Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Slightly Tipsy Mac and Cheese with Peas

The alternate title for this post could have been: What I Made for Dinner When I Came Home From the Hospital Way Too Hungry and Hadn't Planned Better.

But that was sort of long.

It all started with fondue cheese. You see, I got chosen to receive some cheese tools from Boska for review (not for this blog, although I might talk about one or two, anyway) and in order to properly test the tools, I got cheese from Emmi that I could use with those tools. Good deal, right?

I like cheese. It's good for snacking and sandwiches and more snacking ... and salads and snacking ...

Among the wedges and bricks and wheels, I had this package of fondue cheese from Emmi staring at me. The idea is that it's got everything you need, so you just heat it up and start dipping bread in. But it's just under a pound of cheese, and I'm living alone while my husband is in the hospital.

So when I came home late from the hospital, I thought it was time to do something with that cheese. But I wasn't in a fondue mood. Comfort food, on the other hand, sounded really good. Since the fondue cheese was formulated to melt smoothly, I figured it would make good mac and cheese.

Yep, I'm wild and crazy, right?

Since the cheese includes a bit of alcohol (as you would if you were making your own fondue recipe) the mac and cheese had a slightly "adult" flavor. Not overpowering, though.

I didn't measure any of this, but it's so simple ... and it tasted pretty good.

I used:

Elbow Macaroni
Emmi Fondue Cheese
Milk
Frozen Peas

I cooked the macaroni in boiling salted water until it was done (a little al dente), then drained it and added some of the fondue cheese, let it melt, and added a bit more until it was cheesy enough. Then I added milk to make it creamy enough. Your idea of cheesy enough and creamy enough might be different than mine, but that's fine, too.

Then I added a couple hand fulls of the frozen peas and mixed them in - not too long on the stove, because I like them best when they're still crisp.

And that's it. The only thing that took any time was cooking the noodles - once they were done, it was a minute or two to finish it.

I don't know if I'd buy the fondue cheese just to make mac and cheese, but if I had leftover cheese from fondue, this is a great way to use it up.

I used the original fondue cheese but there's also a Gorgonzola one - I'm thinking that would also make a good mac and cheese, or maybe a sauce ... for steak, maybe?

By the way, this reheats well, but it needed just a little extra milk to get the sauce creamy again.

    
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