Macaroni and Cheese

Homemade Macaroni & Cheese

2 cups elbow macaroni
3 T. butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
salt, to taste (about 1 teaspoon to start)
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 t. nutmeg
3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1 T. butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Add a couple tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil into a large pot of boiling salted water.  Add the macaroni and cook according to the directions on the package, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in the microwave until very hot.  Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a pot and add the flour.  Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon (or a whisk, if you want). While stirring, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth.  Off the heat, add the shredded cheese, cheddar, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Add the cooked macaroni and stir well.  Pour into a 7" x 11" baking dish.

Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter (20 seconds in the microwave), combine with the bread crumbs, and sprinkle on the top, Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

Note: to make ahead, put the macaroni and cheese in the baking dish, cover, and refrigerate (or freeze) until ready to bake.  Put the bread crumbs on top and bake for about 40 to 50 minutes.

You can also easily double this recipe -- use a 9" x 13" glass dish for it.

You will be tempted to make this every week. Don't do it. Your waistline will never let you live it down. Trust me on this one.

Enjoy!!

Although I'm seeing a pile of photos that I haven't added to this blog yet, I'm taking a moment to slip in another recipe. It's not the best time, and certainly not the best photos, but I feel like I need to get more and more of our recipes on the blog for the benefit of my kids who live on their own.

Maybe I have that feeling, because we added one more kid to that list of kids who live on their own: Darcie headed off to college last week!! But that's a post all on its own.

In the mean time, ......

I changed my mind. This is going to be a picture-less post. I took photos, really I did. But they turned out pretty poorly, Well, that's an understatement. They turned out pretty bad. So, without adding more excuses, .... no pictures. Maybe one day I'll add decent photos to this post.

In the mean time .......

When I was a kid, I remember my mom making creamed vegetables. Most commonly, it was creamed corn, creamed peas, or creamed asparagus. To this day, I passionately detest creamed corn that comes in a can. That stuff should be relegated to hog feed. Homemade creamed vegetables can land on varying places on the yummy spectrum, but they're never as bad as the canned nastiness. You just have to do it *right*, (meaning: don't overcook them!!), so that it turns out on the good side!

And this is certainly a food from yesteryear. Pinterest isn't exactly exploding these days with recipes for creamed vegetables! Let's agree to call it Comfort Food, ok?

When I married Todd, I was introduced to the Huffakers' take on creamed vegetables: Creamed Peas and New Potatoes. I learned way back then, that it's a fairly common go-to dish for Sundays and some holidays -- especially Easter -- and we have this somewhat regularly, including back HERE, and at our famed Holiday-Feast-to-End-All-Holiday-Feasts.

So, once again for my grown-up kids ..... here's how you make it!!


Creamed Peas and New Potatoes

Baby Red Potatoes
Fresh or Frozen Peas (NOT canned!!)
Milk
Cornstarch
Butter
Salt & Pepper

You can use regular russet potatoes for this dish, but the little reds are what we use. You may choose to peel them, but usually we just scrub them and leave the skins on. Unless I'm feeding the pickiest 6-year-old in the world, and then it's actually easier to peel them first.

Please, please, please, PLEASE do yourself a huge favor, and don't use canned peas for this. Just don't go there. It's very, very wrong. The food police will find you. And I will have failed, as a mother, to teach you properly. And the angels will weep for you. (Name that movie line?) Have I made myself clear?? (I usually keep a big bag of frozen baby peas on hand, ready for this at any time.)

You could make the cream sauce with flour, too ...... and then it's really a bechamel sauce. There are many online recipes for that, so I'm going to share our typical method, which uses cornstarch instead of flour as the thickening agent.

Proportions vary, so you want to prepare enough to feed however many people you have for the meal. Maybe about 6-8 baby potatoes for 4 average-appetite people. Scrub the potatoes, and cut them into bite-size pieces. Make them kind of bigger-bites, but not stuff-your-mouth-bites.  Really small potatoes, we just cut in quarters. Keep the size consistent so they will cook evenly. Boil in salted water for about 20 minutes, or until done. Potatoes test done when you can stick a sharp knife into a piece easily. Try not to overcook these babies. Drain in a colander.

Get the peas ready to cook now. I usually microwave them, but they can be done on the stovetop, too. You want them done and hot when the potatoes are done, so delay starting them until the final 5-6 minutes of potato-cooking-time. Drain the peas, too.

In the mean time, let's make the creamy sauce.

In a pot on the stove, heat 2 cups of milk to scalding. Stir constantly so it won't burn on the bottom. Add a couple of tablespoons of butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Make a slurry with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and some water. I describe how (and why) to do this BACK HERE.

Add the slurry to the hot milk, still stirring constantly, and bring to a boil. Boil gently for one minute, so it can thicken. Remove from heat. (Now is a good time to taste the sauce to make sure there's enough salt & pepper in it.)

Now, if you've been coordinating all three parts to this dish (the potatoes, the peas, and the sauce), you'll add them to a large bowl. You want the bowl to be a bit bigger than you "need", so you have room to stir it all together. Potatoes first, then peas (so they don't get crushed by the potatoes), and then pour the white sauce over them both. I use a silicone scraper to get all the sauce out of the pan.

Stir VERY gently together, so you don't moosh up the cooked potatoes. You can also add a couple of pats of butter to melt gently in, as it's sitting on the table.

The amounts listed here should result in a Medium White Sauce. We like ours a little thicker, but often the starch of the potatoes helps thicken it even more. Less draining of the potatoes or peas will make the sauce thinner. Like I said, we prefer it on the thick side. If yours turned out thinner than you want it, adjust with more cornstarch the next time.

Serve these babies with either a large ladle, or a big serving spoon. They go great with ham -- which is part of the reason they're big with us for Easter. They are also good with meat loaf, or other meat main dishes that don't have gravy with them. (Gravy + white sauce in one meal is overkill.)

Enjoy!!