Thursday, June 12, 2008

Macaroni & Cheese

3 cups macaroni noodles, cooked

Sauce:
2-4 TB butter
4 TB flour
2 cups milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1. melt the butter and add the flour, stirring constantly with a whisk until it thickens, just a minute or two
2. Add the milk & salt and stir with a whisk over med/high heat frequently until it thickens
3. pour the sauce over the noodles, add the cheese. Stir to combine until all the cheese is melted. Serve.

This is my mom's recipe (probably her mom's too) and although not especially healthy, is one of my favorites. She made it a lot on busy nights that we had to go to the church for scouts & mutual. We always had it with peas & grape juice. My husband does not consider mac & cheese a "meal" so I always made it on nights he had class until 10 and wasn't eating with us anyway.

I always use skim milk. Sometimes I use whole wheat flour. Also, mild cheddar cheese doesn't have a whole lot of flavor, so I like to use medium or sharp cheddar. You may also want to add more salt & pepper.

3 comments:

Erin said...

I'll have to try this. Is it 3 cups mac after you cook or before you cook?

Claire said...

3 cups before you cook

Anonymous said...

Not my mom's recipe--or at least I didn't get it from her. I got the recipe from home ec in junior high.

As for the proportion of noodles to sauce here is my rule of thumb: the dry noodles approximately double when cooked and I aim to make half as much sauce as the cooked noodles. So cook two cups dry noodles (making 4 cups cooked) and make two cups sauce (from the two cups milk.) Hope that makes sense.