More Random Cooking with Grace Just in Time for the Weekend

I call this macaroni and cheese. My husband's brother described it as "It's not macaroni and cheese, it is something else. Can I take some home?" My husband is Boston Irish and when we were first married he talked about his mother's macaroni and cheese. He hinted I should make some. I looked up a recipe - um, no. So I had to invent something like macaroni and cheese that I would want to put on my table and in my tummy. I'm sure there are other people in the world who make this - after all there is nothing new under the sun - but I do tend to believe this might be just a teeny tiny unique.

This is also a great group/family bonding experience. Nothing complicated here but extra hands make it that much faster to put together and fun and helps with the tasting part. Lots of opportunity for goofing around and laughing. The following is more commentary than recipe - because I, ya know, just throw things in a pot. (I've bolded the actual ingredients - does that help?)

Your ingredients are (basically in order of use): 4 tablespoons of butter, 4 tablespoons of flour, 2 cups of milk. This is for your basic white sauce. 2 pounds of elbow macaroni. Fresh ground black pepper, (please, please please do not use anything else. Most peppercorns now come in packaging that is also a grinder, or for like $4.95 you can pick up a pepper grinder in the supermarket. It totally makes a huge difference in flavor). Garlic (fresh please - no garlic powder!), white wine, Worcestershire sauce, Louisiana hot sauce (or the hot sauce of your choice), 3 to 3.5 pounds of extra sharp cheddar cheese, a small chunk of smoked Gouda - 3 or 4 ounces max (or some other smoked cheese), grated Romano. And if you are a philistine, like my husband, slices of orange processed American cheese food product (yuck and eww!).

First off put up a large pot of water to cook the elbows. Then get yourself another large pot and make your white sauce. (Melt the butter over a low heat, add the flour and stir and stir and stir combining the butter and flour into a roux. You don't want to rush this because you do want to cook the flour taste out. Add the milk, turn up the heat a bit and stir until it thickens into a sauce. Have patience!).

Now add to your white sauce: fresh ground black pepper - you can go crazy with this. Add some crushed garlic - anywhere from 3 to 6 large cloves. This is one dish where too much garlic is NOT a good thing but you don't want too little either. Splash in some white wine - not a generous splash, you don't want to thin out the white sauce but, you know some. Then add 3 shots of Worcestershire and 3 shots of hot sauce. These come in bottles with a kind of shaker top and you just want to bing-bing-bing - real quick. You can always add more later if you want more of a kick. Now just stir this a very short while and let everything combine.

I know, a lot of you are saying "I hate Worcestershire sauce (or hot sauce)" but none of these flavors will stand out - not the garlic or the wine or the Worcestershire or the hot sauce. For some reason they just bring out the flavors of everything else in the dish. And you are not using a lot of any of these. Trust me - It works!

While you are making the white sauce your helpers have been grating the cheeses. You just dump the cheese in a handful at a time and stir while the cheese melts and blends in. When all the cheese is in and melted throw a handful of grated Romano in there.

You should have been tasting this as you went along - now is the time to add a little more something or other as your own taste indicates. It should be very yummy.

While all this was going on your elbows were cooking. Don't over cook them because this is going to go in the oven. You want to drain your macaroni really well - really well. Really.

Get out your pyrex baking dishes - the basic 9x13 should do fine. If you have a little bigger, not a problem, use them, a little bigger might even be a little better - keeps the cheese sauce from bubbling over and messing up the oven...

Put your elbow macaroni in the baking dishes, spoon the cheese sauce in, mix it up real good. Now here is the philistine part. My husband likes a "skin" on his macaroni and cheese. So on 3/4 of the macaroni and cheese I put the orange processed American cheese product slices. The part without it is my portion. I'm sorry I have no tolerance for orange cheese. There is no animal on the planet that gives orange milk and as for pasteurized processed cheese product - well that kind of says it all, doesn't it?

Pop them baking dishes in a 350º oven. Cook until all hot and bubbly, about 20 minutes, give or take.

Dinner is now ready! If you are a healthy type of person you will serve a veggie or salad with this, if you are a gavone you will will just keep shoveling this into your face until you are so stuffed you fall off your chair or you have a heart attack - which ever comes first.

Unless you are feeding a huge crowd there should be leftovers. I make this much just for my husband and I. This freezes and microwaves really well. Not only will you have dinner for one night, but lunch or dinner for many more nights and it just keeps getting better and better. So get out that tupperware and fill it up!