Butternut Squash + Macaroni & Cheese?

Somehow, “my” macaroni & cheese has become a favourite among my friends. It’s certainly not my recipe – it’s a Betty Crocker classic. It was the first thing I ever cooked for Adam. In fact – I think what I first fed him was 2 or 3 day old leftovers! I had gotten into a habit when I lived in England, which was the first time I’d ever had to cook for myself on a regular basis, of making enormous batches of mac & cheese to serve as meals for the next week or so. It was a great comfort food and a welcome reminder of home while living abroad. I never considered it a fancy dish by any means, nor did I think it was all that special. Sure, it’s a tasty tasty dish – but it’s comfort food, right? Nothing to write home about. Well, Adam was immediately won over.

When I moved up to Toronto it became my easy out option when we first started to entertain. It was something I knew how to make, and it was good. It was also a great vegetarian option when we were entertaining for people with fairly simple meat-and-potato tastes. Somehow it became a huge hit. People started requesting this infamous mac & cheese, and it’s become a staple at our annual US Thanksgiving Dinner. Go figure.

It’s rare that we bother experimenting with other recipes – but this Butternut Squash Macaroni & Cheese caught my eye. Butternut squash? In mac & cheese? Could it possibly work? I had to give it a try.

Betty & Cari & Adam: Cranberry Orange Muffins

Yummy.

Tonight we made part 2 of our Betty Crocker challenge, and man was it tasty!

We made the Cranberry-Orange Muffins (without the suggested streusel topping). Stuck with the lighter variation, and used a wee bit of whole wheat flour instead of all all-purpose (Betty said we could!). 

They are delicious. No, they were not as good as the perfect muffin that inspired us to start this blog, but definitely one to keep in the rotation.

Betty & Cari & Adam, Pt. I: Waffles with Blueberry Sauce

 

Everything you need to know to cook!

Growing up, the name Betty Crocker was familiar to me only inasmuch as that I had seen products bearing her name, like cake mix, on my frequent visits to the supermarket.  That changed in 2003, when Cari and I first started dating.  The first thing I ever ate that she had cooked was a baked macaroni & cheese dish from Betty Crocker’s Cookbook.

 

Through the rest of our time in England, through our frequent visits to one another, and finally into our life as cohabitants, Betty Crocker’s macaroni & cheese has become a fixture.  We’ve served it at numerous dinner parties and gatherings, and it has also been the perfect dose of comfort food on more than a couple occasions.

About a year ago, Cari’s mother handed over an extra copy of Betty Crocker’s cookbook and since then it has been a great guide for basic info like cooking time for hard boiled eggs, along with recipes for basic foods like chocolate cake, quiche and crepes.

A few weeks ago, Cari and I watched the trailer for Julie & Julia:

Based on a true story, the film is about a woman named Julie Powell (Amy Adams) who decides to shake things up by cooking all 524 recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I by Julia Child (Meryl Streep) over a period 365 days.

Now, Betty Crocker is hardly the gourmet chef that Julia Child was (heck, Betty Crocker wasn’t even a real person), but we liked the idea and thought it might be fun to try a similar exercise with this other cookbook that falls at the other end of the spectrum.  It’s not that we are averse to gourmet cooking (in fact, quite the opposite).  But Cari and I both agree that to evolve as cooks does require some level of going back and making sure we have a solid grasp of the basics.

Which brings us to Recipe #1: Waffles.  

 

Waffles with Blueberry Sauce

 

This morning Cari cooked us waffles with a blueberry sauce, and we used Betty Crocker’s recipe – this time opting for the “lighter variation,” which used apple sauce in place of oil and egg whites instead of whole eggs. A nice, basic waffle recipe that was made even better by the blueberry sauce – made with frozen blueberries, orange juice, honey and corn starch to thicken it up a bit.  Mmm…