Three Cheese and Bacon Macaroni

As wonderful as our vacation was, Darrell and I did learn one important thing about ourselves: we are not suited to eating out for Every. Meal. for ten days straight. By the last few days, it was a chore to decide where we wanted to go for dinner, despite the fact that London has a ridiculous amount of cuisine variety. Getting back into our own kitchen was glorious. I may or may not have made both a loaf of bread and batch of muffins yesterday just because I could.

So it was only a no-brainer that I was going to cook a "real" meal for dinner last night even though Darrell was going to be at a meeting and eating dinner in Sioux Falls (usually on those kind of nights I do something quick and easy like fry an egg). While there is certainly a list of "our" meals that I'm so looking forward to making again (seriously--ten days without cooking anything has left me craving pretty much everything we cook), the cold, rainy day made me crave some good old fashioned comfort food. And I've had my eye on this mac and cheese recipe for awhile now--especially since Darrell claims not to like mac and cheese. I'm hoping that by throwing bacon into it he'll come around to the good side. Hopefully. Although I won't be too heartbroken if he doesn't end up liking it--more for me!

Three Cheese and Bacon Macaroni
(recipe found here)

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
3 slices bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large clove garlic, minced
3 eggs
12 oz evaporated milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 475*. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta for six minutes (it will be slightly undercooked). Drain. Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp. Add the garlic to the pan and cook until just fragrant, about thirty seconds. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon and garlic to the pot with the macaroni. Stir to combine. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and evaporated milk. Add salt, cayenne pepper, nutmeg and the cheeses. Mix well. Stir in the pasta/bacon mixture and stir until well coated. Transfer the pasta mixture into a greased two-quart baking dish. Bake for twelve minutes or until the sauce is just bubbling at the edges. Remove from the oven and let rest for ten minutes before serving.

Let me tell you, those were ten of the longest minutes of my life. I had to keep myself occupied by doing dishes so I didn't dish it up sooner. But once I got to it... Delicious. I'm already looking forward to lunch later today. I did find my batch to be quite cheesy (totally okay in my book), but I don't exactly measure things when I cook, so I'm not sure if the recipe itself is that cheesy or if I just had a heavy hand when pouring in the cheese (don't ask me why I don't measure--I really don't know. And it's only when I cook--when I bake I almost always measure carefully). I was really tempted to make a meal out of the pasta alone (healthy? not really. totally delicious? absolutely), but here's proof that I didn't.

To be fair, "forcing" myself to eat green beans and blueberries to be healthy really isn't a stretch in the least. Darrell and I eat roasted green beans like they are candy (drizzled in a little sesame oil and red pepper flakes--yum!), and we've also eaten through nearly a pound an a half of blueberries in two days. And finishing the meal off with a few pieces of British chocolate made it the epitome of comfort food meals! Maybe those drizzly dreary days aren't so bad after all!