Macaroni salad craving...

I went home Memorial Day weekend for my niece's 3rd birthday party. I ate sooooooooo much macaroni salad. I guess I still didn't have enough of it because I decided to make my own (to go with some BBQ pork sliders). It tasted very similar to the one my mom made and I served it to a few friends and they all really liked it. :)

Ingredients: elbow macaroni, chicken, carrots, celery, raisins, pineapple bits, red onion, light mayo, medium cheddar cheese, sugar, salt & pepper

Craving satisfied!

Gourmet Mac n' Cheese

About 2 years ago, I made some macaroni and cheese using Velveeta cheese. NASTIEST mac n' cheese I've EVER had in my life! Seriously, it was worse than the instant mac n' cheese that comes in a box.

This time around, I decided to splurge just a bit on cheese. I did a mix of aged white cheddar and Gruyere cheeses. The boyfriend said it was the BEST macaroni and cheese he's EVER had in his life. That was good enough of a compliment for me. :)

Baked to ooey gooey cheesy perfection!

Dumplings & Crinkles

So last night I made some pork dumplings for the first time ever, and I must say they turned out quite good. I even made the dough for the skin, but it was too much trouble rolling them out into thin circles so I ended up sending the boyfriend to get some pre-made dumpling wrappers. For the filling, I followed this recipe:

1 lb. ground pork (or beef)
6 tbsp. sesame oil
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup cabbage (chopped)
1/2 cup green onions (chopped)

It was a very simple recipe to follow. I even enjoyed filling, folding, and sealing these little dumplings because I just sat in front of the TV watching "13 Going on 30."

The filling

Stuffing the wrapper

Uncooked dumplings

Frying after boiling (cooking spray!)

Finished... Yum!

I also attempted to make some chocolate crinkle cookies (recipe here: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateCrinkles.html).

They are supposed to look like this

But mine ended up looking like this

They were HUGE cookies! They were more like cake cookies (my boyfriend's roommate called them "cakies"). They look like cupcake or muffin tops, which is cool since that's my favorite part of a cupcake or muffin. I guess I made the dough balls too big. I should use less eggs next time if I want actual cookies. But I liked them, they weren't too sweet and the amount of confectioner's sugar was just right. I just want to bake! bake! bake! and get something right.