Friday Food Craft: Mac N Cheese

Few things are better in the cold rainy weather than creamy, bubbly Mac N Cheese. Even though our weather here has turned surprisingly sunny (albeit still a bit chilly) I had a craving for this tasty treat and decided to set about making an amazing batch. While I did bake it to finish this off, I stand behind the opinion that this cheese sauce would be fantastic for a non baked Mac N Cheese as well. Even further, I'd recommend this cheese sauce as a fondue, or even mixed with chili or salsa at your Super Bowl party on Sunday!

To make this scrumptious Mac N Cheese you will need:

16 oz pasta of choice (I like to use something fancy like Fusili or Radiatore)
2 Tablespoons Butter, plus more for ramekins
2 Tablespoons Flour
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 cup Whole Milk
2 cups grated Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 cup grated Fontina
1 oz. Cream Cheese
1 teaspoon Tapatio Hot Sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper, to taste
Grana Padano cheese (or other hard cheese), grated


To start, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling add a generous amount of kosher salt. Add pasta and cook as package directs.

Butter 6 ramekins.

While the noodles are cooking, heat butter over medium low heat. Add flour and stir constantly for a minute. Increase the heat to med-high and pour in the milk and cream. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat and add in cream cheese, cheddar and fontina. Once the cheese has melted, add the hot sauce, mustard, nutmeg (this is my super secret ingredient -not anymore!- but it really does make a tasty difference!) and season with salt and pepper. Add the drained noodles to the cheese sauce, stir and evenly distribute the mac and cheese into prepared ramekins. Grate fresh Grana Padano over top and bake (on a sheet tray) in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly.

To make this dish a little more affordable, I always buy my cheese in blocks and grate it myself. Also, if you are going to try out my super secret nutmeg, do yourself a favor and grate your own whole nutmeg with a microplane, the pre-ground stuff just isn't the same.


Recipe inspired by Simply Scratch

Styled Mag

The new issue of Styled mag is out! If you have never seen this great online magazine before, I took the liberty of embedding this issue for you all to enjoy. They do amazing work as far as layout and design of the magazine, not to mention great content throughout. I highly recommend checking out previous issues, all are available online for you to flip through at your leisure!

Open publication - Free publishing - More party

Embroidery How To: Couching

Today is my final embroidery tutorial, and as previously mentioned it is on couching. Couching is basically using one thread the sew another thread into place, so to do it you will need two lengths of thread.

I start, as usual, by drawing my pattern onto my fabric. Since Valentine's Day is coming up, and I haven't really done any Valentine's projects yet (How is it February already?) I decided to go with this little heart.

Next, you will need a length of thread long enough to go all the way around your pattern. Thread your needle, tie a knot in the end and pull it through wherever you would like to start your pattern. I'm starting at the bottom of my heart.

Then, thread your second needle, knot the end and pull it through slightly ahead of where you started your first. This thread is going to be used to sew your first thread into place along your pattern lines. I try to space my stitches with this second thread as evenly as possible. To go around curves, you may need to make your stitches a bit more closely together to keep a smooth curve.

Simply pull your needle up through your fabric, then sew it back through with your first thread ending up wrapped neatly by your second.

Continue on, spacing your stitches as evenly as possible. If you come to a space in your pattern that has a sharp angle, like the top of my heart, make sure that you place a holding stitch on that point. Couching makes it very easy to do embroidery in a single line that can make very tight turns because of the anchoring stitches that hold your actual line in place.

Once finished, you will sew your original thread back to the back of your fabric at your ending point, and tie it off. I generally tie the ends of my first and second threads together into a knot on the back. Voila! Your finished heart!

For those who are curious, the back of your project will look a bit like this:

I hope you enjoyed my mini series on embroidery! This month will be filled with lots of new projects like more paper flowers, some cute crafts for babies, a couple more Valentine's and much more!