Abstract:

One pot, stove top macaroni and cheese. If you've got kids, I reckon you're all too familiar with this [side]dish. You might even be to the point where you're content to roll with the stuff in the blue box; or if you have a coupon and you're feeling like some serious "haute cuisine", maybe you're buying that mix with the "cheese" sauce in the pouch. ;-p



But hey, I'm not here to judge; I'm here to help. Making mac and cheese on the stove from scratch is downright simple, but like most good comfort food, easy doesn't mean lazy. By paying attention to weights and measures and being mindful of ingredients, the next bowl of mac and cheese you whip up for your kids might actually be one you don't mind eating yourself.

Purpose:

Stove top macaroni and cheese done right is the form of comfort food. Granted, nothing here is rocket surgery; but I gotta tell ya, I really think that this everyday dish doesn't get its propers because of its simplicity. Too often, this basic sauced pasta gets pigeonholed with what comes boxed with the "magic orange mystery powder," as neither require any time in a casserole dish at 350F. Hogwash, I say. Mac and cheese made on the range can be every bit as tasty, and some might say even better than baked macaroni and cheese; and the only thing difficult about it is getting out of that lazy cook mindset. Why is it that when people fix the baked variant of cheese and elbows that they spend the extra time to measure, but are content to just dump it into the pot and pray when it comes to a one-pot method? If you can be bothered to pay attention to what you're doing, and give the same kind of love to the stove as what's given to the oven, I bet you'll too find that there is beauty in simplicity.