"More is Not Always Better" AND a bonus recipe

Last month I attended a Bunco party. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Bunco is a game where people get together once a month to play a game bearing that name involving dice, and to bring a food or dessert dish to share. What I brought was homemade macaroni and cheese. It is something that I have made for years that is relatively quick to make and good tasting.



Everyone at the Bunco party loved my macaroni and cheese and in fact I had many requests for the recipe. One lady, upon asking me about the recipe, asked me how many types of cheeses I had put in, asking me if I used three or four cheeses. When I replied that I only use one type of cheese, I got an incredulous look from her. I almost think she didn't believe me.



As a society hooked on television cooking shows and grocery magazines filled with the latest versions of "new and different recipes", aspiring bakers and cooks have became involved in searching out, creating, and trying new recipes many, if not most, have changed the food by adding more and more ingredients. When the limit of different types of ingredients seems to have been reached, different types of the same ingredient have thus served to create a "new" recipe. Thus, where a basic but good recipe of one type of cheese once existed, its successor now has four different cheeses. The result is not always better, or even good. Often the dish (in this example macaroni and cheese) becomes bland in taste and more complicated to make. As a result there is less interest to cook or bake.



Now I do not wish to downplay creativity or personal taste. What I do recommend, especially with the recipes I provide you, is to make the recipe exactly as stated for the first time. After that if you are creative, go ahead and experiment with changes that suit you. Baking is, and should be, fun. However, keep in mind that sometimes the simplest recipes with the least amount of varieties of ingredients are the best tasting and the easiest to make. And with those results you will want to make more baked goodies as time goes on.



Since my macaroni and cheese dish is baked in the oven for a time, I feel it qualifies itself to be included in this baking blog! Given below is a macaroni and cheese recipe I use which includes one type of cheese...

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

• One 8 oz. package of elbow macaroni
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 2 cups milk
• 8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese (as a block, not pre-shredded)

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water, just until tender. Drain.
3. Grate the cheese and set aside. (Freshly grated cheese tastes much better than the packaged pre-shredded stuff.)
4. Melt butter in a medium saucepan.
5. Into the melted butter stir in the flour, salt, and pepper until blended and smooth.
6. Add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and simmer until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat.
7. Stir into the thickened sauce approximately two-thirds of the cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted.
8. Add the drained macaroni to the sauce and carefully stir. Pour the mixture into a 1 1/2 qt. casserole pan. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top of the mixture.
9. Bake 15 min. Turn on the broiler and brown the top for 5 min. Remove and let cool slightly before serving.
10. Note: This recipe can easily be doubled, which I usually do.

Next Week: A quick and simple Bundt cake