Visiting a Friend with Baby #2

We are off to visit my oldest friend who just had a new baby.  We are so excited to meet her newest member.  Although I can't relate to having two, I can only imagine how exhausting it is to entertain guests when you have two under two running around.  That is why I am bringing lunch and dessert for our visit.

Both recipes that I chose come together pretty easily, but they need time to sit so they have to be made well in advance.  For lunch I made macaroni and cheese (the overnight edition) and for desert this lovely tart that I've been dying to make forever.

Overnight Mac & Cheese

Ingredients: 
4 cups whole milk
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
1/8 cup butter, diced into small cubes
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated  (I like to mix the cheese that I use: this time I used medium orange cheddar and an aged white cheddar)
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Grease a 13x9" baking dish.  Spread half the pasta in the bottom of the dish.  Sprinkle with half of the cheese, dot with half of butter and sprinkle with half the salt.  Repeat the layers with the remaining pasta, remaining cheese, butter and salt.

2. Pour milk evenly over pasta, cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate for about 24 hours.

3. Bake, covered with foil at 350F for 45-60 minutes.  Remove the foil during the final 15 minutes to allow the top to brown and get crispy.  (Sometimes I sprinkle some Parmesan cheese over the top when I remove the foil.)


Caramel-Swirl Double Chocolate Tart

Almond crust, cooling

Ingredients:

Crust:
2-1/4 cups almonds
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled

Filling:
6 oz white chocolate, finely chopped
8 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup 35% whipping cream, divided

Dark chocolate filling

Caramel Sauce:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup 35% whipping cream
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tbsp butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

Crust:
2. In a food processor, process the almonds, sugar and flour until the nuts are finely ground.  Pour in butter; process (or mix) until thoroughly moistened.  Pat nut mixture into the bottom of a 10" pie plate.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is lightly coloured.  Cool on rack.

White chocolate filling

Filling:

Caramel sauce simmering

3. Meanwhile place white chocolate in a bowl and dark chocolate in another bowl.  Bring cream to a boil in saucepan over medium heat.  Pour 1/3 cup of hot cream over white chocolate; pour remaining 2/3 cup hot cream over dark chocolate.  Whisk white chocolate mixture until smooth and the chocolate is melted.  Repeat with dark chocolate.  Let each cool for 10 minutes.  (At this point you can start making the caramel sauce in the same saucepan.)
4. Pour dark chocolate over cooled crust, spreading evenly.  Pour white chocolate over dark chocolate, tilting pan to evenly distribute.

Caramel Sauce:
5. In a saucepan combine all ingredients and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.  Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Drizzle caramel sauce over white chocolate in decorative pattern.
7.  Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.  Store in the refrigerator.

Assembled product without
the caramel sauce.

Ready to be refrigerated for 8 hours.

Rice Cooker Mac n Cheese

We use our rice cooker quite a bit - so much so that my husband went out and bought a super-duper fancy one. We use it to make rice (obviously!) and quinoa mostly. When I heard that you could mac n cheese in a rice cooker, I had to try it! And I have to say it turned out quite nice. The cheese didn't melt as well as it should have, but I think that's because I only had fettuccine in my cupboard and it didn't allow enough room for the cheese to blend and melt.

Ingredients:

2 cups pasta
1.5 cups chicken stock
Salt
1 cup milk
1.5 cups grated cheese (I used cheddar, mozzarella and Swiss)

Directions:

1. Put the pasta and chicken stock in the rice cooker and season with salt. Set it to cook for about 15 minutes; most of the liquid will evaporate.

2. Add the milk and cheese and give it a stir. Let it cook for another 20 minutes or so. You may have to stir it once or twice in this time period.

(Each rice cooker is different so keep an eye on it. After about 10 minutes mine switched to the warm setting and the bottom was already getting crusty while there was still quite a bit of liquid. After another 5 minutes the liquid was gone and it was quite creamy.)

3. Serve. You can add some more grated cheese on top.

This served me and my husband with no leftovers.

Update: I've made this recipe several times since with macaroni and it definitely turns out much better!  I've actually increased the grated cheese to 2 cups (and always use a mix of different cheeses) and also increased the milk to about 1-1/3.  It will take a little longer to cook, but it definitely comes out creamier and cheesier.