Recipe: Pardon Me Mac and Cheese

Editor's Note: I will blog sporadically or not at all until Tuesday, July 7 due to OCON and the upcoming holiday. I will probably continue to post daily on X, however.

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Shortly after my son got me to work out a new gumbo recipe (which he indirectly named with his review of my first stab), he got interested in coming up with a family mac-and-cheese recipe.

Viewing this as a side dish, I dragged my feet a little, but then two things happened. First, my son developed an interest in cooking, including wanting to help develop the recipe. Second, my wife got an elaborate recipe for "Jailbird Mac and Cheese" (which is actually a casserole) from one of my sisters-in-law.

Boy! That's a lot of work for a side dish. was my first thought at looking over that recipe, but I decided to make it with my son, since he was interested.

I learned how to make a cheese sauce on the way to helping my son learn a few things about cooking. Also, that name inspired my name for the final result, in mocking tribute to our times. The final recipe fairly closely follows this Chick-fil-A mac-and-cheese knockoff, which I decided to try on our third adventure with mac-and-cheese.

It's still lots of trouble for a side, but this makes enough to freeze multiple servings, balancing things out in the end.

It's not a perfect knockoff, but it's quite good, and having a frozen side dish that everyone likes on hand comes in handy.

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Pardon Me Mac and Cheese

Preparation Time is 1 hour.

Ingredients

elbow macaroni, 1 lb. (3 cups)
butter, 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup
salt, 1 tsp
paprika, 1/4 tsp
milk, 2 cups egg
American cheese, 8 slices
shredded sharp cheddar, 16 oz.
shredded Italian blend cheese, 8 oz.
cooking spray

Directions

1. In parallel with next steps: set water for pasta to boil, add pasta, cook for 20 minutes, drain, and set aside.

2. Mise en place: a 9x13 inch baking dish; a colander; the butter in the pot for the cheese sauce; the flour, salt, and paprika in a bowl; a whisk; a stirring spoon; the milk; the cheeses; the egg; and a small bowl for the egg yolk.

3. Melt the butter at medium heat and whisk in the flour/salt/paprika.

4. Whisk in the milk a little at a time, then continue whisking for a minute or so until it has thickened.

5. Whisk together the egg yolk and a spoonful of the hot milk mixture in the small bowl.

6. Whisk egg yolk mixture into milk mixture.

7. Reduce heat to low.

8. Add to milk mixture: the American cheese (torn into pieces), and one cup each of the cheddar and Italian blend.

9. Stir cheese mixture to melt and combine the cheeses.

10. Add noodles to cheese sauce and combine.

11. Spray baking dish.

12. Place mixture into baking dish.

13. Top mixture with remaining cheddar.

14. Broil under constant observation until cheese just starts to brown.

Notes

1. Overcooking the pasta keeps it from sucking the moisture out of the other ingredients

2. The yield is 16 servings.

3. Freezes/reheats very well.

4. Do not take your eyes off this when it's under the broiler. Once it begins to brown, it can very quickly burn.

-- CAV