The Philosophy of Food, Issue #015: Epic Mac 'n Cheese!

Howdy folks!  I have been long absent from blogging for a number of reasons (which I will not bore you with).  Long story short, I'm going to try and resume updating.

For my great return we're going to be making something fairly simple, but delicious.  Mac 'n cheese.

The Ingredients
-Macaroni noodles.
-Shredded cheddar cheese.
-Milk.
-Butter.
-Flour.
-Cajun spice (optional).
-Beef stock (optional).

The Process
First off, a note: exact measurements are for pussies.

I'm (mostly) kidding.  But, I really don't typically measure out the cheese, butter, or noodleage for this recipe.  You have been warned.

Step one: start your water boiling for the noodles and your milk heating up for the cheese sauce at the same time.  Unless you are magic and can find some other way of making sure that the cheese sauce will be ready at the same time as the noodles.  In my experience, the time it takes to prepare the cheese sauce is dreadfully inconsistent, hence my suggested use of sorcery.  I generally use around one cup of milk.  Also, a note: I'm not going to tell you how to boil macaroni step by step.  I will, however, tell you that a hard boil means a HARD boil.  No one wants half-cooked noodles.

Step two:  addeth the cheese.  I generally use this much, more or less:

Actually, you might want to use more.

Stir in the cheese, and keep stirring or you'll wind up with burnt crud on the bottom of your pot.  Once the cheese is pretty melted in there, go ahead and toss in a bit of flour.  Just a pinch or so.

Step three:  Once the sauce has cooked down a little, add in the beef stock.  I used 1/4 cup.  This is something of an experiment for me.  Almost a whim.

Step four:  Once the noodles are ready, butter them up (I use around 1 tablespoon of butter) and pour in the cheese sauce.  At this point toss in any seasoning or spice you want to use.  I used this much Tony Chacherie's:

Mhm.

Step five:  Nom.

The Results
Disaster! (not really).

The cheese sauce didn't cook down enough in time, either because I didn't use enough cheese or. . . because it's finicky that way.  I added the sauce to the noodles as usual and just let the mix cook down a little more.  I still served it a little more liquidy than usual, but it was still delicious.

The beef broth added a tiny bit of flavor.  Not sure I'd do it again, but it wasn't bad.  A friend has recommended that I do something similar with beer.  Part of me is hesitant, but the other part of me knows that beer is magic.

Just a little soupy, ne?

Still delicious!