My apologies!

So I had been pretty diligent with blogging the summer, until these last few weeks hit.  I've been working often and also had to move out of my apartment.  Since I knew I was moving out, I just ate cereal and peanut butter and jellies to finish the rest of my food in the fridge.  My apologies, I couldn't be a fancy college cook.

However, I am currently in Rochester staying at a friend's house.  I promise to upload photos from my trip including things I've eaten.

School is also starting soon, and I know I will hardly be cooking.  I'll try to update anyway with my goings-ons.

Happy rest of summer vacation everyone!

Pear Puffins

I've noticed lots of recipes for "puffins" on the Internet lately, and I don't mean the bird you find in more northern areas.  Puffins are pancakes but made in muffin tins.  I decided to try it this morning because I royally slept in and am not going to go running now that it is 75% humidity.  No thanks!

Pear Puffins

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare your favorite pancake batter as you normally would.  I also wanted to use up what little I had of my pancake mix this morning.  I added a touch of vanilla and cinnamon to my batter.

I didn't want to clean a bowl so tupperware it was.

I diced up a pear to be plopped in.  According to recipes I've looked at, you can add blueberries or strawberries or even cooked sausage.  Get creative!

I poured the batter into the heavily greased muffin tin so it was two-thirds full.

Just enough batter for six puffins!

Then, I put the pears into the batter.

Now they're pear puffins.

I slid the tin into the oven to bake for about 18 minutes.

They look like my peach muffins...

I let them cool for a minute or so before taking them out for consumption.  I tried several different condiments and decided that syrup (or seeer-up as Long Islanders say) was the best.

And topped with each condiment!

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

I'll admit that normally I do not care for buffalo wings or wings in general.  It's a little too messy for me.  But I do enjoy other buffalo flavored things, such as this buffalo mac and cheese I've just made!  Seriously tastes like the real deal and took no time at all!

Buffalo Mac and Cheese

1 box noodles, cooked
2 c. chicken cubed
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/4 c. bleu cheese dressing
1/2 c. Frank's Red Hot Sauce
2 T. milk
bleu cheese crumbles for topping

To start, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Got to have protein, right?

Last night in preparation, I baked two chicken breasts, and then cubed almost all of it up.  I wanted to save half of a breast for another lunch during the week.

Cheese with a kick!

To make the sauce, combine the cheddar soup, dressing, hot sauce and milk.  You can use as much or as little hot sauce as you'd like.  But I also suggest altering the dressing as well because we all know that stinky cheeses are powerful too.

Nearly ready!

I mixed the chicken, sauce and noodles together in a large bowl.

Ready to go!

Then, I poured the whole thing into my baking dish.  I topped the mac and cheese with bleu cheese crumbles and what was left of my breadcrumbs.  You could say I splurged a little this week buying the crumbles.  I had a nice pay day.  Then it was to be sent in the oven for 30 minutes.

Baking it brought out the actual blue color in the cheese.

While I might like to make my apartment smell interesting on weekend mornings, this is definitely a keeper!  And I'm not trying to make my ego swell, but seriously this is great!

Lunch and dinner for the rest of the weekend!