Macaroni Cheese

With ds not having eaten very much during the day, you can imagine he wasn't in the best of moods when we returned home from our family trip to London. He started with getting all his favourite foods from the freezer but then he decided to return them all again. Sometimes, you just have to let your children work through their own moods. The next I knew, he was asking me how long it takes to cook macaroni cheese and he had started to weight out the ingredients. He decided that it wouldn't take much longer than cooking the frozen food and it would be much tastier. So this is what he made...

He was only cooking for himself but decided to make enough so he could eat it today as well. I just let him get on with it under the strict instructions that he would have to wash the cheese sauce pan (I hate that job as I normally have to scrape some burnt bits off the bottom).

He cooked 400g of rigatoni. While this was cooking, he made the cheese sauce. He melted 100g of margarine (Pure) and added 100g of plain flour and cooked these together for a couple of minutes. He then added 2 pints of semi-skimmed milk a bit at a time, making a roux. When all the milk had been added, he boiled the mixture, stirring all the time. Once the mixture had thickened, he to it off the heat and added grated cheese, enough to make a cheesy sauce. He divided the mixture between two dishes and mixed with the cheese sauce. He then sprinkled cheese on top and baked in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes. Ds might have thought he was making it for himself but dd and I got in on the act and it was delicious. We had some peas with it which was a nice addition (ds only had 2 peas as the macaroni cheese is the star act as far as he's concerned). How crazy, ds was completely exhausted and hungry but chose to make this for dinner which is not the quickest thing to make.