Does the Woman Have a Single Bad Recipe?

I have a friend, JoAnne, who I've gotten quite a few recipes from. Every single one so far has been in the "Totally Evil" or "Beyond Great" categories. I promise you poor souls who had my under-cooked "JoAnne's Evil Potatoes" for Thanksgiving that one day I'll make them again the way they should be and you will see.

My mom cooks really good too but when I eat one of JoAnne's recipes it makes me wish I was one of her kids growing up.

Here's the newest one she passed on last week and I made it on Saturday during my "girls weekend" trip to Lake Coeur d'Alene with my daughter Madeleine & my friends daughter, Megan.

I'm calling it:

"JoAnne's To Die for Macaroni N' Cheese"

1. Start by cooking 1 pound of elbow macaroni until "el dente", drain & set aside.

2. Cut the crust off of white bread and line a very large baking dish (I ended up needing one large 9x13 pan and another 8x8 pan to fit it all)

 

3. Melt 8 Tablespoons of butter in Microwave then brush all over the bread. (YES this is one entire cube of butter.)  

4. Take the crusts & spread on a cookie sheet & put into a 200 degree oven until nice & dry. I deviated from JoAnne's recipe here and sprinked the crusts with a bit of Garlic Powder (Because incase you guys don't know it yet I happen to think there is no such thing as too much garlic in anything.) 

 

5. Put 5 1/2 cups of WHOLE milk into your pot and don't try to make it with skim milk. You just got done brushing all the bread with one cube of butter. Don't you think skim milk is pointless by now? (Also, make the pot a large one)

 

6. On a lower heat setting warm the milk a bit then slowly add 1/2 cup flour as you whisk to prevent lumping (you can also use another thickening agent like corn starch etc). 

7. Add 1/4 tsp White Pepper (you can use regular black pepper if you don't have white), 1/4 tsp Cayanne Pepper & 1/4 tsp Nutmeg

 

8. To the milk, flour, spice mixture you add 4 1/2 cups of White Cheddar (I used Tilamook Vintage White). Now I didn't want to shred it all so here was my conversion... 8 oz to a cup... so basically I just cubed up an entire two pound block of it and put it into the pot. I could be totally off but it turned out great anyway.

9. Add 1 cup Swiss & 1 Cup Romano

10. Keep stirring over low to medium heat until the cheese is melted & everything is mixed creamy together.

 

(Still lumpy.. keep stirring so it won't scorch)

11. When it's all mixed and creamy mix in your elbow macaroni.

12. Pour the mixture into the white bread lined baking dish (or dishes).

 

13. Crumble up your dried out bread crusts to make coarse bread crumbs.

 

14. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the macaroni mixture

 

15. Put pans into a 350 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes until bubbly & browned on top.

 

Sorry, I forgot to snap a picture right when it came out of the oven but here's part of one dish after we ate some for dinner.

 

If anyone makes this dish please post a comment on how it went for you and if you liked it. I'd love to hear from you!

~Jamie