Creamy Mac and Cheese

We love all things pasta at our house, and that includes something as basic as macaroni and cheese. I already have an easy mac and cheese recipe that I made up on my own, but I never shared it as the texture was a little bit grainy due to using REAL cheese as opposed to the processed fake stuff. The other week I decided to add an extra ingredient just for fun...and discovered that there is indeed a way to make homemade mac and cheese sauce just as smooth and creamy as the fake kind! Read on to discover the secret ingredient that makes all the difference. (And my apologies as I used the camera on my phone for these photos, so they are not very high quality!)

Ingredients:

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 c. milk (any kind works, but 2% or higher fat allows for an extra creamy content!)
1 8-oz. block cream cheese (this is the key!)
2-3 cups of shredded cheese, your choice (I use cheddar since that's what I always have on hand)
16 oz. macaroni noodles (any variety will work, but I prefer the ones with more nooks and crannies to better hold the sauce!)

Start off by getting a large pot of water on the stove set to boil. Once that is going, you'll start to make your mac and cheese sauce.

In a medium saucepan set to low heat, melt the stick of butter. Once it's melted, stir in the flour, salt, and pepper until all the ingredients are well-combined. Allow it to cook for a couple of minutes, then add the milk. Turn the heat up to medium, and stir the sauce frequently to avoid lumps. Using a whisk provides the best results. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens. You'll know it's getting close when it adheres to a spoon and you can see that the drips coming off the spoon are not very runny. At this point, turn the heat back down to a lower setting. (By now your big pot of water should be boiling and you can throw in your pasta so that gets going in time.) You will add the block of cream cheese to your white-sauce mixture and stir it in until it is fully melted. At this point, it's time to add your shredded cheese to the mixture. Keep the burner at a low setting so that the cheese doesn't curdle and wind up with a weird texture. By the time it's melted, it should look something like this:

Once your sauce is ready, turn the burner off. When your pasta is cooked to your liking, go ahead and drain it, then put it back in the pot you cooked it in. Take your cheese sauce and pour it over the pasta, stirring well to incorporate all the cheese on every noodle.

Serve immediately as it tastes best when it's hot! Hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!