Southern Plate » comfort food http://www.southernplate.com Recipes from yesterday Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:54:57 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Baked Macaroni and Cheese http://www.southernplate.com/2008/10/baked-macaroni-and-cheese.html http://www.southernplate.com/2008/10/baked-macaroni-and-cheese.html#comments Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:48:00 +0000 Christy Jordan http://southernplate.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/baked-macaroni-and-cheese/ Pin it

Its just about a requirement that all Americans love macaroni and cheese in some form and at some time in their lives, I’m no different. Growing up, my mother made a creamy homemade mac and cheese with a sauce that was smooth as silk and permeated every particle of perfectly cooked macaroni. It was my brother’s favorite so she usually made it every Sunday.

As a teen, we all became well acquainted with the boxed stuff, thrilling over the marvel and convenience of the powdery sauce which combined with milk to deliver the ideal after school snack for three busy young people on the go.

After I had my own kids, however, I quickly learned why my mother seldom ate Mac and Cheese. My kids loved it so much that I got burned out just from stirring those countless pots of pasta.

Then a few years ago I realized something – I missed my mac and cheese. I needed to reacquaint myself with it. While my mother’s mac and cheese is to die for, I longed for a stringy, cheesy, casseroley, version in my adult years. Something as far from the boxed stuff as I could get without introducing things my children would consider “weird”. Voila, Baked Macaroni and Cheese was born.

Those of you who subscribe to my email newsletter will receive an added bonus at the end of this week because I am also sending you my mother’s macaroni and cheese recipe as well as this one in my weekly recipe email!

You’ll need: Cheddar cheese, plain flour, macaroni pasta, salt, margarine or butter, and milk.

Put a pot of water on to boil (about six to seven cups of water).
Measure out your dry macaroni into the pot. I am giving you measurements of the dry because I know this is always confusing, you never know if they want you to use two cups dry or two cups cooked and so on.
This recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups DRY macaroni.
Bring this to a boil and reduce to simmer until noodles are tender. Drain.
In a bowl, combine flour, salt, and pepper.

Stir that up.

Lightly spray cooking spray in an oven safe bowl or dish.
Place 1/2 of your macaroni in the bowl. Sprinkle with flour mixture.

Cut two thirds of a stick up butter into small pieces like this.

Place a few pats of butter on top of your first layer.

Top with half of the cheese.

Remaining macaroni…

Remaining flour mixture and butter…

and remaining cheese.
Pour milk over all.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven at 350 for 35 minutes.
Remove foil and bake an additional ten minutes.

OOOOOOOOOOH look at that!!
At this point my son came in and said “Ma, when is the macaroni and cheese gonna be done?”.
I showed him this and his eyes got “big as dollars” as my grandmother would say!
Become a kid again :) .
Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups uncooked macaroni
  • 2 1/2 Tablespoons flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • Pepper to taste (I use about a teaspoon)
  • 4 Tablespoons margarine
  • 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 cup milk

Instructions

  1. Cook pasta until tender, drain. Mix all dry ingredients together, set aside. Spray oven safe bowl or dish with cooking spray. Place half of macaroni inside. Sprinkle half of the flour mixture over top and top with half of the margarine, sliced into small slices. Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups cheese over. Repeat. Pour milk over all. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for thirty five minutes. Remove foil, bake an additional ten minutes. Serve hot.
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*I’ll announce the winner of the slow cooker giveaway before I go to bed tonight! I have another post I’m working on now so it will be included in that one!
If you’d like to receive all of my recipes (as well as bonus ones) in printer friendly format, simply subscribe by email at the top right hand side of this page to receive my personal email that I send out at the end of each week!

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy lives to read Southern Plate! I want to especially thank you for all of your comments and emails! I am usually a little behind on responding (so I can keep getting more recipes up and posted!) but I read every single one of them and always respond as soon as I can. You are all such incredibly wonderful people and I appreciate all of the extraordinary kindness you have and continue to show me!


Gratefully,
Christy

*We welcome your comments!*
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