Mac N Cheese

The last few days have been ones of change: packing up my belongings, starting a new job, and beginning a 3-week period of couch surfing. Overall, the new job has been surprisingly pleasant and couch surfing isn't all that bad with an air mattress and some good friends.

Because I am staying in other people's houses, my culinary adventures are going to be fairly limited over the next few weeks, but I am going to do my best to eat more than just scrambled eggs and peanut butter sandwiches. This week, the Tuesday night get-together was a potluck, so I decided to make the classic potluck entrée, mac n cheese. I bought all of the ingredients on the way there, showed up an hour early, and made the dish at my friends' house. Let's just say that there was none left at the end of the night =).

Baked Mac n' Cheese

Adapted from Southern Living

1 pound uncooked pasta -I used penne, the original recipe calls for cellentani

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1 (12-oz.) can evaporated milk

2 cups (8 oz.) shredded smoked Gouda cheese

1 (3-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper, divided

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 (8-oz.) package chopped cooked, smoked ham

2 cups cornflakes cereal, crushed

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare cellentani pasta according to package directions. Transfer hot pasta to a large bowl.

Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Gradually whisk in flour until smooth; cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk and evaporated milk; cook, whisking constantly, 3 to 5 minutes or until thickened. Whisk in Gouda, cream cheese, salt, and 1/4 tsp. ground red pepper, and nutmeg until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in chopped ham.

Combine pasta and Gouda cheese mixture, and pour into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Stir together 2 cups crushed cereal, 2 Tbsp. melted butter, and remaining 1/4 tsp. ground red pepper; sprinkle over pasta mixture.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.