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Holiday Recipes With A Twist

Call it "A Very Chowdhry Thanksgiving" or "Chowdown Palooza".   Whatever you do, don't call it boring because you'd be dead wrong!

This past Thanksgiving, my sister-in-laws and I decided to give my mom a break and take over the cooking duties for the holiday.  My sister-in-laws made the turkey, stuffing, corn bread and fried onion green beans.  My dish list includes: two different types of macaroni and cheese (Traditional & Chipotle), two different types of mashed potatoes (Roasted Garlic & White Cheddar Mash) AND red velvet cupcakes!  I will share two recipes with you!  Remember, I am not a professional chef, so these recipes come with a very relaxed approach!

 

CHIPOTLE MAC & CHEESE

Ingredients:

* 2 blocks (8-ounces each) of Pepper Jack Cheese
* 1& 1/2 cups of Heavey Cream
* Box of Macaroni (I prefer shells)
* 3 Scallions stems
* Half of a Red Onion
* Ground beef (I used Morningstar's "fake" beef)

For the Chipotle Sauce:
* 1/2 cup of Sour Cream
* 3 tablespoons of Mayonnaise
* 2 tablespoons of Chiptole Peppers in Adobe Sauce

Syma's Chipotle Mac & Cheese
Syma's Chipotle Mac & Cheese

Heat your oven at 350 degrees.

Start of boiling the pasta in water with a tablespoon of olive oil  While the pasta is boiling, cut or shred the cheese.  After that, start cooking the ground beef with red onions and the scallions.

After the pasta and beef are cooked - take a square baking pan and put half the pasta in that (after draining it of course) and then add half of the the beef.

Starting adding the cheese and mix it with the beef and past with a wooden spoon.  Add the rest of the pasta and beef.  Top it off with more cheese.

Add the heavy cream throughout the pan.  Put the pan in the oven for 30 minutes.

While the dish is baking, take all three ingredients of the Chiptole suace and mix them up.  IF you like your dish to be extra spicy, add more  adobe sauce.  If you want it to be a little salty -- sprinkle some salt throughout the pan and mix it.

After 15 minutes (half way baked), mix in the chipotle sauce in the pan with a wooden spoon.  Put the pan back in for a total of 30 minutes.

After it cools off, serve and enjoy!

ROASTED GARLIC MASHED POTATOES (see main picture)

Ingredients:

* A bag of Red Skin Potatoes
* 5 cloves of Garlic
* 1 stem of Rosemary
* Olive Oil
* 1 & 1/2 cups of Heavey Cream
* 1 stick of butter
* Salt
* 1 Scallion stem

Take a toaster over and turn it to 350 degrees.  If you don't have a toaster oven, you can use a regular oven.

Boil the potatoes in water until completely soft.   While that is going, cut up the garlic into very tiny pieces.  When you are done, take a piece of foil and put the garlic on it with some needle-like rosemary leaves.  Cover it all with olive oil.  Fold the foil to cover the garlic.  Put it in the oven for about 20 minutes.

When the potatoes are soft, drain it and put it in a big pot.  Start mashing one-fourth of the potatoes and slowly start adding heavy cream, butter a little salt and the roasted garlic.  Add more potatoes, more heavy cream, butter and garlic.  Continue doing this until all the ingredients are mixed in.

Let it cool off and enjoy!

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