Dad's Guest Post: Mac & Cheese

Hey everyone, Caitlin here. My fantastic, frequent commenter father is taking it up a notch from his weekly comment and is guest posting this week. He's here to discuss a Top Ten dish from my childhood: his from-scratch Mac & Cheese. It sure was nice growing up in a house where we considered the stuff in the blue box a special treat. And by the way, make sure you listen to him about the carrot sticks: They are necessary to provide some contrasting crunch. And vitamins. Take it away, Dad!

PS: What are the other 5 dishes Gram showed you how to make?

***

When I got out of college, I had a few weeks at home (Western Mass) before I moved to New Jersey to start my first real job. I had to find a place to live and faced the daunting prospect of having no food on the table unless I put it there. So I asked my mother for the recipes of my 6 favorite dishes and asked that she make each one while I helped before I left. I still have the white-lined paper with 39 years worth of stains.

Numero uno, the top dog, my favorite meal ever since, has been macaroni and cheese. It differs from Mom’s original in that its larger (1 pound of macaroni instead of 2 cups, etc.) and, as I gained experience, I started tweaking. There’s a certain amount of "using the force" in making this dish and there’s never been a BAD dish of mac & cheese, just some with a slightly lower DQ* than others. A little more mustard here or a different kind of mustard. I threw some corn in once.  Less salt. More salt. Different kinds of pasta (ziti works well, too). Don’t put the saltines on top. You can’t vary TOO much or you’ve invented another dish. (Leave out the macaroni and put the sauce on top of steamed broccoli and you have … what, some fancy French dish? Broc & cheese? Or should I call it Broccoli Au Gratin and charge more for it?).  There are few real rules but don’t over cook the pasta. Nobody likes floppy elbows.

It seems to have a sort of universal appeal. It's peasant food: simple but good. When Catie (Caitlin: I think I’m the only one who calls her Catie) and her brother Patrick were little, it was a staple. Picture a cold winter day, spending all afternoon out sledding or throwing snowballs, we come inside, peel off the outer layers, their faces turn bright red, and I start to cook (Mom was working: RN evening shift) with the aid of Paul, Art, Carly, Linda, and, of course, Buddy (Simon, Garfunkle, Simon, Ronstadt, and Holly). Sometimes JD Souther would show up, or Jefferson Airplane (Airplane, not Starship: I’m old).  Sometimes the kids would insist on Thriller. Can’t do mac & cheese without the right music.

Mac & cheese is served with sliced raw carrots. Put the casserole on a trivet on the table, a plate of carrots, and watch them devour it and slowly slip into a food coma. 

The problem with making the recipe larger than the original was that it made more.  The more there is, the more you eat.  We never actually ate the whole thing at one sitting but I thought about it more than once. There will be leftovers. When you heat them up, add a little milk.

Turns out Patrick had a milk allergy. This dish probably nearly killed him. But I guess it would have been suicide, no? I mean, I had to practically pry him out of the casserole dish.

When Catie was in junior high, her friend Megan came over many times for dinner and, coincidentally, the first several times she came, we had mac & cheese. She thought it was all we ate and that would have been OK. We did, eventually, introduce her to other dishes, but we still kid about the mac & cheese. [Caitlin's note: It's true. Meg & I have been friends for over 20 years and we still joke about mac & cheese at Mom and Dad's. She calls them Mom and Dad, too.]

Its not health food: its just good food. By the way, I haven’t made the dish in about 10 years. Science has recently discovered that there is cholesterol hidden in all that cheese. Some, an RN for example, might insinuate that it’s not good for us. Do not listen to these people. Just go ahead an enjoy yourself. It will have been a life well lived, if somewhat shorter than you had hoped.

* Deliciousness Quotient

 
Photo from smittenkitchen.com

MACARONI AND CHEESE  

Boil 1 pound elbow macaroni, rinse and drain.

In a 4 quart saucepan, melt ½ stick of butter and add enough white flour to make it lumpy. Add 1% milk to make a sauce. Add mustard, salt, and pepper (lots of pepper!) and keep adding milk to make it a bit thin. Add 2 cups cubed sharp cheddar cheese (or combination cheddar and Monterey jack cheese).  Stir until cheese melts, adding more milk if it needs to be thinned.

Put elbows in a large casserole dish and pour in cheese mixture, stir it up well.  Crumble saltines on top and bake uncovered at 375 for 20 minutes. 

Serve with sliced raw carrots.

Variations: Add 1 cup cubed ham. Or boil 4 hot dogs, slice about ½ inch thick, brown in a frying pan  (to remove the grease), and stir in with noodles.

If you didn’t have clogged arteries before, you will now!

Comments

[Zach]

I am hearby holding out on cinnamon rolls until Duncan provides me with adequate samples of Mac & Cheese.

[Leslie]

I have never heard of crumbling saltines on top, but I will be making this! Thanks Caitlin's Dad!

[Rebecca (Bearca)]

Homemade mac & cheese is the best. I want to try this version!

[Amy]

I need more information: is this creamy and saucy, or sliceable?

[Duncan Hannah]

I'll try to address all the questions here. Melt the butter first, then add as much flour as needed to get it lumpy and dry. You think you've messed up. Add a little milk and stir. Add a little more and stir. Keep this up until you've got the saucepan about half full, maybe a tad less. Start putting in the cheese, maybe a quarter at a time. Stir until it melts, add another quarter, etc. Stir until all the cheese is melted. Pan should be full.
Use a carrot stick as a dip stick to test. Yum.

Whole milk will work, will just make it richer.

Its not creamy, more like 'cut with a knife' but you control that with the milk.

[Duncan Hannah]

Catie added the photo but that's pretty close to what it looks like, only on a smaller scale, and there's not usually butter in the bottom of the dish. Its a fairly stiff mixture and the color is right: not orange yellow.

[anna]

I love this post so much! So much.

[Duncan Hannah]

Just an update. I introduced Granny to the concept of a blog, showed her my iPad, and she read some of your posts. I think she's got it.

This is from her:

I'm so glad you still enjoy the Mac and cheese. I have a little box with your name on it from long ago with your name on it and I want you to have it.

Love, Gram

[Swistle]

YUM. (Caitlin, your dad can WRITE.)

[Heather]

Every single Hannah post or comment is pure genius. Hooray for family!

[mac make up]

This is my favorite........i love cheese....thanks for the recipe.

[custom essay]

Sometimes the kids would insist on Thriller. Can’t do mac & cheese without the right music.

[hetsdype]

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