Thursday, November 18, 2010

Macaroni and Cheese the Right Way


























Macaroni and cheese. My favorite food. I could eat this stuff every day for the rest of my life. I would die weighing about 3 tons, but yum-o.
Now, there are a lot of different ways of making mac'n'cheese out there today, and I have tried quite a few of them, but I always come back to my mom's recipe. It's not baked, so there are no nasty, crunchy pieces of pasta, and the ingredients aren't all just dumped together, which always produces extra-greasy, gloppy, separated mac. Also, it does not come out of a blue box, which is the best part. My hubby grew up on that blue box crap, and I am proud to say that I am the one who introduced him to the good stuff. He's very glad i did.
And I'm sorry, but like most of my family's recipes, there aren't really any measurements or decipherable instructions, but I shall try my best to translate. I will warn you that this stuff can get addicting, because it's easy, and it's like..um...heavenly.

Judy's mac'n'cheese. (It's a long story why we call it Judy's, ask me sometime you want a laugh)

8 oz elbow macaroni
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
about 1 1/2 - 2 cups milk
Shredded cheddar cheese (about 2 cups)
A dash of ground mustard
Salt and pepper

Boil your macaroni to al dente. While that cooking, make a roux. I.E. melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Once fully melted, add the flour and mix well, and cook that mixture for 1 minute. Gradually add the milk and cook and stir that over medium low heat until it gets all nice and thick. Add the mustard, salt and pepper. Then turn off the heat, add the cheese and stir until it's all the way melted.
Drain your macaroni well, and then combine the cheese sauce and the pasta. Eat it straight from the pot. Just do it.
There are lots of variations you can do to this recipe as well. You can use half and half cream instead of milk, or a combination of those (which is great is you need to use up leftover half and half). You can also use different kind of cheeses. Today I used Cracker Barrel sharp cheddar and it was A-MAZING. Any kind of cheese you'd like, really. Just so long as it melts nicely, that is. Enjoy!

I apologize for the terrible picture, hubby was quite ill today, and I was therefore not really applying myself to spending time taking a really good picture.

1 comment:

  1. Really, Judy's mac and cheese????? Ha...Ok I will share the credit. Just glad you knew better than to resort the evilness of the blue box!

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