Recipe: Macaroni and Cheese
Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Time: 45 minutes
Ease: 2
Taste: 8
Leftover Value: 8
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!
I made PW's mac and cheese before and wrote beside the recipe "Good". This usually means it is worth trying again, but it wasn't amazing.
My opinion has since changed--now the recipe has "Yum" written beside it.*
You might recall that I am constantly searching for the perfect mac and cheese. Though I do love Hubby's favorite, it takes a lot of prep that I don't always feel up to. PW's mac and cheese is the simplest and tastiest mac and cheese I have ever made, and can only be compared to my slow-cooker mac and cheese.**
*I wish I could come up with a higher level of one word descriptions for recipes, but it is what it is. My favorite is what I write next to a recipe that is a complete flop: "No".
**The difference? Hubby likes the PW version.
As with most mac and cheeses, we start by creating a roux with butter and flour. Adding the flour slowly and constantly whisking is the key to a great roux. Milk is then added in the same fashion. After a few seasonings and an egg, the main attraction is added.
I usually try to make macaroni and cheese happen in as little pots as possible. If you have a lot of time on your hands this can be done by cooking your pasta first. While it drains, the cheese sauce can then be made in the same pot the pasta cooked in.
PW says that the macaroni can be served immediately or baked. I like for it to bake so that the sauce thickens a little more and loses some of that watery consistency that you can see at the bottom of the next picture.
But you do whatever floats your boat.
Of course, when you bake the macaroni and cheese you get to add more cheese on top of the macaroni.
And adding more cheese can only be a good thing, right?
I brought this to a pot luck Bible study I attend and everyone loved it.
It's homemade, quick to make, and tasty. It's kind of impossible not to love.
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