Southern Comfort Macaroni and Cheese

Thanksgiving is next week and I still have more amazing recipes for you!  I could not leave out the mother of all comfort food: MACARONI & CHEESE!!! My recipe is a combination of my mothers recipe and a couple of other recipes that I combined together to come up with the most flavorful, cheesy ,buttery,, saucy, tasty, delectable macaroni and cheese ever! 

My mother is more of a traditionalist and uses only cheddar and Monterrey jack, but I think the addition of the other cheeses adds a nice balance of complex flavor notes.

This is an easy and extremely tasty take on macaroni and cheese. This is one of those dishes, where I don't usually measure precisely, but I have come up with some approximations that should help you achieve a similar result. This is not a firm solid mac n cheese and has a creamy texture  due to the absence of eggs.  It does develop a firm texture after it has been refrigerated, but will be creamy, cheesy and delicious, each time it is reheated.

My technique is to allow all of the white cheeses to blend into a creamy sauce and then put layer upon layer of cheddar cheese. As the macaroni bakes and the cheddar melts into the white cheese sauce, it is quite special. To ensure that it doesn't dry out, I pour approximately a can of pet milk over the whole thing before I bake it, but it is important to make sure you have plenty of shredded cheddar to soak up the liquid, or your macaroni might be too soupy. You might need a little more than two cups of shredded cheese.

Everything is better with butter!

Ingredients

1 pound elbow macaroni

1 ounce shredded Romano cheese

1 1/2 cups half and half

1/2 cup butter plus 1 tablespoon butter

2 cups or more of shredded mild or medium cheddar cheese

1/2 cup shredded Muenster cheese

1/2 cup smoked Gouda cheese

1/2 cup Monterrey jack cheese

1/2 cup Gruyere

1 can pet milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees  F. Lightly butter a deep 2 1/2 quart casserole dish. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and then add macaroni and cook for 7 minutes. Do not overcook the macaroni. Melt the half cup butter and pour warm macaroni into a bowl. Stir in the  Romano, Muenster, Gouda, Monterrey Jack  Gruyere and half in half. The warm macaroni should melt the cheeses and make the macaroni creamy.


Begin adding a layer of the macaroni mixture and a layer of shredded cheddar. . Layer until you have used up all of the macaroni and cheese. Moisten by pouring approximately 1/2 to 1 can of pet milk over the top and through the layers. cover the top with a generous amount of shredded cheddar. and dots of  the remaining butter.


Bake for 30-35 minute until hot and bubbly and top is slightly golden brown.