macaroni and cheese gratin

Counting down the days to my trip! 6 days already and I'm off to Europe! Time just flies by! It feels like ages ago that I was still in school, talking about this trip with my friends as though it was going to be in forever. I'm slowly starting to pack up my stuff seeing what I'll need (as well as what I need to buy in Europe ;)). It's hard to believe that July is ending soon already.. On another note, tonight was game night at our home! We haven't played in ages just the family.

are you the "saboteur"?

Instead of baking today, I decided to make a mac & cheese gratin with Mum. It's not your ordinary KD and it took a looong time to make, much longer than any of my other baking projects... It did require using the stove, her specialty. I've never realized how much preparation was required to make this. Especially that our macaroni had a surprise layer in it: Swiss Chard, straight from the garden. My parents love to garden, but unfortunately I dislike this hobby of theirs. Whenever they leave on vacation and leave me to water their plants, it's always a nightmare.... but fresh veggies is always so awesome :) it's always ready in the backyard and fresh!

Before going to the oven!

We also had leftover hot dogs to use! Originally, I wanted to make cream of mushroom pasta, but saw this awesome way of using Swiss Chard. It was more work, but totally worth it. Funny story though.. while it was in the oven at its final stage of baking, there was a power outage due to the severe thunderstorm we had. It was soooo intense! Something hit so nearby that I saw the lightening close by as well as a piece of wood flying in the air. Right at that instance, we lost power.. and my gratin was only 5 minutes in the oven. Thank god we got back electricity a couple of minutes after.

the greens exposed, with flash.

The lighting is terrible since it was so dark outside. I never realized how much natural light makes a difference. Surprisingly, the cheese was very understated, and from what Mike says not strong enough. Next time we'll maybe try mixing some cheeses together as we only used one type of old cheddar. Also, the Swiss chard barely had any taste. Good way to sneak in some greens for those who don't like them ;)