Creamy Homemade Mac & Cheese

Mac and cheese has got to be my favorite food. Okay, so I don’t know if I could every REALLY pick a favorite food, I love them all too much….but mac and cheese is up there at the top. That’s why when I found this mac & cheese cookbook online before Christmas, I sent a link to my mother immediately asking for it as a gift. She needed ideas, and I needed to harbor an even deeper obsession with macaroni and cheese:)

Last night, I made my first dish…all I have to say is, “OMG!” It’s creamy, it’s cheesy, it tastes better than anything I have ever had before. The whole ideas behind the book is that you make what they call “mac sauce” and you can add different types of cheese and then different toppings and such. That mac sauce, yeah, that’s what makes the entire thing a creamy, delicious delight. This is not good for you…like, at all…but oh my is it good! Haha!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour
3 cups milk
1/2 cup (1/2 stick) butter
Noodles
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup shredded romano cheese
Salt & pepper
Bread crumbs

Directions:

Start a pot of boiling water for your noodles and get them going!
Put 3 cups of milk into a saucepan on high until boiling. Once it starts to boil remove from heat.
In a separate pan, melt your butter.
Once melted, whisk in your flour until the concoction is a creamy brown kind of color.
Whisk in your hot milk little by little.
Once everything is all together in one pan, turn the heat back on and cook that baby up!
The sauce will get quite thick, this is good:)
Stir in your shredded cheeses until they have all melted in to the “mac sauce”.
Add salt and pepper to your liking, or any other seasonings you would like.
You can either serve now, or you can top with bread crumbs and toss it in the oven for 1o minutes or so like I did. I think bread crumbs give it a little extra somethin’ somethin’.

There you have it, best mac and cheese ever! Don’t forget to pick up a copy of the Mac & Cheese Cookbook from Amazon, it’s the cheapest I’ve found it yet. And no, this isn’t sponsored by the book, I just love mac & cheese that much:)

All 12 Days of Christmas 2014

I love this time of year! Everyone is crafting and cooking up a storm and those are two of my favorite things to do! I found and created some really awesome Christmasy things this year and have been sharing them over the last 12 days! If you missed them, you’re in luck because I’ve complied them all for you today! Check them all out and let me know if you happen to make any of them, I would LOVE to see how they turned out!

Day 1: Homemade Marshmallows

Day 2: Santa Claus Wreath

Day 3: Snowflake Chandelier

Day 4: Winter Wonderland

Day 5: Chocolate Covered Stir Spoons

Day 6: Winter Centerpiece

Day 7: Snowy Light Wall

Day 8: Slow Cooker Hot Chocolate Bar

Day 9: Cupcake Liner Christmas Trees

Day 10: Giant Snowflakes

Day 11: Blogger Gift Guide

Day 12: Gifts In A Mason Jar

12 Days of Christmas Day 8: Crock Pot Hot Chocolate Bar

I have been seeing hot cocoa bars left and right on Pinterest lately, and decided to make my very own! I pulled together the best treats from all of the different ideas I found and this list is what I came up with!

Chocolate- Mint spoons for stirring- homemade, find the post here.
Crushed mints- I just bought some mints at the store and smashed them in to little bits.
Homemade marshmallows- There were also made by me. So easy and so delicious! Post here.
Caramels- They melt at the bottom and give you a chocolatey-caramel flavor. Store bought.
Homemade chocolate chip marshmallows- Made with the regular ones, sooo good!
Pirouettes- These are store bought and they are perfect for stirring as well! They’re also so good you can just eat them plain:)
Peppermint Schnapps- Not pictured, but this is great for the adults at the party. It’ll warm you up real fast!
It’s A Marshmallow World In The Winter printable- found here.
Hot cups
Paper straws- Mostly for show, but you can stir with them too:)
Cotton balls- For fake snow of course! A little decoration goes a long way:)
Hot Cocoa- of course! The recipe for this amazing kind I made is below!

Ingredients:

1.5 Cups heavy whipping cream
6 cups milk
1 bag Nestle chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract
Hershey’s chocolate syrup

Directions:

Put all ingredients into your slow cooker.
Cook on low for 4 hours. Make sure that you stir it occasionally to help melt down those chocolate chips!
Put into your favorite mug, top with homemade marshmallows, use a peppermint-chocolate spoon, or stir with a pirouette!

We are going to have one of these for our family Christmas Eve festivities this year because I loved how it turned out SO much! The hot chocolate was fantastically rich and homemade marshmallows are my new favorite treat!

Want to see the other 11 days of Christmas? Check them out here:

Day 1 // Day 2 // Day 3 // Day 4 // Day 5 // Day 6 // Day 7 // Day 8 // Day 9 // Day 10 // Day 11 // Day 12

12 Days of Christmas Day 5: Chocolate Stir Spoons

Talk about an easy “recipe”….these spoons can be made in just a few minutes! I used mine for our hot chocolate bar at the holiday party this past weekend, but you could also use them at home or give them as gifts to people like teachers and coworkers! I thought this entire thing was going to be impossible since I don’t have a double boiler to melt the chocolate, but it turns out you don’t even need a double boiler to melt chocolate correctly! As shown in the picture below, I took a saucepan and filled it with water and started it boiling. Then I filled a smaller saucepan and filled it with my chocolate chips. I held the small saucepan over the water and made sure to stir pretty consistently. Once the chocolate is all melted I spooned it on to my plastic spoons and sprinkled with crushed mints. Voila! Chocolate dipped spoons! They are perfect for stirring hot cocoa, but would even give a great chocolate mint flavor to a cup of coffee!

Want to see the other 11 days of Christmas? Here they are:

Day 1 // Day 2 // Day 3 // Day 4 // Day 5 // Day 6 // Day 7 // Day 8 // Day 9 // Day 10 // Day 11 // Day 12

12 Days of Christmas Day 1: Homemade Marshmallows

Happy Thursday and welcome to the first day of the 12 days of Christmas! Every day for the next 12 weekdays I will be showcasing an awesome Christmas craft or recipe! For day 1, I have a fabulous recipe for you: homemade marshmallows. These are SO good! We are having a hot chocolate bar at our company holiday party and I have made these especially for it. Oh and you know, to have a few for myself with my hot cocoa:) All I have to say is that they are SO easy and they are even better than store bought marshmallows! I made two kinds, chocolate chip (inspired by Panera’s) and regular ones. If you haven’t been to Panera this holiday season they give you chocolate chip marshmallows with your hot chocolate and they were my entire inspiration behind making marshmallows at all:) Have fun making them and enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 packages of plain gelatin (.25 oz each)
2 half cups of water (1 cup total)
1.5 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup light corn syrup- for a recipe with no corn syrup, used 1 cup maple syrup or 1 cup honey instead!
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
Olive oil spray
Mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Put 3 packets of gelatin into a bowl with half a cup of cold water. Mix together and let sit.
In a saucepan mix the other 1/2 cup water, sugar, corn syrup (or maple syrup/honey), and salt.
Let the concoction cook on high for 3-5 minutes.
Turn heat down to low and let cook for 7-10 more minutes or until extremely hot!
Go back to the gelatin and water mix and stir it again, it will be chunky now.
With your mixer on, pour the hot sugar and syrup mixture into the gelatin mixture.
Add your vanilla extract.
Mix in your bowl for 15 minutes or until fluffy!
Put some parchment paper into a cake pan and spray it with your olive oil spray.
Mix together your powdered sugar and corn starch in a bowl and sprinkle over your parchment paper and olive oil.
If you plan to make chocolate chip marshmallows, sprinkle the mini chips on the bottom of the pan as well.
Spread out your marshmallow mixture in the pan. It will level itself out.
Sprinkle on more of your powdered sugar mixture.
Let it sit uncovered for AT LEAST 4 hours. (I let it sit over night.)
Once they have reached a marshmallow consistency, take them out of the pan and slice into squares.
Sprinkle with more powdered sugar on each side.

These babies will last for a few weeks if you store them in an airtight container. Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 2 of the 12 Days of Christmas, there’s an exciting craft coming your way!

Want to see the other 11 days of Christmas? Check them out here:

Day 1 // Day 2 // Day 3 // Day 4 // Day 5 // Day 6 // Day 7 // Day 8 // Day 9 // Day 10 // Day 11 // Day 12