Before I discovered Stovetop Mac and Cheese, this Baked Macaroni and Cheese was my go-to recipe. They both have a place in our menu rotation, but this will always have first place in my heart (or is it stomach?). Overtime I've experimented with several cheese blends, and surprisingly extra sharp cheddar paired with American cheese is by far our favorite.

I've been meaning to post this recipe for a while now, but until now I haven't been able to get a decent photo. Thank you time change for giving me better light for dinner photos! Coincidentally, this year's time change brought with it a drastic change in weather, which indicates this may be the last baked mac and cheese of the season. If you want to fulfill your mac and cheese craving before spring and summer are here to stay, go ahead and make this soon.

Here is what you'll need:

• 8 oz. short pasta (I prefer cellentani, but I only had medium shells on hand)
• 5 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 3/4 cup 1% milk 
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp dried mustard powder
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 6 oz. shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
• 4 oz. shredded American cheese
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 9x13 baking dish and set aside.

Bring water to a boil in a large pot, add salt and pasta. Cook pasta partially through, removing from boiling water 2 minutes before instructions tell you to (you want the pasta undercooked since it will cook more in the oven). Drain and set aside.

In a large saute pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add flour, stir and allow to cook 3-5 minutes until it becomes golder brown. The mixture will bubble and foam, stir to be sure it doesn't burn.

Slowly add milk, stirring constantly until thickened. Add Worcestershire, mustard and pepper, combine well. Add cheddar and American cheeses and stir until melted and smooth. Add cooked pasta to cheese sauce and combine well.

Pour pasta into greased baking dish. Sprinkle top with Parmesan cheese. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until top is golden brown. Serves 6-8.

Source: Adapted from Rosemary Brown's Big Kitchen Instruction Book

JR and I both had a busy Saturday ahead of us so since I woke before the alarm, not unusual, I wanted to prepare something we could eat before we heading out. The truth is, I wanted to prepare something that JR would eat rather than leaving on an empty stomach. We only had 1 egg and we had eaten our share of oatmeal and fruit breakfasts during the week, so I turned to my muffin cookbook (in my quest to actually cook from my cookbooks) and thumbed through for recipes requiring only 1 egg.

The first recipe in the book happens to be a basic muffin recipe. Perfect. I adapted the recipe to include whole wheat flour and decided on a strawberry lemon flavoring. Good strawberries are starting to appear at our grocery store now and I'm able to get 2 lbs for less than 1 lb normally costs. As you can imagine I've been buying them up like crazy.

To finish off the muffins, I topped them with a simple lemon glaze. JR and I both enjoyed these for a weekend morning treat. The addition of the glaze was perfect because the muffin itself is not overly sweet. My mind is already churning with ideas for other flavor combinations.

Here is what you'll need:

For the Muffins:

•  1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup chopped strawberries
• 1 tsp dried lemon peel

Preheat oven to 400F. Grease 12 cup muffin pan and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.  Make a hole in the center of the ingredients.

In a small bowl, combine egg, milk and oil. Add to dry mixture and mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix.

Add strawberries and lemon peel, and stir into batter.

Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups. Bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

For the Glaze:

• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice

During the last few minutes of baking, combine sugar and lemon juice.

After removing the muffins from the oven, drizzle 1 tsp glaze over each muffin top. Allow to cool 10 minutes before removing from pan. Makes 12 muffins.

Source: Adapted from The Muffin Book

I participated in another round of recipe swap. This latest theme was Pasta and the recipe I received was for a "kicked-up" carbonara from A Taste of Home Cooking. I suppose it's time to confess that I've never eaten carbonara before, so I was excited for this opportunity. When I saw the ingredient list I was pretty confident we would enjoy this dish, and I went ahead and made it as-is with no substitutions.

While we liked this dish, and JR even ate leftovers (yay!), I will warn you that it is heavy (like dragging your overstuffed-after-vacation luggage up the stairs heavy). I was a bit surprised that the bleu cheese flavor did not come through as much as I imagined, so don't be afraid to use the full amount. The only regret I had was that I made the mistake of making the full recipe, so we have had our fill of creamy pasta for a bit and probably gained a few pounds this week eating the leftovers.

Thank you to The Home Cook for another successful swap and a great recipe! Be sure to check out The Taste of Home Cooking for an upcoming Recipe Swap Round-up of Pasta. 

Here is what you'll need:

• 1 lb pasta (I used fettucine)
• 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut
• 8 slices bacon, cut into1-inch pieces
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2-8 oz cans quartered artichokes hearts (in brine), drained and rinsed
• 1 cup crumbled bleu cheese
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp chopped fresh basil (I used 3 frozen cubes)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, add bacon and cook until the bacon just becomes brown and begins to crisp. Add onion for 8-10 minutes, cook stirring occasionally, until onion begins to become translucent and browned. Add garlic and artichokes and continue to cook for about 3-5 minutes until garlic becomes fragrant.

Add pasta to pot of boiling water and according to package directions or until al dente. About 3 minutes before pasta is done, add asparagus to pot to cook. Drain and set aside.

Add bleu cheese, heavy cream and pepper to Dutch oven, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until sauce thickens about 5 minutes.

Add pasta and asparagus to the artichoke cream sauce. Toss to coat pasta.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs, half and half, Parmesan cheese and basil together. Pour mixture over pasta and toss to combine. Serves 6.

Source: Modified from Gourmet Day to Day, as seen on A Taste of Home Cooking

Every year around this time I, along with millions of other people, wait for the arrival of a famous minty green shake. Every year after I consume the famous minty green shake, I feel regret. Why? Because normally it's in addition to a meal from the same establishment, meaning the shake was not the meal, and based on the number of calories it has, it's more than enough for a meal!

You see a small size minty green shake has 540 calories, 16 grams of fat, 74 grams of sugar and 10 g of protein. Are you stunned? Don't fret, you can make my Minty Green Smoothie and feel better about it because it has 382 calories, 7 grams of fat, 17 grams of sugar and 33 grams of protein. The best part is that you can even enjoy this for breakfast, and it will keep you full!

I'm so happy I no longer have to feel regret and I can have this any time I want, all year round!

Here is what you'll need:

• 1 cup 1% milk
• 2 scoops of vanilla whey protein powder (I use Pure Protein Vanilla Cream)
• 8-10 ice cubes
• 3/4 tsp peppermint extract
• 3 drops green food coloring (optional)

Place all ingredients in a blender. Using the ice crush setting, blend for 30 seconds. Switch to the blend setting, and blend for 10-15 seconds.

Serves 1 (~2 cups).

Source: Adventures in My Kitchen original

This wasn't a planned post, but I decided to use it anyway. My coworker (and friend) and I were doing an experiment for work, we're trying to find a cooking example that mimics some of the processes in aluminum smelting. Whether or not this is a good example, I still don't know. One thing I do know is that I wouldn't mind if this becomes a good example, and if there are dozens of these in my future.

These cupcakes are both simple in terms of making the cake and frosting. They come together in a minutes, and don't require obsessing over how my frosting will look (please tell me I'm not the only one who worries about this!), because the ganache will look elegant no matter what.

One interesting thing to note is that there are no eggs in this recipe, so as long as you have pantry staples can go ahead and make these (you know, even on those days the meteorologists forecast a snowstorm and the grocery store's egg shelf is empty).

Here is what you'll need:

For the Cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 8 tsp baking cocoa
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350F. Place cupcake papers in 12-cup cupcake pan and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, sift dry ingredients. Combine well. Make three holes in the mixture, one for the oil (make this one largest), one for the vanilla and one for the water. Place each wet ingredient in their hole.

Pour water over all the ingredients. Mix together well, being sure no dry ingredients are stuck on the bottom of the bowl.

Evenly divide batter into cupcake pan using a 1/4 cup measuring cup (it's actually just a little less than 1/4 cup each cupcake).

Place pan in middle rack of oven and bake 18-20 minutes. Test by gently touching the cupcake tops, if they spring back the cupcakes are done. Be careful not to overbake.

Remove from oven and place cupcakes on cooling rack.

For the Ganache:

• 4.5 oz semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Once cupcakes are cool, place chocolate chips in a small bowl and set aside.

Pour cream into a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring cream just to a low rolling boil, being careful not to let it boil up and over the pan.

When the cream is ready, pour it over chocolate chips in bowl. Whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Allow to cool 3-5 minutes.

Take cupcake, turn upside down and dip top of cupcake into ganache just far enough so the ganache covers the entire top of the cupcake but doesn't touch the cupcake paper. Lift cupcake, allow excess ganache to drip off, then turn cupcake right side up and place on cooling rack. Repeat with remaining cupcakes.

Allow ganache to set before serving (note, the ganache will remain shiny and look wet, but to touch it will be set). Serves 12.

Source: Cooks.com (Cupcake) and Allrecipes.com (Ganache)