"Burn Your Mouth" Mac and Cheese

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

So, I was watching Rachael Ray's daytime talk show thing the other day, and she made this recipe, which was a mac and cheese with broceili. She made it with a rue (rew? roo?), which I had attempted before with a big ole' epic fail... It was so thick and nasty. But, today, I decided to try my hand at making it again.

Lemme start off right here by telling all you new folk... I don't follow recipes. This is why I cannot bake. Okay, I can very rarely... but usually something turns out badly. But, I can cook! In fact, I seriously wish I could go back in time, not go to college, and just go to culinary school. *le sigh*

ANYWAY. I set out to make mac and cheese. I decided to use spinach. I used fresh spinach leaves, NOT baby spinach... but I don't think I liked it as well as if I had used baby... so I'm including baby spinach in the recipe.

I'm going to include my ingredients list. THEN I'm going to tell you how I made it, because, remember, I don't like recipes, so there will be no exact amounts. Sorry!

Elbow Macaroni
Spinach
Butter
Flour
Boxed Chicken Stock (NO MSG!!)
Milk
Several different kinds of cheese, shredded (I used Yoder's brand, which, if you can find it where you live, BUY IT. It's delish!)

I started off by cooking the macaroni pretty al dente ("to the tooth" in Italian). I then drained the pasta and left it in the drainy thingy. In the same pot I cooked the pasta in, I melted 2ish tablespoons of butter. Then I whisked in 1ish tablespoon of flour, until it was well-incorporated, and slightly brown. I then stirred in 1ish cup of Chicken stock, then 1 and a halfish cups of milk. Then I added several handfuls of Italian, Monterrey Jack and Cheddar cheeses. I then added back in the pasta, and several handfuls of spinach. Once the spinach wilted down, I added it to a casserole dish, and then topped with Cheddar cheese (sharp!). I broiled it on low until the cheese was nice, bubbly and brown.

I called it the "Burn Your Mouth" mac and cheese because it is SO FREAKING GOOD that you (or at least I did) will burn your mouth several times trying to shovel it in!

And hey, think of it this way. The more spinach you add, the better for you it gets!

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