So I was at work yesterday, and I stumbled across a picture of macaroni and cheese somewhere on the internet, and it was like a switch clicked in my head, and ALL I could think about from that moment on was home made macaroni and cheese. I recently made macaroni and cheese when a friend of mine was in town a few weeks ago, but that was a fancy one with gouda and gruyere cheeses, and that's just not in the budget this week. So I went looking and found a recipe on this blog that I'll be following from now on, and it looked awesome, and pretty easy, so here we go. I made a few changes to it, though. I used shell pasta, instead of elbow pasta, I omitted the ham and onion, and I used store bought breadcrumbs because I'm lazy. I mixed 1/2 cup breadcrumbs with 2 tbsp's butter before adding them to the top of the mac and cheese. I also used less noodles than the recipe calls for(about 10 0z instead of 160z), because a full pound of pasta is a LOT of pasta. Also, I used a bit more cayenne than the recipe called for, because despite what my husband might think, I do like things to have a bit of bite to them.
Ingredients Needed:
1 lb elbow noodles, cooked according to package directions.
4 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
1/2 small onion, chopped or grated
4 cups milk
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/4 cups sharp yellow cheddar cheese, shredded(in my opinion, the sharper the better)
1 1/4 cups white cheddar cheese, shredded
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz ham, diced
2 slices of sandwich bread
To Make:
Preheat the oven to 375. Cook the pasta according to package directions, then set aside. In a large sauce pan, melt the four tbsp butter in the pan, then add the onion, cook for 3-5 minutes, then add the flour. In a steady stream(or as steady as you can make it) pour in the milk, whisking constantly until all lumps are gone. Cook this mixture, whisking frequently for about 6-8 minutes, until mixture is thick and bubbly. Then add the cheese(leaving out about 1/2 cup or so, to sprinkle on top), and stir until cheese is melted. Add the pasta back into the cheese sauce, stir, then add ham and stir again. Season with salt and pepper.
In a food processor, pulse the bread until you have large crumbs. Then with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese, sprinkle on top. Bake for 30 minutes.
This is a REALLY good macaroni and cheese. And the thing is, it just tasted better the next day, and leftovers are always a good thing.
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