumin, oregano - mix it with the onion and garlic, fry for a minute.
4. Add the ground meat, fry it all till the meat turns brown.
5. Add the water, tomato paste + the beef cube.
6. Lower the heat a bit, cover and simmer it all for about 15-20 minutes. Stir the chili from time to time.
7. Season it with some black pepper.
8. Add the mac & cheese leftovers - and your mac & chili is ready to enjoy!

Baked Mac & Cheese

before baking...

First time when I was asked whether I would like some mac & cheese, I did not know what the 'mac' stood for. When I learned that fish is traditionally served here with macaroni and cheese, I was quite surprised. I would have never thought of such a meal configuration before. Where I come from, fish is always served with potatoes - either fried (french fries) or boiled, but never with elbow shaped pasta and cheese! Nevertheless, the two and fish match quite well and I learned to like it. Mac & Cheese goes nicely with fried meat too.
I have tried quite a few mac & cheese recipes, including making it on the stove, but this one seems to be the best of all.

Popovers, 'Little Women' And An Unexpected Guest

 

This week I have made my first popovers. They are tasty though they look totally different than the ones in the picture attached to the recipe . Quite coincidentally, while watching an old version of 'Little Women', I noticed they had popovers on their Christmas table. The bread in the movie looked quite like the popovers made by myself, but it was even darker - all dark brown. So maybe mine are more as they are supposed to be? I do not know as I had not seen any other popovers before. Well, maybe it was only a matter of the intense colors of the old film but I don't care - our bread is tasty anyway. 

Look who joined us yesterday - when we were having some nice mac and cheese.....

:)

Mac and cheese Teddy Bear's face