Homemade Mac&Cheese for Grown-Ups and other things

Today is going to be a GREAT day! 


There are so many things going on today, such as:
-Getting our christmas tree!
-Giving Dillon a massage
-LOOKING AT THE HOUSE!!! I am sooo excited, I really hope that the well and septic checks out so that we can move forth and see about prices and if we can afford it. :) 
It is such a cute house, a two story, 3 bed 2 bath on 6.2 acres.  Please?  I love that its far from town, and out in the woods.  I like that we could go out on our porch and wouldnt hear our neighbors talking.  That is one thing that I dont like about living in town.  I can always hear both our neighbors talking, yelling, slamming doors. UGH.  And I hate listening to them start that annoying jeep every morning, its obnoxiously loud.  I just want to live in the woods away from everyone. Is that crazy? 

But yesterday was a nice peacful day as well, I started on my obnoxious laundry pile, most of the clothes are things that need to be handwashed, which I think is on my list of things this morning, since I need to clean the clothes that we are going to wear on Saturday when we take our engagement pictures in Jacksonville.  But I also made some delicious Oatmeal Raisin cookies. YUM.  It was delicious. :) 

Last night I was going to take pictures while I was making my version of Mac&Cheese , but my camera was dead and I didnt feel like trying to take pictures with my old fashioned and then have to develop them.  So it will just have to happen another time.

But this mac&cheese was phenomenal.  It was filled with Fontina, Guryere, Extra Sharp Chedder and Bacon.  All melted together with heavy cream and some milk. 

I guess I'll share the recipe :)

Homemade Mac&Cheese for Grown-Ups

Ingredients:
1 lb of Cellentani pasta.
3-5 oz of gruyere, fontina, and sharp white chedder, shredded.
1 lb of bacon, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp garlic ( if you want )
1 tsp salt, depending on taste more or less.
bacon drippings
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
few handfuls of Italian Breadcrumbs




Preheat oven to 350

Start water for the noodles, add some salt and get those going.

In a separate frying pan, cook your bacon to a decent crisp, but not sooo crispy that they taste burnt.

While your waiting for the bacon and the noodles to finish, its time to shred that cheese, and it takes some time, this is when I call Jerrod back into the kitchen to help! Once shredded, set aside

Once the noodles are al dente, which means that they still have some firmness but not crunchy,  drain and let sit in strainer untill we're ready for them.

So your bacon should be about done, scoop the bacon out and let them drain on a paper towel, but dont get rid of the drippings, we'll be using them in a few min.

Take the pot that you cooked your noodles in, and place back on medium heat and put the butter and bacon drippings in and get it all melted.  Once its all melted, add the flour and whisk the 'roux' and let it cook for about 10 min.  we want it to go from a whitish color, to a nice tan.  While your wisking you can add some black pepper and some salt.  Once the roux has thickened and turned to a nice light brown, add the heavy cream.  Keep whisking! Its important! 

Now add the mustard, white pepper, and salt.  I added some garlic to it, but thats just me.  Taste and see how it is.  If decent add the cheese.  And once thats all mixed up, add the noodles and stir it up.  Taste. If it works for you, good. If not fix it. :) 

Once it tastes good, stir in 1/2 of the bacon.  Now pour this delicious cheesy mixture into a 9X13X2 glass pan.  Sprinkle the remaining bacon on top and the breadcrumbs on top. 

Throw it into the oven and cook for about 30 min. 

Dig in! We made this during the summer, and it was even better with fresh tomato, but since its winter now we didnt have any. Still great though!

Enjoy!
xoxo f&a