Meta Mac and Cheese

So let's say maybe there was alcohol involved or something? And I decided to make macaroni and cheese at 12 am.
And blog about it.

So le boyfriend has been on vacation for fourish days now, I've been avoiding writing anything for even longer, and my sleeping patterns are woefully off. So I'm awake, hungry from only eating one meal yesterday (lupper? I didn't wake up till noon and didn't eat till 3), and feeling slightly lonesome and lots of silly, and I make macaroni and cheese.  The boxed kind, Annie's Bunny Pasta with Yummy Cheese. Yep, because I'm an adult, and that's what adults eat. But seriously, it is delicious and adorable. Yummy fo sho.

So anyway, this boxed mac and cheese made me think about the AMAZING bleu mac and cheese I had at Bistro Byronz last weekend wif my moms. I can't even talk about it right now, but it was rotinni with this bleu cheese sauce that just blew my mind. It was out of control.

So at this point, I'm having like...mac and cheese nostalgia. So I start looking up recipes (like how all my sentences start with "So..."?). And I find one that sounds REAL nice on allrecipes.com. So I decide to make that recipe, just with a few twists.

I didn't have elbow pasta, cubed ham, or the specific cheeses she said, so I just used what I had:  rotinni (which I was kinda hankerin for already, anyway), a little extra everything else instead of ham, and some Italian cheese blends and "American" (Monterrey Jack, Colby, Cheddar, etc.) blends that I had leftover from when I bought WAY too much cheese for this delicious potato casserole recipe my mom sent me which I kind of wish I had blogged about because I KNOW it was awesome, and I haven't actually eaten this mac and cheese yet at the moment I am writing these words.

That, my friends, is what we call a "run-on sentence."

So anyway. Here's the recipe I ended up using (just a slight variation of the one from allrecipes.com):

• 1 (12 oz) package of rotinni
• 6 tbsp. butter
• 5 heaping tbsp. whole wheat flour
• 5 cu. warm milk (I use fat free organic, but I'm sure whole milk or cream would be heavenly)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 3 oz. Shurefine brand shredded Italian blend (mozzarella, provolone, parmasean, asiago, fontina, and romano -- yum!)
• 5 oz., plus one 8 oz. bag (to sprinkle on top) Kraft Classic Melts 4 Cheese shredded blend (American, sharp cheddar, white cheddar, monterey jack)

From there, I pretty much followed her directions, to the best of my ability:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a big ass Pyrex pan -- I'm not sure what size mine is exactly but I'd guess 9"x13", kind of oval shaped. Boil a pot of water (I generally just fill mine up about 3/4 of the way but I'm sure following the directions on the pasta package would be a good plan, too :)) and add pasta. Add pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until desired tenderness/firmness is achieved. Drain pasta and place in greased baking dish.
2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter and whisk in flour gradually to make a roux. (Pictures did not occur to me until later in this process, sorry guys.)  Cook for a few minutes on low to medium heat, then gradually add warm milk (so it doesn't curdle) little by little to make a white (or light brown, if you're using whole wheat flour like me) sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer. Add spices and stir till sauce thickens (You may notice I used various different spices in small amounts -- I like mine spicy, and I used the same spices I used when I make chicken and dumplings. You could use whatever sounds good to you, I'm sure. I actually wish mine would have been spicier -- some Tony Chachere's would not hurt it a bit).
3. Remove pan from heat and stir in first 8 oz of cheeses gradually. Pour over pasta in dish and stir to evenly distribute sauce and fill pan. Like so:

 (Incidentally, I got this app on my phone that's suppost to make your pictures look cool automatically, and I was trying it out during this process. Evidently, it kind of sucked. Or I was a little sloppy.)

4.  Then you put 8 oz. of cheese on top. I kind of wished I had used more, believe it or not, because it got kind of thin after it cooked. And it was the best part, you know.

I put a little paprika on top (the original recipe said to do it in a "design", which sounded like a good idea at the time), but I think it ended up looking like an anchor, or maybe a swastika...

And then I baked it for 35 minutes at 350. And then it looked like this, so I figured it was done:

And then I got my first piece, and I was feeling picture-happy:

Yum, right?!

Right! It was good, but I do think it would have been way better with a little more spice and some ham in it. But very enjoyable and certainly satisfied my craving.

Which made me think about why I was spending an hour in the middle of the night, carefully making a roux and gently whisking warm milk. Andy can tell you that I never cook, and this is actually the second time this week I've painstakingly made some comfort food.

(**UPDATE**:  Tony's and extra cheese HELPED. nomgggasdf.)

I think these are the lengths I go to to avoid writing. I don't know why it's so so intimidating for me to just get started, but I wrote a sentence this evening and I felt accomplished. I'm not even a very good cook -- I never follow the recipes like I should and it doesn't always work out well -- but I was being extra super careful to make sure everything was delicious.

And then I decided to blog about it (sorry if I'm getting a little meta here...), to further delay any actual writing. WTF? Right after that crazyface post about being fat, amiright?

Anyway, all I'm saying is that I feel ridiculous right now.