When you end up cooking Christmas dinner for just your mini family, you make and eat pretty much whatever you want for the holiday. For us this year that meant having spiral ham with baked macaroni and cheese. For me macaroni and cheese is one of my absolutely favorite things from growing up. I’d ask for it for my birthday dinner because what my mom made was SO good. What IMHO made my mom’s mac and cheese superior is the fact she put finely diced onion and ground mustard in the cheese sauce. Plus she’d always use extra sharp Vermont white cheddar cheese. Living in Texas, Vermont cheddar is pretty difficult to come by and expensive. So I chose to use a nice Tillamook sharp cheddar that was light yellow in color.
Mom’s Macaroni and Cheese
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Diced onion
- 2 tbsp Flour
- 1/2 tsp Dry mustard
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black pepper
- 2 cup Milk
- 10 oz Cheddar cheese, cubed
- 3 cup Macaroni
- Melt butter in saucepan. Add onion, flour, mustard, salt and pepper to form a roux.
- Add small amounts of milk to roux until roux dissolves.
- Alternately add cheese and milk until all cheese is melted and smooth cheese sauce forms.
- Meanwhile, cook 3 cups of macaroni until al dente.
- Drain macaroni and mix with melted cheese mixture.
- Pour into grease 9×9 baking dish. Slice thinly cheddar cheese and lay on top of macaroni cheese mixture. Bake at 425 degree for 45 minutes