Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Macaroni and Cheese

So far this week's menu is working out very well! So I thought I'd share some of my recipes...

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (or use whatever pasta you like)
Bacon - a few slices
1/2 a medium onion, diced
flour - a couple tablespoons
milk - 2 cups-ish
shredded sharp cheddar cheese - 1.5 - 2 cups

You can see I don't really measure when I cook...

So! Boil the macaroni for about 10 minutes or until al dente (or a little more, my hubby likes it just past al dente but before it gets mushy). While the macaroni is boiling:

Cook the bacon, reserving a couple tablespoons of the rendered fat. Crumble the bacon on the side (or, if you don't want bacon in your mac and cheese you can save it for something else). Saute the onions in the reserved bacon fat (you can omit the bacon totally and use a couple tablespoons of butter for this if you want). When those are nice and translucent add a couple tablespoons of flour - enough to make a pastey consistency with the bacon fat/butter. Stir that around for a minute or two. Slowly add 1.5 to 2 cups of milk and whisk. Keep whisking until the mixture starts to thicken and then add the cheddar cheese. Whisk it all together until the cheese is melted and the sauce is nice and thick. Your cheese sauce is all done!

Drain the pasta and put it into a casserole dish (I think I usually use a 2 qt one) and pour the cheese sauce over. If you want bacon in there add it now. Stir everything together. You can eat it at this point if you like, but I like mine backed with a little bit of crunchiness so I usually add some bread crumbs - or - I've recently discovered that stuffing mix is delicious on top! Stick it in the oven at about 350 for half an hour or so until the top is all nice and crunchy. Dinner's ready!

1 comments:

Brooke said...

does it matter what kind of flour i use?

i wasn't paying attention and didn't get self rising flour...and didn't notice till the biscuits i made to take to church turned out horribly.

printing recipe now. :)