5.5 weeks just the kids and me.

1 week on vacation.

1 week celebrating my baby’s first birthday.

That’s a lot of days doing very little cooking. It’s no surprise my scheduled posts have petered out and there wasn’t much to pull from the archives to share.

The moment has finally come to share a poorly photographed original recipe.

I made this Mac & Cheese just shy of one year ago. At that point in my life I had a two week old. Daylight Savings Time had ended and the dark Ohio nights were cold. What’s a better pick-me-up than some macaroni?

I decided to save another dish to wash by making my macaroni in a Dutch oven and putting it directly into the oven instead of transferring it to a casserole dish.

Wing-it Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb elbow noodles
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 sweet onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1/4 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 C whole milk, at room temperature
• 2 1/4 C shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 C panko breadcrumbs
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
• olive oil, for drizzling

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cook pasta in boiling salted water according to package instructions to al dente.
3. Heat vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Saute onion until tender. Add minced garlic and saute one minute. Stir in mustard, S+P, and flour.
4. Whisk in the milk. Bring to a gentle bubble. Add in the cheese a handful at a time, stirring until melted before adding more. Once all the cheese is incorporated, fold in the cooked macaroni noodles.
5. In a small bowl, whisk the panko and Italian seasoning. Spread over the macaroni. Drizzle with a little olive oil.
6. Bake 30 minutes. Allow macaroni to rest 5-10 minutes before digging in.