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Crystal Beasley, a.k.a. SkinnyWhiteGirl

Feb 8, 2009 1

Mac & Cheese

Yeah baybeee!! You know you love a big steaming bowl of macaroni and cheese. I have a secret for you… There are four ingredients in it. Nix the box crap. This how I roll with it at my house. There’s no recipe this time because you don’t measure anything. I’ll give approximate amounts.

melt the butter

Step 1: Buttttaaahhh

It’s like this. You melt 4 tbsp. (half a stick) of butter in the pan over medium high heat. Start your pasta boiling with a big dose of salt.

add some flour

Step 2: Flour

Put an equal amount of flour, 4 tbsp. into the melted butter and whisk. Stir it around occasionally for a few minutes. In French terms, you’re making a “roux.” In the South, we generally refer to this technique as “cookin’.”

add milk

Step 3: Milk

Quickly whisk as you add about 1/4 cup milk. At first, it will make a goofy, lumpy paste. Continue to whisk until smooth, then add more milk. Repeat this until you get a sauce a bit thinner than you want the final product to be.

cheese

Step 4: Cheese

Here’s the magic! mmmmm cheese! Use whatever cheese you like that melts well. If you have not already discovered this, not all cheese melts. Weird, I know. I recommend American, cheddar, fontina, colby, or monterey jack.

cheese sauce

Step 5: Salt

So now you have a beautiful cheese sauce. I can’t understate the importance of salt. Pasta needs way more salt than you would think. Salt. Taste. Salt. Taste again. Err on the side of a bit too salty, since you’ll be adding the pasta later.

mac6

Step 6: Mix

The only thing left to do is mix it all together. Add your beautiful sauce to 1 lb. of cooked pasta. I added broccoli at this point for extra credit. Plus, it a bit healthier. Cheers!

What's this all about?

Feeding yourself in some kind of sane fashion is a challenge, especially if you're only cooking for one or two. My mantra is to use as few ingredients, pots, pans, and utensils as possible. The vast majority of these meals will be weeknight wonders, taking between ten and twenty minutes. I subscribe to Organics to You’s box ‘O wonderfulness. If you also subscribe, we’ll likely have the same stuff in our fridges to work with.

I live in Portland, OR (the finest city on earth) and do interface design consulting.

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