Americana Part 1: Mac and Cheese

Last weekend was a marathon of one of college eating's most essential staples: free food. And (as often happens on weekends when normal routines are broken) when free food was not available, Nugget simply forgot to eat. As a result, we don't have too many cooking adventures to share with you from the last few days. We did, however, kick the weekend off with a dinner party with Domsicle and Grape (the younger-sister-formally-known-as-Grace) on Friday night, which resulted in some truly delicious discoveries. Nugget is going to blog about the super-exciting dessert we made that night (cliffhanger!), but in the meantime, I would like to present:

Broccoli and White Cheddar Mac and Cheese (aka one of our new favorite recipes).

This delicious dinner was remarkably easy to make. The only trick is, when the instructions say "melt butter over medium heat, then whisk in flour and cook," what they mean is "melt the butter but don't let it start bubbling, remove from heat to whisk in flour, then put back on heat to cook - and don't start this process when the water for pasta isn't even boiling yet, because cheese sauce isn't something you want to leave sitting around." Luckily, while this subtext was apparently mysterious to me, Nugget had enough experience with making a roux that she was able to intervene and correct my initial missteps. 

Had I been left to my own devices, the lovely pot of cheesy
goodness would be missing from this picture.
Hooray! Broccoli for dinner!

Thanks to Nugget's help, the final product was my personal favorite of any mac and cheese I've ever tried. I am not a huge mac and cheese fan generally, because I often find it to be overly rich and bland. This recipe seemed to be tailor-made for my tastes. The pepper jack cheese added an extra kick, while the broccoli gave me something to crunch on and lightened the overall impact of the cheesy richness. Grape and I also added a little bit of salsa, a favorite trick that we picked up from campfire mac and cheese at Camp DeBruce (trust me, once you try it, you won't want to go back), but this recipe really had enough flavor to stand alone. And, as an added bonus, the ingredients were dirt cheap! Two thumbs up!

However, while the mac and cheese was certainly a triumph, the real hero of the night was dessert. Read all about it in Nugget's next installment!

Grape and Domsicle, like the Mona Lisa, have a secret.
Their enigmatic smiles hint at the delights of the
exciting dessert post to come...