Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Tina, over at Mom's Crazy Cooking, has invited me to be a part of her first Crazy Cooking Challenge.  This is a new challenge that will allow us all to find a recipe that a fellow blogger has shared with us in Blogland and give it a whirl.  All of you, our readers, will be able to read the posts and vote for your favorite!  How cool is that?  (My post #20...  just sayin')  I'm really excited to see what everyone comes up with -- our theme for this month is one of my most favorite foods ever!  Macaroni And Cheese!  YUM!

I have scoured the blogs to find the ultimate macaroni and cheese recipe and I think I found the perfect one at Ezra Pound Cake!  Macaroni and cheese is a staple at my house and it is almost always made from scratch.  The recipe I found is similar to the way I usually make it -- it starts with a roux -- but it takes it a step further and instead of serving from the stove top as I do, it includes a trip through the oven to take it over the top!  It also uses ground dry mustard which is something I typically avoid.  My husband isn't a mustard fan so I usually just skip it even though every mac&cheese recipe calls for it.  This time, I used it, and he is so glad that I did.  It's wonderful!  So is the blog that I found this recipe on, by the way.  Its author, Rebecca, is so much fun to read and has great recipes to share!

The only modification that I made to Rebecca's recipe is that I doubled the amount of pasta it called for.  And I didn't include the optional hot sauce.  I may do that next time but this time it was for my kiddos so I was nice...

I don't know about you, but anything that starts with this makes me weak in the knees.  Am I the only one?  Sorry, but a plate of extra sharp cheddar shredded to pieces thrills me!

This is a bowl of the seasoning used in the dish.  Yum!  Fresh garlic also makes me happy!

Like I said, this recipe starts with a basic roux -- butter + flour + milk + heat = thick, bubbly white sauce.

I added all of those awesome spices to the thickened white sauce and stirred them in.

And then the cheese!  Not just the cheddar above but also Monterrey Jack and Parmesan.  Sooooo good!

Once it's all mixed together and heated well, it turns into this amazing cheese sauce!  And you can see all of the gorgeous flavor in it from here. 

I mixed that awesome sauce with the cooked pasta and poured it into a buttered casserole dish.

I topped it with some extra cheese and placed it in the oven for 25 minutes.

This is it!  Don't you want to dive right in???

We did!

And did it again!

Be sure to check out the other blogs participating in this cool challenge and don't forget to vote!