Saturday, December 11, 2010

savory saturday: macaroni&cheese (&squash&beer bread)

Last weekend it started snowing. A lot. And suddenly I wanted nothing more than to burrow into the couch with a blanket and a fully belly. So I whipped up my very favorite childhood comfort food (yes, I did need to call my mother for guidance): what we used to call "real" macaroni and cheese!

Ingredients:

1/4 c butter
1/4 c flour
milk
sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

In the beginning, there was (1/4 c) butter, melted at the bottom of a large pot.

Then, there was (1/4 c) flour (or perhaps a little more if you like your sauce thick, like me), mixed into the butter to make a roux.

Then, there was skim milk, added slowly but surely to the roux (and I was stirring all the while).

And then there was cheese. Sharp, cheesy cheddar.

And lots of it. I put in as much as I damn well pleased (~1 lb).

I cooked up a big pot of elbow macaroni, drained it, and mixed everything together. Yum! As long as you attend to the roux, this is pretty easy and very delicious. For a side dish, I baked butternut squash and a hearty beer bread:

Ingredients:

3 cups flour (sifted)
1/4 c sugar
3 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 12-oz bottle of beer

Directions:

First there were dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Then, the fun part--beer!

I picked Guinness because I thought it would give the batter a nice creamy consistency.

I watched the batter toil and trouble (and bubble), then stirred it all together and poured into a non-stick bread pan and baked it at 375 for ~1 hour (the time is an approximation because K turned off the oven while the bread was baking, assuming I had been my absent-minded self and forgotten to shut it down after baking my squash):

I think it turned out rather well! The flavor of the beer is very faint, but I'm very curious to try pumpkin beer bread and perhaps other interesting flavors! I spread apple butter on top--it was delicious!

I also finished another puzzle last weekend. Man, am I good or what?
:)

4 comments:

  1. Looks like a cookfest! The recipe for the macaroni and cheese looks really simple. Would have to try that for a quickie meal soon.
    And I'd never heard of beer bread till now. Looks yum. Nothing like homemade bread really.
    Now this post has me all hungry. I'm making lasagna, but its not baking fast enough.

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  2. YUM! My mum makes really good homemade mac n cheese too, but I think yours looks easier, I might give this recipe a try this week!! Thanks for sharing. (even though you've made me crave cheese!)

    xoxo, Ashley

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  3. I make mac and cheese almost the same. PLUS I have a big ol brick of Cabot. Except we always end up with the dangerously sharpe. Never tried the racer's edge tho... INTERESTING!!!
    I also put less cheese in but i am so tempted each time to put more then i remember that i don't have a gym membership and im a lazy ass... ok i REALLY want some mac n cheese now. Possibly doing that tonight for dinner... (also that + tomato and onion diced up... baked with bread crumbs on top... MMMMMMM ok nuff talk about cheese.

    (P.S. I hope you got the hat you bought from me!)

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  4. mmmmmmmm... beer bread - So yummie. I love how you write those instructions :)

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