Three Cheese Macaroni

     I do not enjoy the simple dish of macaroni and cheese. It just sits there like a lump in my stomach and just makes me feel ill. My husband likes it and the closest thing he's had to it is the Bowel Appetite's.  He mixes it with water and microwaves. Yum....I also told him that I wasn't making it for him either. That was a few years ago. A few weeks ago, I get the  October edition of Everyday Food and they have in their featured Big Batch: Three Cheese Macaroni. I skim down the ingredient list and they don't have American Cheddar in it, not my favorite cheese. They use a white cheddar and Monterey Jack (think you can find just white cheddar hanging there with the rest of the cheeses? no)  so I go the triple cheddar which had the white cheddar in it. It was a nice sharpness. I then look at the other page where they have the options for the leftover and there's this baked tomato casserole. I can try this.
    We adapted the recipe to our tasting and plus we didn't want to buy Old Bay Spice as it had it in the original recipe. We didn't know if  we would like it and how often we would use it. We made up our own southwestern seasoning of garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Barry thought the cumin was odd, but I didn't mind it. We did add bacon to it, of course. I thought that added a lot to it. If I had more time I would have baked this with panko or bread crumbs on top. We cut the recipe in half because that would have been way too much for 2 people. We still had leftovers and will make the leftover recipe mentioned above. I would probably make this again. I like it as it was creamy but didn't taste blah.This was a nice comfort dish that didn't take to much time to do.

Three Cheese Macaroni adapted from Everyday foods

• coarse salt
• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups skim milk
• garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper to your taste
• 1 1/2 cups white cheddar shredded
• 1 cup Monterey Jack shredded
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• bacon (optional)

Ok so, what you do is get your pot of salted water going  to a boil.
In a pot melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium and start whisking in the flour and cook stirring a lot until mixture is pale golden and has a nutty aroma, about a couple of minutes. It goes fast. Whisking constantly, slowly add milk. It will start thickening right away until you start adding more milk. Cook, whisking along bottom of pot, until boiling, about 7 minutes. Reduce heat and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thicken, 10-12 minutes.  You should add your noodles now while it is thickening to your already pot of boiling water and cook maracroni according to package instructions. Drain.
Remove the sauce from heat and add  1 tablespoon butter, spices, and cheeses.  Add the cheese in handfuls at a time otherwise it will bunch up in a ball. This way the cheese will have the chance to melt into the sauce. It doesn't take long. Stir until it's smooth, season with salt.
Add macaroni to sauce and stir to combine. If you want bacon cook up a couple of slices and crumble on top.
Refrigerate and leftovers for up to 5 days