Macaroni and Cheese

I love comfort food....I love food in general. But every fall, there are several dishes I make every year. Macaroni and Cheese just happens to be one of them. My boyfriend's dad just retired and they decided to have a bonfire for family and friends to celebrate. Everyone brought a dish to pass and so I opted to make the macaroni and cheese because several others said they would make cupcakes. Which is fine because at the end of the night, there wasn't a crumb left. You can use any old cheeses you have sitting in the fridge with this recipe. Some of the combos I've used were gruyere and emmental, parmesan and asiago but for his get together, I used cabot sharp white cheddar and extra sharp cheddar. You can use those bag cheeses but seriously, spend the money on good cheese instead of gross processed cheese you will notice a huge difference. I make quick work of the shredding by using my grater disk attachment for my food processor. This Macaroni and Cheese beats anything you'll find in a box. I altered this recipe a touch from gourmet magazine.

20 servings

Topping
1/2 stick butter
1-3/4 Cups Panko bread crumbs
1/4 Cup Extra Sharp Cheddar
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Sauce
1 Stick butter
6 Tbsp Flour
5 cups whole milk
6 cups cheese
1/2 cup parmesan
1 lb box elbow macaroni

Preheat oven to 400
Melt butter Stir together with panko and topping cheeses in a bowl set aside.

Sauce:
Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium low heat and stir in flour Cook the roux about 3 minutes and whisk in milk. ( I make this in a 5 1/2 qt dutch oven ) Bring sauce to a boil whisking constantly then simmer stirring occasionally 3 minutes....Don't leave this alone, because you will scald the milk on the bottom of the pan. Stir in cheeses 2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper until smooth remove from heat.

Cook your macaroni and drain stir together with the cheese and put in greased 9x13 pan. Put on top rack of your oven. On the lower rack, put a cookie sheet otherwise, you will have your oven smoking because this baby will over flow. Sprinkle topping evenly over macaroni and bake for 20-25 minutes.