As a college student, I don’t do much real cooking. I mostly eat frozen vegetable gyoza from Trader Joes or I make stir fry by putting frozen vegetables over rice and adding some General Tso’s. Cooking is just part of being an adult, although it’s a part that I deliberately try to avoid. It’s not that I hate cooking, it’s just that I’m pretty bad at it. Once my roommate and I attempted making pancakes and accidentally ruined the pan by burning them. Despite my lack of cooking skills, I decided that I was going to have to get good at it at some point. And thus, I used an article to hold me to that so here we are. I am forced to cook and you get a recipe.
This is my great-grandmother’s mac and cheese recipe. Growing up my dad would make this all the time. It was always a hit at any potluck or barbeque.
Ingredients
- One lb. macaroni
- One lb. sharp cheddar
- Two eggs
- Cup of milk
- A quarter cup of flour
- Teaspoon paprika
- Tablespoon mustard powder
- Teaspoon salt
- Teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Cook macaroni.
- Whisk milk and eggs.
- Shred cheese and sprinkle 2/3 of it with flour.
- Mix floured cheese with cooked and drained macaroni.
- Add paprika, mustard powder, salt and pepper and mix some more.
- Add whisked milk and egg mixture.
- Cook at 350°F for 40 minutes.
- Top with remaining cheese and cook an additional five minutes.
It seemed simple enough and so I began. I started by cooking the noodles. As they sat on the stove, I measured out the ingredients, grated the cheese and strategically posed everything for the photo above. Once that was all done, I moved on to “whisking” the egg and milk.
I didn’t have a whisk so I had to use a fork to do this. Next, I mixed the cheese and flour. “The flour is so that the cheese doesn’t stick together,” my dad kindly informed me in a FaceTime call. And so, I mixed.
This was a bit challenging for me since I only had one mixing bowl and it was currently filled. I had to mix the flour and cheese in a bowl that was entirely too small to be mixing that much flour and cheese. It started escaping the bowl.
I then added the flour and cheese mixture to the noodles, which were now back in the pot that they were cooked in since I had to mix the egg and milk in that bowl (not having kitchen supplied makes this hard). After the flour and cheese mixture was mixed in, I added the paprika, mustard powder, salt and black pepper.
I soon became worried, as the paprika wasn’t mixing as well as I had initially expected. I continued to stir and everything was fine. I was just dramatic, apparently. Once this was taken care of, the wet ingredients were added and I poured the mac and cheese into a pan greased with butter.
Of course, this was the point in which I remembered to preheat the oven so I set it to 350°F and waited. Finally, it was time to pop that bad boy into the oven.
At this point, I was starving but I had to wait for 40 minutes until it was ready for cheese. This was rough for me and I’m not going to lie, I did snack a little bit.
Eventually, the timer rang and I added some extra cheese on top. It went back into the oven and came out five minutes later crispy and cheesy.
Tada!
Taste Test
Overall, this mac and cheese is incredible. The mustard powder and paprika add flavors that you wouldn’t initially expect. The crispy corner pieces add a crunch that isn’t typical of mac and cheese. It’s truly unique!
It isn’t hard to mess up mac and cheese, thankfully. I had fun making this recipe and I’m one step closer to becoming a true adult!
All images courtesy of Emily Schutz.
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