Ingredients for Mitchell Family’s Homemade Baked Mac and Cheese
By Danyelle Jackson ’21
Ohio University
Time, time and even more time. That seems to be the one thing all of us have too much of right now and have no idea what to do with.
During this quarantine I have spent my time working on my online classes, watching hours of Tik Tok, and watching various YouTube tutorials trying to discover my new hobby. Yet even with the endless amount of things that it seems I can fill my time with, I still constantly get bored.
One passion that I do have is cooking. I feel like food can tell a story and open up a world to various cultures. Whether it is Jamaican, Italian, or Ethiopian food, you get a completely different experience when eating each dish. There is always something unique about each, but I will have to say my all-time favorite type of food is southern soul food. Whenever I eat it, I feel as though I am truly experiencing warmth, love, and history as many of the recipes for these dishes have been passed down for generations.
With Easter coming up, I wanted to spend some of my time creating one of my favorite soul food dishes, macaroni and cheese. Since I was a little girl, anytime my mom, grandmother or aunt made mac and cheese I would instantly get so excited. I honestly can say that for me no dish can match homemade mac and cheese. I knew that I would be ecstatic the day that I would be able to make it myself. Here are the steps that I took to make this dish.
The noodles: The first thing I did was take a box of macaroni noodles and placed them in a medium size pot. I filled the pot about half way with cold water and added a teaspoon of olive oil and salt. After that I let the water come to a boil while stirring the noodles throughout the process. You want to let the noodles cook until they are al dente, which basically means that the noodles are cooked but still a little firm in the middle. You want to do this because the noodles will be cooked further when they are baking in the oven.
The sauce: While the noodles are boiling, you also want to make your cheese sauce for the macaroni and cheese. In another medium size pot on medium heat, I added 1 pint of half and half, a few tablespoons of seasoning salt, garlic powder, garlic salt and garlic pepper. You can add or subtract the amount of seasoning depending on how seasoned you would like the macaroni. Next I added 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of butter and ½ cup of sour cream to my sauce. Finally I added 4 cups of shredded cheese. You can use whatever cheeses you prefer. I added monterey jack, smoked cheddar cheese, mozzarella, and gouda cheese. You want to stir the mixture continuously until the cheese is fully melted.
Once my cheese mixture and noodles were done, I turned my oven to 350 degrees.
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