Pasta is creamy, cheesy and so good

I cooked a really, really good recipe Sunday. I didn’t make it with a food column in mind, but it was such a success with my family that I decided I must share!

I adapted a popular Allrecipes dish that features bow tie pasta and ham in a cheesy sauce. I cut back on the butter and cheese and added a little more ham to my recipe. I also used ground mustard instead of prepared mustard because that’s what I usually add with macaroni and cheese, and I used more pasta.

The recipe is very simple. You basically make a white sauce and stir in Colby cheese blend before adding in the pasta and ham.

Once it’s blended, pour it into a baking dish and heat until it’s bubbly.

The dish is similar to macaroni and cheese recipes I make, with the addition of garlic and ham. I also seldom buy Colby cheese, so this is a nice change as well.

I chose a Colby blend (Colby Jack) and used 2 cups instead of the 21⁄2 called for in the original recipe. I did add Parmesan cheese to the top, as in the recipe, but if you don’t have it, it’s not worth the extra cost to buy it.

I loved the creaminess of this pasta! And the flavor is very different from other similar dishes I make, probably because of the garlic sauteed in butter.

I often have leftover ham (this time it was ham cubes from omelets a few days before!) and now I have a great new way to use it.

That being said, this dish would also be excellent without the ham!

Ham and Cheese Pasta

12 ounces bow tie pasta

3 tablespoons butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour

1⁄4 to 1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1⁄8 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 cups milk (I use skim)

1⁄2 teaspoon ground mustard

2 cups shredded Colby Jack cheese

1⁄2 to 1 cup cubed ham

1⁄4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta according to package directions, around 8 to 10 minutes, or until tender; drain.

Melt butter in large saucepan, over low heat. Add garlic to butter and saute around 30 seconds.

With a whisk, blend in flour, salt, pepper and mustard. Continue stirring until blended. Pour in 1 cup of milk, slowly, and continue to whisk until smooth. Add in remaining cup of milk and stir until incorporated. Bring to a boil for 1 minute. 

Remove from heat and add in cheese, stirring until melted. Stir in pasta and ham.

Pour mixture into baking dish and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, if using.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until bubbly.

lisa@wilsontimes.com | 265-7810

Sweet treat for Valentine's day

Want a simple idea for a Valentine’s Day treat?

These small cookies, adorned with chocolate hearts, are sure to bring a smile to the face of the ones you love — whether it be a husband, girlfriend or child.

I got the idea from the Nestle’s website verybestbaking.com. The site had a from-scratch recipe for peanut butter cookies baked in miniature muffin pans and topped with chocolates.

I had every intention of making that recipe but decided instead to buy refrigerated cookie dough. I couldn’t find peanut butter cookie dough, so at the urging of my son, I bought sugar cookie dough. I also purchased a peanut butter cookie mix on the cake mix aisle so I could offer options.

I used my very small cookie scoop (about a tablespoon) with the refrigerated cookie dough and made just over 24 sugar cookies in my mini muffin pan. When the cookies baked, the centers sank in a little, make a little cup that’s perfect for filling.

When the cookies came out of the oven, I let them cool a few minutes before adding milk chocolate hearts and peanut butter cup hearts right in the middle of the cookie where it dipped in. The hearts quickly started to melt, so I waited a few more minutes for the cookies to cool at bit before adding more. Although the melted cookies made a mess, they were ooey, gooey good!

The next day, I made the peanut butter cookie mix. In addition to adding peanut butter cup hearts, I also added M&M baking bits to some of the cookies. The centers of the peanut butter cookies didn’t sink in as much, so I helped them along with a small spoon once they were out of the oven.

The peanut butter version was so delicious hot from the oven!

To replicate that warm cookie taste the next day, warm the cookies in the microwave oven for about 15 seconds so the chocolate gets soft again.

There are so many options with these cookies. Use a favorite cookie base and add a favorite candy in the middle for a sweet Valentine’s Day treat.
(Thanks to Fiesta Dinnerware was sending the pretty heart-shaped dish used for the photo.)

Valentine’s Cookies

Cookie mix (refrigerated or other)

Chocolate candies

If using refrigerated cookie mix, scoop dough (about a tablespoon) into miniature muffin tin. I use my small muffin scoop. If using a mix or if making from scratch, follow the same basic instructions.

Cook according to package directions. 

When the cookies come out of the oven, they will probably have a sunken middle. Place a chocolate heart on the cookie when it’s cooled enough so it doesn’t melt the chocolate. Use a spoon to remove the cookie from the muffin pan.

Gotta make some snow cream!

When I was growing up, I thought evaporated milk was good for one thing — making snow cream!

The familiar red and white Carnation can was always at arm’s length in the pantry at my parents’ house. Daddy kept several on hand so he would be prepared if we had enough snow to make snow cream.

Anytime a small snow was in the forecast, he’d spread a bed sheet in the front yard to make a barrier between the grassy surface and falling snow. He wanted clean snow, after all, for his snow cream. If a big snow was forecast, it was fine to get the snow from the top layer on the ground, the cars or the picnic table out back.

He’d go out as soon as there was enough to gather and fill large kitchen bowls with soft snow. Snow with ice crystals was frowned upon, but if it’s all we had, we made it anyway!

Some of the snow would remain in bowls on the front porch for later batches. The rest would be brought into the kitchen.

My daddy’s background was in dairy manufacturing, so he took anything that involved dairy products very seriously. When he made homemade ice cream, he would get out a commercial glass thermometer and check the temperature of the icy water inside the ice cream freezer. He would add cold water or salt to regulate the temperature he wanted.

He took his job of making snow cream seriously as well.

With Mama at his side helping, Daddy added evaporated milk, whole milk, sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl and stirred it until it was combined. Then he would start adding the snow, being careful to remove any grass or debris that might have made its way into the bowl of snow. It takes a lot of snow to make snow cream, and he’d keep mixing it into the milk mixture until he had it to the right consistency. He made the snow cream the consistency of soft-serve ice cream — not too thick and not to runny. All along, he and Mama and would taste it to make sure it was the right sweetness or texture. If not, they’d add what was needed to make it perfect.

We couldn’t wait to eat Daddy’s snow cream. The rich taste of the sweetened milk and vanilla is etched in my memory. We usually scooped snow cream into foam cups so it would stay frozen longer while we ate it, and, yes, Mama and Daddy kept foam cups in the pantry as well, just for snow cream.

What we didn’t eat went into more of those foam cups. Mama topped them with a piece of plastic held down with a rubber band. Then into the freezer they went. Sometimes they stayed in the freezer for just a few days. Other times, Mama would pull them out on a hot summer day and let them thaw a bit on the counter. Once the snow cream was softened enough, we would take it outside to the front porch and eat it, talking about the fun we had in the snow several months before.

Snow cream is not a lost art at my own house. Daddy wrote down his recipe, and that’s what we use every time it snows. My children love it the same way my sister, Susan, and I did as young girls.

Last Wednesday morning, I was heading out to work a little after 7:30. There was such a pretty coating of snow everywhere. I hadn’t planned on making snow cream for breakfast until my daughter, Anna, walked onto the front porch.

“Can we make snow cream?” she asked.

She didn’t have to ask twice.

lisa@wilsontimes.com | 265-7810

Snow Cream

2 (12 oz.) cans evaporated milk

3⁄4 to 1 cup milk (I use skim; Daddy would have used whole)

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

Snow

Mix milks in a large bowl. Add sugar and vanilla and stir. Stir in snow to desired consistency.

L.H. Boykin Jr.

Note: I asked my friends for some variations to this recipe. Quite a few use condensed milk instead of evaporated and don’t have to add sugar. You might need to add water with condensed milk. Former co-worker Heather Wilkerson wrote, “I just use snow, whole milk, vanilla and Splenda. No measuring — just “eyeball it” as my grandma taught me!” Sandi Ingram wrote this: “One of my bosses didn’t have any of the above ingredients last time it snowed and just used her french vanilla coffee creamer and said it was delish!”