Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

Comfort food was in order around our house this week. You see we've all had a case of "the bug". At first we thought it was food poisoning, yuck, but now we're not sure what it was because three days later Audrey is still sick. Whatever you want to call it, it has been no fun and I'm hoping today is the last day of it.

Anyway, we needed comfort food and what says comfort food more than homemade macaroni and cheese? Today we made it in it's most basic version, just the macaroni and cheese sauce, but often times we'll fancy it up by throwing in some meat or vegetable. And by meat I mean bacon. Obviously.

This is one of those recipes I have down pat. I love that I never have to look it up and it can be ready in under half of a hour, all I have to remember is "two". Two tablespoons butter, two tablespoons flour, two cups of whole milk. Pretty easy, right?


Creamy Macaroni and Cheese

2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp powdered mustard
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper
2 cups grated cheddar cheese (today I used half white cheddar and half yellow cheddar)
3 to 4 cups macaroni (measured dry and depending on how creamy you want your macaroni and cheese, I usually stick closer to the three cups because the sauce thickens so much as it cools)

In a large pot of salted boiling water cook macaroni until al dente.

In a large sauce pan, I use our dutch oven, over medium-low heat melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and let cook for one minute. Add the milk whisking often. Add the mustard and garlic. Continue cooking over medium-low heat whisking or stirring very often until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. You want to keep the heat low so that the sauce just barely simmers, you don't want it to come to a boil.

Turn off the heat and add the cheese in two batches. Stirring in each batch of cheese until completely melted. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add macaroni to cheese sauce and stir to coat macaroni.

Serve and enjoy!

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