Recipe! With bonus cheese obliteration and weeping toddlers!
Since Fee asked for a link:
This recipe for baked macaroni and cheese? Is awesome. I made a triple batch because I cook for twelve really hungry people and I wanted leftovers, and dude, I ended up with more food than we could ever possibly eat, even if we sat here for two days.
Though I think I made the sauce even thicker than it was supposed to be. It wasn't my fault, I didn't have enough macaroni, so I had to cook some of another bag of pasta in another pot (because I learned the hard way that if you try to cook two types of pasta together, one will almost always be over/undercooked). And I wanted to heat the milk in a separate saucepan instead of adding it to the roux cold, because that's the way I've always done it, and my sister says it's important. And I am terrified of leaving a roux cooking unstirred for even a second because on the first recipe my sister ever gave me that involved a roux she included a personalized note about how "stir constantly" really meant "stir constantly" and if I wandered off to smell flowers and read books while the roux was cooking it would burn and KITTENS WOULD DIE! I don't want to be responsible for any kittens dying, do I? No. So I had two pots of pasta that had to be stirred frequently, a pan of cream and milk that had to be stirred frequently and watched carefully to make sure it didn't do that thing where it just suddenly boils over when you'd swear it wasn't even hot when you stuck your finger in it a minute ago, plus a roux that had to be stirred constantly for fear of kitten murder.
This was, of course, the time that my toddler chose to have a meltdown about nothing whatsoever (actually, he was hungry, I just had no way of knowing that because he wasn't using his words and it was way early for him to eat dinner). So I was trying to stir four pots and conduct the series of trial-and-error tests that are familiar to everyone who has ever tried to figure out why a one-and-a-half-year-old just got down on the floor and started wailing.
It was a little involved, there, for a bit.
But on the upside, though getting the dish into the oven was nerve-wracking, it also didn't take very much time. And I managed to briefly distract Bear from his tantrum by shredding six cups of cheese in the Cheese Obliterator. That was pretty cool. And Bear ate a huge serving before I put it in the oven, plus another helping when I ate my dinner. So I think it's safe to assume it's toddler approved.
Anyway. Baked mac-n-cheese. Highly recommended. Though I think next time I'm putting it all together during Bear's naptime, and just refrigerating it till it's time to go in the oven. Yes.
This recipe for baked macaroni and cheese? Is awesome. I made a triple batch because I cook for twelve really hungry people and I wanted leftovers, and dude, I ended up with more food than we could ever possibly eat, even if we sat here for two days.
Though I think I made the sauce even thicker than it was supposed to be. It wasn't my fault, I didn't have enough macaroni, so I had to cook some of another bag of pasta in another pot (because I learned the hard way that if you try to cook two types of pasta together, one will almost always be over/undercooked). And I wanted to heat the milk in a separate saucepan instead of adding it to the roux cold, because that's the way I've always done it, and my sister says it's important. And I am terrified of leaving a roux cooking unstirred for even a second because on the first recipe my sister ever gave me that involved a roux she included a personalized note about how "stir constantly" really meant "stir constantly" and if I wandered off to smell flowers and read books while the roux was cooking it would burn and KITTENS WOULD DIE! I don't want to be responsible for any kittens dying, do I? No. So I had two pots of pasta that had to be stirred frequently, a pan of cream and milk that had to be stirred frequently and watched carefully to make sure it didn't do that thing where it just suddenly boils over when you'd swear it wasn't even hot when you stuck your finger in it a minute ago, plus a roux that had to be stirred constantly for fear of kitten murder.
This was, of course, the time that my toddler chose to have a meltdown about nothing whatsoever (actually, he was hungry, I just had no way of knowing that because he wasn't using his words and it was way early for him to eat dinner). So I was trying to stir four pots and conduct the series of trial-and-error tests that are familiar to everyone who has ever tried to figure out why a one-and-a-half-year-old just got down on the floor and started wailing.
It was a little involved, there, for a bit.
But on the upside, though getting the dish into the oven was nerve-wracking, it also didn't take very much time. And I managed to briefly distract Bear from his tantrum by shredding six cups of cheese in the Cheese Obliterator. That was pretty cool. And Bear ate a huge serving before I put it in the oven, plus another helping when I ate my dinner. So I think it's safe to assume it's toddler approved.
Anyway. Baked mac-n-cheese. Highly recommended. Though I think next time I'm putting it all together during Bear's naptime, and just refrigerating it till it's time to go in the oven. Yes.