Mac 'n Cheese Please!

I remember this one time when Christa and I were at home with a babysitter who asked us what we wanted for lunch. Christa immediately began singing/screaming Mac-a-ron-i and cheeeeeeeeeeeeeese! Mac-a-ron-i and cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeese! She was unstoppable until the babysitter agreed to make us the requested macaroni and cheese. All I remember (besides the song which still runs through my head, obviously) was that I was thinking, "I HATE macaroni and cheese." I don't know what I was thinking, because I love macaroni and cheese. I think she just loved it more and we always had to have it.

We were Kraft mac 'n cheese fans. Die-hard. No velveeta, give us the blue box. (Holy crap, I just realized that I must be way behind the times in that velveeta is actually owned by Kraft, which completely changes my world view, but I won't dwell on that right now). After college I would continue to buy the Kraft macaroni and cheese, although it no longer served in the weeknight dinner position, it had moved to the Saturday afternoon meal slot and more recently we have actually moved to the organic variety of mac 'n cheese - Annie's. I guess that's step one on the path to yuppie-ville.

I never really thought of making my own macaroni and cheese, but I also think there's also recently been a resurgence of macaroni and cheese and it's much more in-vogue these days (although it's kind of weird to me that food can be in style). So it's on people's minds a bit more. Anyways, it probably wasn't until last year when I attempted my own macaroni and cheese. And, I do have to warn you, if you're looking for that macaroni and cheese from your childhood, you're not going to find it if you make it yourself, but you will have a delicious creamy dinner that will bring a smile to your face.

I'm not sure I've ever actually followed a recipe (not even the first time I made it) for homemade macaroni and cheese. It seemed to me that you really could make a good mac 'n cheese without putting in cups of heavy cream or even cups of half and half. I'm sure those versions are quite delicious, but I'm not sure I could eat more than 3 bites without wanting to throw up. I honestly believe that comfort food should not come at the expense of vomit. So I use part milk and part broth, and it's still pretty darn delicious. I actually make my "cheese sauce" to be almost like a cheese fondue, thicker than what you'd typically think of, but I think it's fantastic.

Another great thing (depending on who you talk to) about homemade macaroni is that you can bake it in the oven and add a breadcrumb (and/or parmesan cheese) topping. I personally like the creamy noodles under the topping, but Jeff likes the crunchy topping, ours is a marriage made in mac 'n cheese heaven (and the creamy part wouldn't be possible without having the crunchy topping). You can also just cook the whole thing on the stove top and it tastes just as good too (and it uses one less dish), but you don't get the crunchy topping. And, you can do the dishes while it bakes in the oven, so it's not as big of a deal that there's an extra dish.

So here's my recipe for macaroni and cheese, since I never really followed a recipe to being with, this recipe is particularly vague. But you can be creative if that's any consolation (that actually wouldn't be consoling to me, so I'm sorry about that).

Macaroni and Cheese (serves 2 plus a bit extra for snacking)
1/2 box of pasta, a tubular shape so the cheese sauce can really get in there
2 T butter
2-3 T flour
1 1/4 cup milk (typically I use 2%, I wouldn't really recommend skim since you're already substituting with some broth)
1/2 - 1 cup broth (chicken, veggie, whatever, I've even used beef)
2 cups of your favorite cheese combination, I like 2% sharp cheddar, muenster and parmesan, mostly because that's what I typically have. You can use just about anything, but I would recommend using cheddar as at least one of your cheeses. And, if you use some more milder cheeses (mozzarella, provelone, etc...) you'll probably need to add a bit more salt to the sauce.
Breadcrumbs/parmesan and oil/butter (for topping)

Pre-heat oven to 350. Bring pot of water to boil. Before adding the pasta, be sure to salt it. Add the pasta and stir it a bit. Don't cook the pasta all the way, for pasta that should cook about 10 minutes (according to the package) I cook it about 6. It's going to cook more in the oven and suck up some delicious cheesy sauce too.

If you want you can start the cheese sauce in another pan (I don't because it's one more pan to wash, I wait until the pasta is done and then make the sauce in the same pot). Melt the butter over medium heat and add the flour. Cook the flour for a couple of minutes, stirring rather frequently. Add the milk and broth and whisk very quickly until there aren't any lumps. Keep the heat relatively low and stir frequently until the sauce thickens. Turn off the heat and add the cheeses. Let the cheese melt; if the mixture looks too thick for your liking add some more milk or broth. Make it a bit thinner than you want it to actually come out of the oven because it'll thicken a bit when the pasta sucks up some of the sauce. Taste the sauce and make sure there's enough salt and pepper before you add the pasta.

Add the pasta to the sauce and put in a casserole dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Top with as many or as little breadcrumbs/parmesan as you want and then top the breadcrumbs with some oil/butter to make it golden and delicious. Bake for about 30 minutes until its bubbly and irresistible.