Mom's Mac-N-Cheese

Part of the reason I fell in love with food and, coincidentally, became a chef for a living, is that I was surrounded by great food as a kid. From the best meatballs you could ever imagine to pork pie with gravy to meatloaf, I was a lucky kid. But, the food that sticks out as a personal favorite has GOT to be my moms mac and cheese.

I recently visited my family where I grew up in New Hampshire over the holidays. As with most visits, there's always a request for a childhood favorite and mac and cheese seems to be the most popular. I mean, can you blame anyone? With all the sharp white cheddar goodness one could hope to ask for, why not!?

She starts with cooked macaroni (or, penne if she feels like it) and tosses that in a white cheddar bechamel sauce. Usually there's some ham chunks involved and the whole thing is topped with crumbled Ritz Crackers. It's baked for about an hour and we always eat too much! I had three helpings, ouch.

As much as I try, I just cannot seem to replicate the goodness of the dish. I came close a couple times but, just not enough. She wrote down a detailed recipe so maybe I'll give it a try again. Sounds like a future blog to be, eh?