Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

You need salt, pepper, butter, elbow macaroni, cornstarch, cheese, ground mustard, water, and evaporated milk. Now, you’ve heard me say it before but I’m going to say it again – buy cheese in blocks instead of pre-shredded. Why? Because you get more for your money.  Cheese that you shred will be fluffier, so you’ll get more cups out of one block. Plus, pre-shredded has cornstarch on it so it doesn’t melt as pretty. I used pre-shredded on the very top of mine because I had some in the fridge left over from a birthday party. Excuses, excuses.

Grab a small saucepan and put your cornstarch, salt, mustard, and pepper in there. Ground mustard gives the macaroni a little bit of a twangy flavor. Please don’t leave it out – you’ll be eternally sorry if you do. ETERNALLY SORRY!

Get out your favorite whisk (yes, I have a favorite whisk) and begin to pour in your evaporated milk. I don’t have a picture of that because I only have two hands….until Annie is big enough for pour things for Mommy. While you’re pouring, whisk the whole time. We don’t want any lumps, so whisk until they’re all gone. I find it’s easier if I pour in a little milk at a time and whisk until all the lumps are gone and THEN add the rest of the milk.

Add your water after the milk, but keep whisking. Workout, check!

Now, pour in the melted butter and whisk again.

While all this is going on, you want to boil your pasta so it’s ready to go when you’re done with the sauce. You can use any type of pasta you want, but technically Macaroni and Cheese uses elbow pasta…..but I don’t want to get all technical on you. Use a different type if you want to be weird.

Now, over medium-high heat bring your sauce to a boil and then boil for 1 minute. Make sure you’re whisking the whole time……if you don’t, it will stick and burn on the bottom. And I’ll just tell you right now that it’s horrible to clean up. You’ll just think about throwing the pan away. Not that I’ve done that or anything.

After the minute is up, take your pan off the heat and add the cheese. Stir it until all the cheese is melted. Wow…..things are starting to look really good here.

Drain your cooked pasta with your favorite colander (yes, I have a favorite colander) and add it to the cheese sauce. Stir until all the noodles are coated. Stirring noodles is fun. They’re so slippery!

Pour your pasta mix into a greased 2 quart dish. Make sure you spray it well, so anything that bakes on will come off easily. Easy = happy Stacy.

Sprinkle the top with more cheese….but not too much cheese. We don’t want to have to take a laxative after dinner.

Pop that sucker into the oven and bake about 20 minutes until it looks like this. Oh yeah. Now THAT is macaroni and cheese!

I usually let mine sit a few minutes so it can get a little thicker, and then I serve it up. I don’t want it running all over the plate. Shew. It’s SO good….unless your name is Annie. I have an alien child who doesn’t like mac and cheese. I tried to make her eat some by sneaking it in on her. I thought I was SO smart……well, she showed me. She threw it up so we had a lovely mess to clean up at dinner. I guess she showed me. Point taken.