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Here's something I whipped up by accident. I was thinking of making macaroni and cheese, but we had none of the usual ingredients. So here's what became of my mac-n-cheese.
(I presume you know how to make Mac and Cheese from scratch. If you don't, this may not make a lot of sense. Go ahead. Click through and read that. It's not long. I'll still be here when you're done.
There. That wasn't too hard, was it. Now you've had experience, which is what you learn from, which means you now are qualified to start tackling the rest of these recipes. Including the celestialization that follows.
So take your basic scratch macaroni-and-cheese process, and make the following substitutions.)
macaroni -> spaghetti
ham -> chicken breast, diced and pan-fried to brown with a little cajun seasoning
cheddar cheese -> gouda
a dash of paprika -> 1 T or more dry Italian herb mix (don't be chintzy) and some garlic
Your salt, pepper, flour, butter, milk are unchanged. Maybe use a little less salt and pepper. But I did say butter, and butter's what I meant. If you use margarine for this, I will hunt you down and punch you in your cheap, tasteless kidneys.
The detailed version of this recipe:
Do not dice ham to add to your mac-n-cheese. You haven't got any. Dice chicken breast and pan-fry it with minimal oil or butter and just a trace of cajun seasoning. Then with the fat in the pan, plus some butter and an equal amount of flour, make a nice roux, and remove it from the fire as soon as all the flour has gotten hot.
Do not shred cheddar cheese to add to your mac-n-cheese. You haven't got any. Dice Gouda.
Do not get out the paprika to sprinkle on your mac-n-cheese. You haven't got any. Mince a clove or two of garlic and throw on a generous tablespoon, maybe a tablespoon and a half, of mixed Italian herbs.
The above can actually be done well in advance if you want; throw it all in a fridge container and put it ... in the fridge (duh). If you haven't got any fridge containers, you're on your own.
Do not boil macaroni. You haven't got any. Boil spaghetti.
If you did the bit with the fridge, throw all that stuff into a saucepan and heat it just till the roux is again semi-liquid. If you didn't, throw all that stuff into the saucepan with the chicken and the roux, and get it on the fire. Immediately pour on an adequate amount of milk (a cup for each tablespoon of fat in the roux) and heat gently, stirring some, while the sauce thickens. That's right, immediately; don't fry the garlic, it will lose its scrumptious goodness.
Do add a considerable amount of salt till it tastes right. You do have salt, I hope. Also some pepper, but not as much as for normal mac-n-cheese. (I have a pepper grinder that has some allspice and coriander in with the peppercorns. If you do too, use it here.)
Do attempt to be modest as your roommates (you did share, didn't you?) rave about what you cooked to more-or-less strangers on the way to church.
(Do share with your roommates. Unless, of course, you haven't got any. A good rule is, if anybody eats garlic, everybody better eat garlic! Besides, sometimes your roommates will cook back at you, and then you get a good thing going.)
Et voila: Celestialized Mac and Cheese!
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