Baked Macaroni & Cheese

No flavor dust, Velveeta or skim milk here! No sirree. I made butter in the morning and used the buttermilk with dinner - I think i finally bested my favorite of my mom's baked mac & cheese attempts. The only thing i was missing was some bread to make bread crumbs on the top. I'm pretty sure if i DID top this with breadcrumbs, my flavor sensors would have been overloaded with deliciousness!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (16 oz mason jar) fresh, raw buttermilk. (Can sub cream or milk)
• 1/2 finely diced onion
• garlic powder, dried basil, salt and pepper
• polish melty cheese (can use any nice melty cheese) shredded, about 2 cups or so
• 1 egg
• dollop butter
• dollop flour
• macaroni - i used shells

Put your salted pasta water on to boil. In the meantime saute a spoonful of butter and flour together in another pot, adding buttermilk a little at a time. Work out the lumps. Add the spices and onions and simmer for about 10 minutes. Toward the end temper in one egg.

• Tempering is a fancy word for 'get the egg used to this hot temperature.' If you don't, you'll get scrambled egg floating about in your sauce. You don't want that. Scramble your egg and slowly add spoonfulls of the hot sauce into the egg. Once it's no longer eggy and is mixed in add it to your sauce and keep mixing to integrate it.

Cook your pasta al dente and have a 2 quart casserole ready. Preheat oven to 350. Drain your pasta and pour half or so into your sauce and mix. Add 1/3 of your cheese to this and stir it in well. Pour the rest of your pasta into the casserole, cover with the already mixed cheesey pasta and integrate. Add the rest of your cheese minus a little to top and mix in well, then top the whole yummy mess with a bit more cheese. If i'd had breadcrumbs i would have added them to the top, perhaps with some truffle oil.
Bake 30 minutes and let set out a few minutes before serving. This was the perfect amount of time to steam some fresh broccoli to serve on the side.
so good!

It takes longer to bake mac and cheese than just cook it on the stovetop, but there's nothing much more wholesome and homey tasting than baked macaroni and cheese. I love the crispy edges.

Is there a dish that reminds you of home and childhood?