a little de-lish!

I love to cook :) yes I do.

Unfortunately I have very picky eaters in my home, who do not even remotely like the things I like to cook. Well pretty much if its not a burger, a taco, a pizza, or a quesadilla, they don't like it.

This makes for a depressing cooking experience let me tell you.

Oh, don't feel sorry for me. I cook for myself, and I enjoy it.
The problem with this though is that I'm the only one who eats my leftovers, and well... days and days of the same thing to eat, doesn't always feel good.

However, every once in a while I stumble across a winner.
Winner winner chicken dinner.
Winner Winner meatball dinner.

Winner Winner pasta dinner... oh one can dream, right?
Well we try anyway. I usually judge whether they like it by the amount of 2nds they take, or the amount of leftovers there are.

Last night, there were almost no leftovers. I did manage to scrape by with something I could take for lunch. Tonight, not so much.

I'm really not selling this dish am I?

Well I liked it. A lot. And I think you will too. If you like more than burgers, taco's, and quesadilla's.

I originally found this recipe on a pinterest board, and that took me to Cooklikeachampionblog.com. I printed it out, put it in my 'recipes to try' binder, and promptly forgot about it.

Tonight though, I needed a quick go to because of my sincere lack of planning and really, I don't like to serve meat every night anyway. And well, there it was. I had most of the ingredients, and what I didn't have I knew I could swap out easily. Now mind you, my recipe below is how I made the recipe - it's not the same as how Courtney does it - but I think she'll forgive me!

So try it out, and let me know. (by the way, last night's dinner was Meatloaf muffins, mashed taters and applesauce - because I pretty much cant' serve anything green. They won't eat it).

Three Cheese Mac & Cheese 
3/4 pound Ziti pasta - cooked al dente and drained
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 2%)
6oz Cream Cheese
2-3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tblspns All purpose flour
(*note - i skipped the goat cheese. Even if it DID sound appealing, who keeps that in their house as a staple? Not me -  I'm a Yankee. I don't know anyone who has goat milk in their fridge. Blue cheese, yes, goat cheese? No.)
3 oz shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese (no white, only orange here)
1/2 cup grated Parm (this, i actually had)
1/2 cup shredded mozzerella
1 1/2 tspns italian seasoning
salt & pepper
1 xl egg yolk

Go ahead and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease up really good your 10" cast-iron skillet. Mine is a 12" Paula Deen skillet, so it's a little bigger than what you need. 

While your pasta is cooking, bring your milk, onion, garlic and cream cheese to a simmer in a medium sauce pan. Make sure the cream cheese is completely melted and mixed into the milk. (I used the cream cheese to give a similar consistency to the goats cheese - and because I didn't use heavy cream). 

Transfer half a cup of the milk mixture to a medium bowl and wisk in the flour until a nice creamy consistency. Return this to the sauce pan and incorporate into the sauce. Whisk over a medium heat for about 3 minutes until nice and thick, and creamy.

Remove Sauce from heat. (Drain your noodles if they are ready and return to their pot)

Slowly add and incorporate the cheeses (reserve 1/2 the parm cheese) into the sauce mix, until all melted. Add your seasonings to taste.(Go easy on salt and italian seasonings!) 

Pour cheese sauce over the pasta and toss to coat evenly. 

Add pasta to cast iron skillet and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. I cheated and added a little more cheddar too :) Just cause Cheese makes me happy.

Bake for about 25 minutes until bubbly and golden brown.

The original recipe says you should let this set for about 5 minutes before you cut into it, but we waited about 3 minutes and dug in. Yum. Yum. Yum. oh sooo good :)

Ok and here - just because I took pictures - this was last nights main feature - Cheddar stuff Meatloaf muffins. These, were my own creations. Do you want the recipe? :) 

Partying along at these Thursday parties:;