Tonight’s Dinner – Homemade Mac and Cheese

Yep!  I finally got to make the dinner, and wanted to embed the recipe in here.  Hopefully Megan still has the pics for it, since I am not sure.

So I am taking a break from writing, and here you go:

Original recipe amounts:

1 T Butter

1 C Dried Elbow Macaroni

1 1/4 C Milk

1 T All Purpose Flour

1/4 C Diced onions

Dash of Pepper

*6 Ounces Cheese

Ok here is the deal.  The original Better Homes and Gardens recipe did a suggestion, to make it half American Cheese.  I took this and altered it more (anyone surprised?)  that 6 ozs of cheese is as follows.  1 1/2 C Mild Cheddar, 1 1/2 Sharp Cheddar, and 3 ounces of Velveeta Cheese.

Now, I make this for a dinner for the family.  And I make it in batches.  Batches to me is whatever times the original amount.  This time is was a 6 batch, cause all I had was 6 C of elbow macaroni.  So this made the recipe this:

6 T Butter

6 C Dried Elbow Macaroni

7 1/2 C 2% Milk

6T Flour

1 1/2 C onions Diced

Dash of pepper, done a couple of times.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make this stuff, it is easy peasy.  Heat your water.  When it boils, cook your macaroni for 10 minutes.  Yes, even if it says longer, there is a reason for this.  It soaks the extra moisture into the noodles.

Then in a large saucepot, or even a large pot altogether, melt the butter.

Now I like browning my butter, its just the way I am.  You don’t have to, but make sure it is melted, then pour your onions into it.

Cook until they are completely done, then you pour the flour.

The Flour is going to thicken the sauce for you, it should also soak up all that butter.

When it is mixed well, I go then to pour my milk into the measuring container, allowing the flour to cook a little.  Do not burn it!  This will make it taste burned no matter what. (Since I have been making this since I learned to cook, yeah it has happened to me.)

Then pour the milk in ALL AT ONCE.  Mix it with the flour mixture, making no clumps.

You heat the mixture until right before it boils.  You can tell this since you need to stir it often, it will bubble on the bottom.  Make sure you stir often, again the flour will burn with the milk.  awful taste.

Then when it gets to this almost boil, add in your cheeses.  I do Velveeta then cheddar, but that is because I always end up measuring the cheddar.  The Velveeta I normally cut up before hand.  Do not use the shredded stuff, there is more flour added to it, and it doesn’t taste nor does the texture of this feel right afterwards.

Drain the macaroni and put in a pre-Pam’d container, (I use a pampered chef baking 9×13 pan, but glass containers work as well.)  Pour noodles in, then cheese sauce until it is full.  I ended up with more cheese than noodles, and no more room for the cheese.  Marty promises he will figure out what to do with the sauce, since this is a huge favorite.

When done, it should be lightly browned on top.  Serve.

Cookin oven for 30 minutes