GZ Tai-Tai

Macaroni Salad

We had a beautiful day today the weather was perfect for grilling burgers. When I asked Hubby what he wanted with his burger, he requested Macaroni Salad. Here is my very basic Macaroni Salad, feel free to dress it up if you want, with some chopped pickle,capers, cheese, bell pepper or even some tuna.

Macaroni Salad

4 cups macaroni cooked,drained, and cooled
1/4 of a medium onion chopped finely  about 4Tbsp
2 stalks celery chopped small
6 hard-boiled eggs chopped
3 Tbsp heaped, mayonnaise
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard  or American mustard like French's
cayenne pepper or paprika, garnish

Mix well to coat all ingredients well, sprinkle with cayenne pepper or paprika for garnish.

Cure for a Hangover

Saturday night was another party night to say goodbye to one of Expat Son's best buddies' parents. It was a great night and of course I partied really hard, harder than normal! Luckily I was not too bad off either, whew!  On Sunday morning around 11:00AM I made my way to the kitchen and was craving carbs in the form of pasta it had be spicy and garlicky.  So this is what I made and it sure hit the spot and was definitely a must have for the semi hangover that I was nursing.

Hangover cure for too many rum and cokes, jello shots, and countless glasses of white wine, oh yeah and in between a few bottles of water. I also had a few drags off of hubby's cigar. That is usually a huge mistake because all I want to do is shower and brush my teeth about 15 billion times to get rid of that nasty smoke smell and taste.  When we got home I had a little snack of a piece of toast with cinnamon sugar, a procari sweat and several glasses of water. When I closed my eyes it was already Sunday morning at 2:00AM I got up at 5:00 had a few more glasses of water and a couple Tylenol and went right back to sleep. Woke up at 9:30 contemplated getting up for a while and then hit the shower and made my way downstairs. Hubby made me a cup of tea and I sat in the Garden for a while started some laundry and contemplated what I needed to get through the hangover. 

So here is my hang over cure, no measurements really, I just went with what I had in the kitchen and what looked good at the moment.

Expat son and his buddy that slept over the night before loved it too!

Sorry no photo this was consumed by all very quickly!

 

 

 

Hot Lunch at Home / Macaroni and Cheese

One of the best memories I have as a child was when we lived in Michigan. Our school was close enough to walk home for lunch. This meant that I could come home have a hot lunch and see my Mommy. My Mom did not disappoint either she would always have something nice for us to eat. I was in the third grade at the time and my favorites were tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich and the other favorite was macaroni and cheese. In those days I loved Velveeta cheese on my macaroni, what kid didn't love Velveeta? As an adult though the luster or the taste just is not there anymore.

Now as an adult and with more sophisticated taste buds, I came across a recipe one day about 5 years ago when I was living in Oregon it was our first Winter back from our last posting in China. The day was a typical cold rainy, gray, gloomy Saturday that my daughter and I were watching the Food Network and Sara Moulton had the recipe on her show Cooking Live. The recipe is the best I have had and does not disappoint. It has loads of cheese in it and I particularly like the zing it gets from green chili sauce.

So here is the link on the Food Network for my favorite mac and cheese.. It is called Chat n' Chew Macaroni Cheese.