From the Hound's Kitchen: Southwestern Mac & Cheese

Whether through intent or serendipity, our blog's name adequately describes what we cover. Home: We're new home owners and will use this blog to chronicle our adventures in home ownership: repairs, remodels, and upgrades. Sweet: We love to cook. That's how Dork_Syd wooed Elfie. She did homework while he cooked the world's best* spaghetti as their first date. The rest, as they say, is history. Hound: We love our Basset Hound, usually. We don't have children yet so we dote on our 4-legged children.

*not verified by unbiased parties.

Dork_Syd grew up with a lot of GOOD Italian cooking and is a firm believer in choosing the right spices can really make a dish pop. He and Elfie were fortunate enough to stumble into PA Dutch Tea and Spice Company and PA Dutch Food and Candy Company. These have to be two of the best food related store that we have been in. The tea and spice store has hundreds of teas and spices as well as things like tea infusers, tea pots, honey, and cookies (biscuits if you prefer the authentic British tea experience.) You will be very hard pressed to find many of the items featured in either store in your average grocery store(not to mention the best taco seasoning, ever, in my opinion). The Food and Candy store really brings credence to the old adage "kid in the candy store" reaction. They have chocolate, gummies, European and Asian candies,  and nostalgic candies like wax bottles. Sounds amazing, but that is only half of the store. The other half has so much that it will be difficult to cover it all, but here I go anyway. They have cake and bread mixes (some of them gluten free), pickles (many types), salsas, sauces, dried fruit and vegetables, pasta, snacks like flavored chips and pretzels, and sodas. I may have missed some things. To see their entire product line up, check out their Amazon Store. There is also a link to their page in the upper left corner of this page. Anyway they're some great people with great products and a great small business.

Despite being ordered by doctors not to do so, Dork_Syd was thinking today... he and Elfie just got some taco seasoning and wanted to see what could be done with it besides tacos. Here is what Dork_Syd came up with. 

Southwestern Mac & Cheese Bake

2 cups Uncooked elbow macaroni 

4 tsp  PA Dutch Taco seasoning (secret ingredient: Do not use store brand)

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 1/2 cups milk

16 ounces Mexican blend cheese, shredded

2 Green bell peppers

2 cups diced tomatoes (we used quartered cherry tomatoes)
3/4 cup chopped onion (about a quarter of a large onion) 

1) Preheat Oven to  375 degrees.

2) Cook the Macaroni. Drain and set aside.

3) While pasta is cooking, melt 1 tbsp of butter and sweat onions and green bell peppers until fragrant. Add tomatoes cook for another 4 minutes. Drain excess liquid add to bowl with noodles. Avoid over cooking veggies otherwise they will turn to mush once baked.

 4) In 4 cup glass measuring cup melt remaining 2 tbsp of  butter on HI for 45 seconds. Stir in flour. Set aside.

5) Pour milk in 2 cup glass measuring cup and cook on HI for 1 minute or until warm.

6) Gradually stir milk into flour mixture. Cook on HI 3 minutes, stirring once during cooking. Stir, cook on HI 1 minute, or until smooth and thickening. 

7) Blend in cheese and taco seasoning. Stir until melted.

8)  In the bowl combine sauce, veggies and noodles. Stir. Once coated transfer to 9 x 13 casserole dish. 

9) Bake at 375 for 25 minutes, or until bubbling

10)Serve and enjoy!