Mac n' Cheese with Homemade Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup ~ Snow Return-eth

We are still messing around with baked macaroni and cheese recipes.   This one was required canned condensed cheddar soup, so I made some from scratch.

The recipe I used was pretty simple.  It does not contain chopped onion, or breaded topping (which I prefer), and it was very creamy.  Hubby is stuck on a very old recipe that my Mom gave me using (gulp) Velveeta.  I keep trying to tell him it's not food, so this recipe may be the one to convince him to ditch the bad so-called cheese.  We'll do the reheat test today and see if it reheats creamy.  It tasted much, much better than the crock pot recipe I make using ricotta.  You could play around with other cheeses with this recipe too.  I may be typing it up to share.
 

By the way, we typically eat up our broccoli stash by making a big pan of veggies, or with Chicken Teriyaki.  I had to buy organic for this meal, and I steamed it (the only way I like it plain).  Hubby said, "what's in this?  It's delicious!"  Ha ha!  Simply steamed for 5 minutes.  We still have salad, hence only one side vegetable.  Our 16 year-old picky eater ate two helpings of broccoli.

Homemade Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup
(using all organic ingredients, our grocer sells organic non-gmo cheese now).

(all organic ingredients)

3 Tablespoons butter
2 1/2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (for this I use Mild Cheddar)

Melt butter, stir in the flour, and whisk in the milk.  When thickened, add cheese. Stir until melted.

This is somewhat similar to the other condensed soups I make, and I plan to grab up the organic cheese when they clearance it and get a few containers in my freezer.  I don't use this nearly as much as my mushroom soup, but it's handy to have on hand.

It was pretty windy yesterday, but I dug up our dead evergreens we planted late May last year.  The ground was just saturated, so getting them out of the wet mud was no fun.  We bought them very cheap, and if they lived great, and if they died, we get a refund (within a year).  We are getting a refund.  Oddly, even with all the rain we had, all but one died.  I'm not so sure we'll keep that last one either.  It's only half alive.  We'll buy early this year and re-plant.

As soon as I walked in the door, and sat down or a cup of coffee, I looked out to see a huge rain cloud.  Not even five minutes later it was snowing big flakes.  Then it was raining again, then the sun was out, then snow....mother nature was totally messed up.  The wind kicked up to something fierce though.  I'm surprised the dead tree by the garage didn't drop a huge branch.  Wind was between 30-60 mph and our power went out 8 times.  A generator is on my wish list, and I hate to push that on Hubby, because I want him to concentrate on that root cellar.  Hm.  In the meantime if you have suggestions on which type is best, I'm open to advice. I can still take notes.

We woke up to a teensy bit of snow, and very cold temperatures.  It was too cold to get out of bed so today's post is a bit later than usual.  It's a good day to snuggle up with a book by the wood stove.  However, I need to high tail it out to the goat barn and check the roof for any damage.  Oddly, that big old barn still stands.  Ha.