MACARONI AND CHEEEEEEEEESE!!!!!

I am seriously a cheese-addict. I eat cheese almost daily in some form or another, and tonight seemed downright autumnal for July (it was about 65 and overcast, and breezy) so I opted for a 'comfort food' meal of grilled pork chops, mac & cheese, and some steamed summer squash.

This mac & cheese is loosely adapted from one that I got from my husband's mother, although I use real sharp cheddar instead of Velveeta, and I usually just put in a pinch of nutmeg instead of pepper.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 stick of butter
2-3 tbsp flour (I actually used whole wheat today with fairly good success)
1- 1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup grated cheese (sharp cheddar makes the most 'classic mac & cheese' flavor)
pinch of nutmeg

8-10 oz of uncooked pasta of your choice (I had bowties, so that's what I used)

DIRECTIONS:

Bring water to a boil and cook pasta while you prepare a 'roux' to make the cheese sauce.
(Roux is a flour & butter based sauce which helps emulsify cheese better than just stirring cheese into hot milk -- which, for the record, I've tried once, and got a giant ball of stringy cheese, floating in a pot of milk.)

Melt butter in another small sauce pan over medium heat, and stir in flour one tablespoon at a time, to keep it a smooth texture.

Stir in milk, very slowly, just an ounce or so at first. If you pour the milk in too fast, it will cool off the butter & flour mixture and make it lumpy.

Gradually whisk in the rest of the milk, keeping heat at medium, and taking care not to boil the sauce.

Next add a handful of grated cheddar cheese at a time, stirring it to melt it into the hot milk & butter roux.


Pour cheese sauce over cooked & drained pasta and either serve as is, or bake in the oven for ten minutes at 350 to "congeal it all" into its sticky, cheesy goodness.