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Just read some bits about history of chai. Chai means tea, so if you say chai tea, you're saying tea tea. Personally, I like just plain non-sweetened tea, the insipid watery kind. To me, it's light, clean and pure. Nothing against chai, I just don't like all the spices and sweeteners.
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Oh duh...I have that but forgot to post it.
The pressure cooker has finished the meat early.

My recipe is going to be bass ackwards.
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You need Cabbage!
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My daughter loves chai tea! I haven’t tried it. When she was in college she worked at a tea shop. She didn’t make much money but she loved the tea!

She switched to bartending because the tips were great, especially during football season at LSU.

I am a coffee lover. I do drink tea too.

We had a simple dinner tonight, an omelette and toast.
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Corned Beef.
Had to use it up because it was in the freezer since May.

Looking for the potatoes, carrots, celery and onion.

What am I missing?
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I didn't even know there was concentrate, there certainly isn't any in my town. That's what happens when you live in the sticks. 🙄
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I've got friends that are into herbal teas and on occasion I've been offered chai which to me was just another insipid, watery beverage - no thanks. I've been looking for a coffee substitute and my reading has taught me that the pale, watery tea I've been served is nothing like "real" chai, so I'm trying to figure out what authentic chai masala is supposed to taste like. So I've got a question I hope someone on the forum can help me with - should I be tasting strong, sweet, milky tea with the spices as the back note, or should the spices totally dominate? And is there any way to make those grocery store chai tea bags more palatable?
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You’re very welcome, Polar. 😊
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NHWM- Thanks so much for the recipe. I'll definitely try it. But first I need to go cheese shopping.
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Llama,

Ewwwww. that’s pretty gross too! Maybe for weird pregnancy cravings! LOL 😆
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Gershun,

Great choice!
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Google Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs. I am going to have to get some.
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My favorite side dish is a slab of fudge.🍫
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I saw that some company makes 'pickle ice cream.' Eww. I don't even like pickles!
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Oh my gosh, EB. You read my mind. I LOVE homemade mashed potatoes. I NEVER make ‘box’ mashed potatoes.

Okay, I am a food snob and definitely a music snob! I refuse to listen to crappy music or eat crappy food. I live in New Orleans! We have an abundance of good food and music! If you make me choose between food and hearing ‘live’ music in my city and I will pick music! I will stick a granola bar in my purse to tide me over! LOL

Yes, sickening is right! And I don’t get the ‘deep fried’ mac and cheese, either! Ewwwww! mac and cheese should not be deep fried!
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Need, I did see the post. I can;t imagine mac and chesse with ice cream. It sounds sickening doesn't it?
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My favorite side dish is homemade mashed potatoes with lots of butter.
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You’re welcome, EB.

Did you see my posting that told about an ice cream company that teamed up with Kraft to make mac and cheese ice cream for mac and cheese day? 🤮 Yuck!

I love mac and cheese! I love ice cream! BUT not together!!! 🤮 Gross!
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Happy mac and cheese day, everyone! It’s certainly a classic dish!

What is your favorite side dish? I make everything from scratch or I order at my favorite restaurant or eat at someone’s house that has a great cook! Now that’s a treat! We do get tired of cooking sometimes, don’t we?
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Thanks for the recipe Need. I just love homemade mac and cheese. I know the recipe was for Polar, but I would like to make it as well. It sounds so delicious.
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Polar,

Cook a one pound box of pasta, your choice of elbow macaroni, penne or rigatoni.
I always undercook the pasta by a minute or two. The pasta should be slightly firm. If you overcook the pasta it will be mushy after it bakes in the oven.

The béchamel sauce - 4 cups of whole milk

I stick of unsalted butter

1/2 cup flour

Add salt to taste. (optional)
Please remember that cheese has salt.

Melt butter, add flour. Stir and cook just until blended. Do not brown! Add in milk, stir mixture constantly, cook over low heat until thickened. It is ready when sauce coats the back of the spoon. You can use a whisk when stirring to eliminate lumps.

If you cook your béchamel sauce in a double boiler you will never burn it. Cook at a higher heat, because the sauce isn’t over direct heat. Put a few cups of water in bottom pan and add more if needed during cooking the sauce.

When sauce is done immediately turn off heat.

Now you will prepare the cheese to be added to the sauce. I only use blocks of cheese. I NEVER buy shredded cheese in packages. They contain additives that interfere with proper melting. I shred my own cheese using a box grater.

If my daughters are home and helping, they ALWAYS want more cheese! I don’t know what your daughters are like. Take as much liberty as you want regarding the cheese! If I am making it just for my husband and I, I don’t add as much cheese.

Grate one block of 8 oz white cheddar, one block of 8 oz yellow cheddar and 6 to 8 ounces of Gouda.

Add cheese to taste in your béchamel sauce.

Place half of the cooked pasta in a casserole dish. Pour sauce on top and mix thoroughly with the pasta. For the best mac and cheese, make sure that you have a generous amount of sauce. So, this is why I start off with putting only half of the pasta in the casserole dish. You can add more pasta if there is enough sauce. You should see the sauce in the dish. It may look like too much sauce but it will bake up creamy and delicious!

Do not forget to put lots of grated cheese on top of casserole. Bake for thirty minutes @ 350 degrees. My family likes the cheese slightly browned on top, so before removing casserole from oven, I zap it under the broiler for a couple of minutes.

I hope I explained this recipe clearly enough. Please private message me if you have further questions. I will be happy to help you.

Enjoy your mac and cheese! I am like you. I don’t like the ‘box’ kind. It is sentimental for lots of people though because they grew up with that kind.
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Sweet Italian sausages with sauted red and green bell peppers and red onion. On French baguettes because it's Bastille Day.
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Polar,

Yes. Most kids and adults adore mac and cheese! My daughters certainly do! My kids have fairly sophisticated taste compared to other kids, because I didn’t serve them fast food or processed foods. I still laugh about the first time my oldest daughter went to Taco Bell with her friend and her friend’s mom. She came home and said that she didn’t know what to order! LOL She had never seen the menu before!

I started making mac and cheese with only extra sharp yellow cheddar, which is good, but I tweaked it over the years. Once I had mac and cheese in a restaurant that added in Gouda into the mix and I fell in love with it! So, I add Gouda too now. I love extra sharp white cheddar also.

I do a béchamel sauce, then add my special blend of cheeses! I am an eclectic cook so I switch up the types of cheese occasionally. As I stated, I love a blend of white and yellow cheddar (extra sharp) and I add Gouda cheese because I love it! I don’t measure though. I go by taste.

So my recipe is sort of ‘dump and pour’ style. Lots of my recipes are that way! Hahaha, but I have come up with great tasting dishes that everyone loves. It’s the way grandma and mom cooked too 😊. They were fabulous cooks.

I will try to give approximate measurements and you can ‘experiment’ unless you are the type of cook that prefers ‘exact’ measurements. Then, I am afraid that I won’t be of much help.

When I was cooking ginormous amounts of food for holiday meals I spent a fortune because I only buy top notch ingredients. Oh my gosh, I won’t even tell you how much money I have spent on gourmet cheeses!

Will have to go look in my fridge to see how many ounces are in the cheese that I use. Will post in a bit because I am also going to make a cup of coffee.
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NHWM- would you share your mac 'n' cheese recipe? My kids love it too, but I really dislike buying the boxed type.
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Today is mac and cheese day! I make a killer mac and cheese. My kids always wanted me to make it. All of their friends love it too. My entire family love my mac and cheese made from scratch.

I hardly ever make it now. It’s too much for just hubby and I to eat alone. It’s more of a ‘treat’ food for us now, unless we have company.

Anyway, I just saw where an ice cream company teamed up with Kraft to make mac and ice cream! 🤮 Yuck! Gross, disgusting 🤢!!!
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Grilled Ahi Tuna over a Salad.
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Llama,

I understand how you feel about that situation.
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Need: I do not go to the local Subway because of their dismissive COVID-19 protocol. When it was mask mandate, the workers refused to wear a mask. They are quite sub par.
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So, I don’t know what I want for dinner but I know what I won’t be having and haven’t had, because I don’t eat at Subway. I won’t be eating the ‘tuna sandwich’ from Subway.

The saga continues, right? I keep seeing articles and commercials on television about the controversy continuing whether or not, Subway has ‘tuna’ in their tuna sandwich!

I love Tuna sushi. I like salmon, eel and yellowtail too. I am not driving over to Subway to eat their tuna. 😆 LOL
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When the winter wheat harvest begins my mind always turns to harvest apples. My grandparents had a yellow transparent tree and my mouth waters at the remembrance of those first of the season dutch apple pies, and the applesauce from them is the best ever! (I thought they were great for fresh eating too, just bite around the wormy bits 😂) Every year I ask around but nobody seems to grow them any more, or any of the other early apples either.

editing to add - OK I've been googling dutch apple pie recipes and what the heck, I've never seen so many dry, bland looking pies in my life. Our pies had cream in them (or more often evaporated milk because it was cheaper) and were a wonderful blend of tender apples and custard with just a sprinkling of sweet and crunchy brown sugar/flour/butter/cinnamon crumb topping, they were not the dense oatmeal crusted things I've been finding online. 🤯
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