I love geeks and a depressing conclusion

Stove Top Mac-n-Cheese

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound elbow macaroni
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 eggs
• 6 ounces evaporated milk
• 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Fresh black pepper
• 3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
• 10 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded

Directions

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente and drain. Return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until creamy.

Today my mother chose to dine at her friend Robin's house. So instead of our traditional Friday night dinner at the grandparents' house, Valerie and I were on our own for the evening. We were both feeling lazy and a bit under the weather. At first I searched for recipes for bacon and cheese, but I was a little underwhelmed by my finds at all recipes.com and I quite frankly didn't feel like dealing with bacon today (I know, crazy). I then typed in macaroni and cheese recipes to Google, just to see what popped up, and to my great surprise the first recipe to pop up would be a Baked Macaroni and Cheese recipe by none other than Alton Brown.

For those of you who don't know Alton Brown, stop what you're doing and go watch him. Do not watch his grape juice commercial, do not watch the American Iron Chef, or the Next Iron Chef, or whatever cooking show he plays host to. Find him in his own show, "Good Eats" when it is on whether on Food Network or YouTube. In fact, you can watch recipe clips, including this recipe on Food Network's website (if you want to see a link to this particular recipe, click here) I have to warn you because in the next line I am going to swear.

Alton Brown is a motherfucking genius.

I first caught his show after watching Emeril one night (I used to worship Emeril Lagasse, I met him, I have an autographed cookbook. Bam!) He did a special on how to cook a steak. He has this weird off the wall humor while he teaches you what seems really simple but can actually be fairly difficult. In my first episode he taught you how to purchase the right steak for your tastes/particular need, what kind of pan to buy, and how to cook the steak to your liking. He teaches you the terms to use while making goofy references. I can't think of any now, but trust me they're priceless. Alton (yes, I am going to refer to him by his first name, cause I feel like I know him) and his team used to run their show out of his neighbor's house (yes, an actual house) because cooking is THAT easy, so easy you don't need a fancy set with funky fridges and stoves. All you need is a live honest to goodness house. Anyway what I love about Alton is how he makes everything so easy. Plus he's a geek. Like me.

But you're saying "Laura you didn't bake macaroni and cheese" and the answer is, no I did not. The answer to that is that Alton's baked recipe sounds a lot like the mac and cheese we made last week which Valerie has yet to blog about (it's no longer my fault I made her an admin :P) So instead I chose this easy one pot macaroni and cheese that is also Alton's recipe off of an episode entitled "For Whom the Cheese Melts 2" (Bwah haha! Get it? Get it?!)

On the plus side:

+ It was easy. (In the clip, a kid makes this while Alton sticks his head in a window) It only took one pan, and if coordinated correctly minimal measuring utensils. (Guess who didn't coordinate correctly but I am mildly stupid so, yeah no.) This is good when you are looking for a not processed alternative to boxed macaroni and cheese, which bring us to point two.

+It was fresh which means its just better

+The cheese is waaaaay yummy, and again the mustard adds a lovely bit o' flavor to it.

On the minus side:

-The cheese sauce wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be, not like macaroni and cheese number one chronicled in our descent into the underworld.

-It lacked the special something brought by macaroni and cheese number one.

What I'm trying to say is, Valerie and I picked the wrong first recipe. Or perhaps the right first recipe. It has set the standard, it had creamy cheese sauce and interesting flavor, things no other macaroni and cheese have yet to bring to the table. I hope we didn't find our holy grail on the first try and will now be futilely searching for a better recipe. I hope this is not the case. Although I doubt it because my mom says her friend Robin has a recipe involving GORGONZOLA MMMMMMMM.

Tomorrow night our grandparents are taking us to MorMor for dinner, last I checked they had a delicious macaroni and cheese with salmon or something on top. Maybe my new blog post will be closer than you think. :D