And this, my friends, is why I cook....

My family has gone thru alot of changes....we have added a few children (We have become a family of 8 now!), made some friends, and lost some friends thru the years....

I like to expirement with foods, but have VERY picky people eating which makes the fun challenging....so my rule used to be "you eat what's on your plate, or else"  But I have changed that to "you at least have to TRY what I make, and if you don't like it, there are leftovers or a pb&j.

Cooking, for me, is kinda like a retreat...I like to expirement, as I said before, and I like to create.  If I find a new recipie that the kids like, it becomes one I make often.  Some examples are Hamburger and peas, short cut chicken cordon blue, pork lo mein. (stories to follow!)

One of the recipies I like to make, and has become a staple in  my house is Mac and Cheese.  When I was a kid, my mom made this AMAZING mac and cheese cassarole...but no matter how hard I would try, I could NEVER duplicate it...So I played around with my recipie, and came up with this....Now, you can take out what you don't like, but here's my sure hit.

Mac N Cheese

What you need:

• 1-32 ounce box of Elbow noodles (and really, you can use whatever kinda noodle you want, I have used wagon wheels, farfelli, and rotini)
• 3-8 oz packages of your favorite shredded cheese (usual favorites here are mozerella, white and yellow cheddar and Colby Jack)
• Milk and Butter (I never measure, just pour)
• 2 tps of minced garglic (the kind you get in the jar you keep in the fridge) or if none available, Garglic powder works (but the minced is best)
• Salt and Pepper, to taste.

What to do:

1. I boil the noodles with salt and the garglic.....
2. If adding meat, I cook/fry it up while I am waiting for the noodles.
3. Then combine the drained noodles, meat, and cheese with about a stick of butter and I pour milk over, and stir....if it seems sticky (cheese isn't melting like it should) add more milk.
4. Now, here is where I determine, time-wise what to do next.  Sometimes I serve from the pan.  Other times, I pour into a gently sprayed pan, add cheese and breadcrumbs and put in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Yummy!

Variations:  Add some pepperoni or bacon with white cheddar cheese or ham or hot dogs with yellow cheddar.  Hamburger is another good mix-in, but WELL drained!

This recipie is a HUGE hit with my family and I make it for birthday parties (like the one we just had last weekend, for Cj, my youngest, I made 4 big pans of it, one with pepperoni, ham, hotdogs and one plain.)