I feel like I should back track and explain what is going on here. This past weekend I received a hand-made cookbook from Ryan's aunt Denise. She hand wrote all of her favorite recipes she has saved from family, friends and magazines over her lifetime and gifted them to me. (Thanks Denise!!) I decided to dedicate our dinners for this week to her cookbook. This blog is what resulted.
Sunday I made her apple crisp. Monday I thought I would jump right in and try her world-famous macaroni and cheese. This is Denise's favorite food - she even requests that everyone raises a fork of it in her honor at her funeral luncheon. I started making it knowing that it would be hard to convince Ryan and I that this would be as good Kraft. As funny as that sounds, Ryan and I both grew up on Kraft and it is a shared comfort food. I followed the recipe exactly since I didn't want to stand in the way of perfection. What I did love about this recipe is that it calls for thin spaghetti instead of elbow macaroni. I also liked that it bakes in the oven and forms a cheesy crust on the outside and is very gooey in the center. We gave it two thumbs up but Ryan requests more cheese for next time. (This is no surprise since Ryan thinks all food tastes better with extra cheese or ketchup!)
Denise's Macaroni & Cheese
2 C. + sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
7 oz. thin spaghetti noodles, cooked al dente
Medium white sauce (below)
Butter casserole, put in cooked noodles pour white sauce over followed by cheese cubes. Mix to make sure sauce spreads through noodles.
Bake at 350, uncovered for 1 hour.
White Sauce
4 Tbls butter
4 Tbls flour - melt butter and add flour. Add:
2 C. milk
salt & pepper
celery salt - small amount
oregano - small amount
"Spike" - small amount
dry onions (minced) about 1/4 cup
How was the Zin with Mac and Cheese? Did Ryan get the wine as a gift at work or did the label just catch his eye?
ReplyDeleteThe wine was pretty good - very peppery. And yes it was a gift from work.
ReplyDelete