Yesterday, around 2PM, I got a craving for macaroni and cheese. I haven’t had macaroni and cheese in a very long time. As much cheese as there is in this recipe I won’t have it again for awhile either but when you’re craving something, it’s best just to give in! This is definitely comfort food!
I adapted this recipe from The Pioneer Woman’s Fancy Macaroni
Marry Me Macaroni
- 4 cups of cooked elbow macaroni
- 8 Tbsp of butter
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup of half and half
- 2 cups of whole milk
- 2 egg yolks (ONLY the yolks)
- 15 slices center cut bacon
- 1 Tbsp of bacon grease
- 2 medium onions sliced
- 1 head of broccoli or (4 cups) steamed
- ½ cup shredded mozzarella
- ½ cup shredded parmesan
- ½ cup shredded fontina
- 4 ounces goat cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Cook bacon until not too crispy. Set aside on a paper towel so that the extra grease drains away. Once it has cooled, crumble or chop the bacon and set it aside. Save one Tablespoon of bacon grease.
- In a large sauce pan melt 4 Tbsp of butter and sauté onions for 15-20 minutes on medium low heat until light golden brown. Stir about every 2-3 minutes. When they are done these are called caramelized onions. Set aside.
- Shred your cheese while your onions cook.
- Pull apart head of broccoli and steam in a microwave safe bowl with cling wrap over the bowl. Do not cover completely, leave one edge open for the steam to escape a little. I did this for 4 minutes in my microwave. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan or Dutch Oven, melt the remaining 4 Tbsp of butter and add the bacon grease. Sprinkle in the flour, stir with a whisk and cook for about 2 minutes. This is the beginning of your creamy cheese sauce.
- Pour in the milk and half & half and continue to whisk. Cook for 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to low.
- In a small bowl beat the egg yolks and then take ¼ cup of the cream sauce and drizzle into the egg yolks as you beat them. Stir well and then pour it into the cream sauce and cook for about 2 minutes. This will bring the egg yolks to the temperature of your cream sauce so that when you add it to the creams sauce you don’t end up with scrambled egg yolks.
- Add the Mozzarella, Fontina, Parmesan and Goat Cheese to the mixture and stir until all the cheese is melted. At this point you can turn the heat up to medium so that the cheese will melt well but don’t turn the heat up over that or it will start to burn and stick to the bottom of your pan and that is not good.
- Add ¾ of your bacon crumbles, ¾ of your caramelized onions, and all the broccoli to the cheese mixture and stir to combine well.
- Add the elbow macaroni. Stir well and make sure that all the macaroni has some sauce on it.
- Pour macaroni into a glass baking dish. Evenly sprinkle remaining bacon and caramelized onions on top. If you wanted to add extra shredded cheese at this point, you could do that here. (I added an extra ½ cup of mozzarella and fontina)
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and serve hot.
I served The Mister and I a bowl full with warm garlic bread. It was absolutely delicious. When we were done eating he got down on one knee and said that this dish should be called “Marry Me Macaroni” and then he proposed to me. He’s such a cheeseball and that’s part of why I love him so much!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did. Who knows, maybe whoever you serve it to will propose to you *wink* It’s definitely a great recipe to make for someone you love to show them how much you love them.
~Mrs Galvan~
