Mac and Cheese...and some chicken and stuff

I mean, really, I feel sorry for any food served with mac and cheese. There's just no comparison, and the mac and cheese is always gonna be the popular kid on the dinner plate. I have attempted homemade mac and cheese before, and it was ok, but not amazing. So I had to try again. This time, I tried a recipe from the amazing blog of Pioneer Woman. If you haven't heard of her, you should check out her blog. She's pretty stinkin hilarious, and does a lot of stuff that I consider interesting and/or fun. Part of her blog is cooking. And I adapted her recipe for mac and cheese. And it turned out way better than last time. My husband, after an intense inner struggle between self control and gluttony, had seconds. A lot of seconds. Haha. I had seconds as well...which is pretty atypical for me. Oh, and we also had some grilled chicken and some mixed veggies. Meh, whatever.

Now on to the good stuff. I mean, the mac and cheese. :)

Ingredients:
-pasta-short curvy noodles of some sort. I used rotini, but regular elbow macaroni is great too. I used a 16 oz box, PW uses 4 cups. Use what you got.
-1/4 cup butter
-1/4 cup flour
-2.5 cups whole milk (I actually used 1 cup heavy cream and 1.5 cups 2% milk)
-1 egg
-1 lb cheese, grated-use whatever you want. I used mostly cheddar with just a little bit of fontina and asiago.
-1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
-1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt, more to taste
-1/2 teaspoon black pepper
-any spices you particularly like in mac and cheese, to taste

Chicken breasts, grilled after being seasoned with poultry seasoning, and frozen mixed veggies shared the plate with our mac and cheese.

Directions:
Boil a large pot of water. Cook the pasta until just underdone, still slightly to firm to eat. Drain and set aside.

In a small bowl, beat the egg, and set aside.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium low heat. Whisk in the flour, making a roux. Cook it for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add in the milk/cream/whatever you're using, and mix well. Cook it until it's thickened up a good bit, about 5 minutes or so. Reduce the heat to low.

Take 1/4 cup of the sauce and add it slowly to the egg. Whisk it until it is all incorporated. This is tempering the egg. Adding the egg directly to the sauce will cause it to cook and scramble. Not desirable in mac and cheese. Adding the sauce to the egg allows it to more gradually heat up so it's not cooking.

Once the egg has been tempered, add the egg and sauce mixture to the sauce, and stir it in immediately. Let it get well incorporated. Then, add in all that glorious cheese, minus about 1/4-1/2 cup reserved for the top. Let the cheese melt into the sauce. Mmm. Add in the salts and pepper. Add more if it's not seasoned enough. Make sure you get enough salt in there. You don't want bland mac and cheese.

Pour in the drained pasta, and stir to coat every.single.noodle with the yummy cheesy goodness. You can serve it at this point for an ultra creamy mac and cheese, or...you can bake it. Pour it into a baking dish (buttered, of course), sprinkle with the reserved cheese, and bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes, or until everything is melted and gooey and bubbly and amazing. I baked mine. Serve it with...that stuff you'll forget is on your plate...and enjoy! Yummmm.