Christmas Cooking- Macaroni and Cheese

One thing I left out of my holiday "spewing" yesterday was my expedition in holiday cooking!  On Christmas day, the family decided to cook a traditional holiday dinner complete with turkey, bread, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese, and birthday cake for Jesus!  Apparently I'm a big girl now, and we have to help actually cook the food if we want to eat something!  Dad did the turkey, but Mom and I were in charge of the rest.  Luckily I had a visitor, one of my best (and life-long) friends, Emily, stop by to chat, and I recruited her to help with my Mac and Cheese.  I had done my best googling to find the perfect recipe (aka one that didn't look too complicated and that we had all the ingredients for), and we got to work!  Well, a pan of burnt butter and lots of laughs later, we managed to whip up a mean mac and cheese, so I thought I'd share the recipe with all of you- not too hard and very yummy!

Classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Prep: 15 min., Cook: 7 min., Bake: 20 min., Stand: 10 min.

For more tasty mac and cheese recipes, see our complete Macaroni and Cheese recipe collection.)

Yield: Makes 2 to 3 main-dish or 4 to 6 side-dish servings

Ingredients

• 1  (8-oz.) package elbow macaroni
• 2  tablespoons  butter
• 2  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
• 2  cups  milk
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/2  teaspoon  fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4  teaspoon  ground red pepper (I left this one out)
• 1  (8-oz.) block sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded and divided

Preparation

1. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Keep warm.
2. Melt butter in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-low heat; whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook, whisking constantly, 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in salt, black and red pepper, 1 cup shredded cheese, and cooked pasta.
3. Spoon pasta mixture into a lightly greased 2-qt. baking dish; top with remaining 1 cup cheese.
4. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Note: For testing purposes only, we used Kraft Sharp Cheddar Cheese. To lighten, 2% reduced-fat milk and reduced-fat cheese may be substituted.
One-Pot Macaroni and Cheese: Prepare recipe as directed, stirring all grated Cheddar cheese into thickened milk mixture until melted. Add cooked pasta, and serve immediately. Prep: 10 min., Cook: 7 min.

Stewart Gordon, Charleston, South Carolina, Southern Living, FEBRUARY 2007

Find the recipe here.

I also tried my hand at deviled eggs.. it all turned out great despite my experimentation!  What can I say, I'm a Martha in the making, huh?