Last night at the McDow house we held a Mac & Cheese competition with some friends of ours. It was a cheesy, noodley (is that a word?) gluttony fest.
The contenders were Ham with Mac & Cheese, Truffled Sausage Mac & Cheese, Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese, Baked Mac & Cheese and mine, Green chili Mac & Cheese.
We have some very creative friends! We also had chicken, BBQ meatballs ( a recipe I got from pioneerwomancooks.com- you should check it out, yummmm!) chicken strips, seafood fondue and birthday cake for our friend Taylor.
We were all sitting on the porch as it was a beautiful Sunday, everyone was enjoying the different variations of gooey goodness and one of our friends ran around from the side of the house and said, " The House next door is on fire!" There was black smoke billowing out from the roof and flames were starting to appear.
Needless to say, that kind of ended the party atmosphere. We all ran out the front door, checking to see if anyone had called 911, making sure the guy who lived there got out ( he did) and trying to decide if we should hose down the side of our house, but by the time we got the hose, 6 fire trucks had arrived!
It was really amazing to watching the firemen and women work, rushing in the burning house and climbing on the roof, making sure that the fire was put out. It took them about 30 minutes to get the flames under control.
Everyone in the neighborhood piled onto our street, into each other's yards, one guy even brought his entire family- including the baby in the stroller! - I think this is the most excitement people on our block have seen in a long time!
So - Mac & Cheese night turned out to be extremely interesting. I won the cook off, but it pales in comparison to the excitement next door.
Please be in prayer for the family who owned the home, they were a troubled family to begin with and this of course doesn't make it any easier.
Oh and as promised, the Green Chili Mac & Cheese- warning, this is NOT health food dish!
1 stick of salted butter divided in two
1/2 of a large onion diced
2 cans of green chilies ( get the larger cans)
1 tomatillo chopped
1 small container (pint) of heavy cream
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup of milk to deglaze cream pan
1 box of pasta- I used mini bow tie pasta
1/2 small block of sharp white cheddar grated
1/2 small block of sharp white cheddar grated
1/2 small block of mozzarella grated
1/2 small block pepper jack cheese
Parmesan cheese to sprinkle over top
2 cups of dry breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons of minced garlic
kosher salt to taste
black pepper to taste
Directions:
Melt half of the butter into a large saute pan and add onions and tomatillo and saute until onions are opaque. Add a pinch of kosher salt. Add in the two cans of chopped green chilies and saute about a minute. Stir in your container of heavy cream and slowly whisk in the flour. Sprinkle in black pepper- I used about 1/4 tsp. Let simmer on low until thickened.
Boil pasta and drain. make sure to run cold water over it so it gets to room temp quickly.Pour pasta into buttered large casserole dish and stir in cheeses. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese all over the top and mix. Now pour sauce over casserole and use the milk to get the residue out of the pan and pour into dish. Mix well.
In a separate dish include bread crumbs. melt the other half of the butter and pour over crumbs and include 2 tsps of garlic and a pinch of salt. mix well and spread evenly over the pasta dish.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes and then pop on the broiler for a couple minutes to crisp up the top. take out when nice and toasty. Make sure to watch it carefully as it can burn very quickly!
This is really good, creamy, cheesy and about as down home as you can get.
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