Mourning the loss of the Championship game...

So after watching Mizzou get slaughtered last night, and thinking that somewhere, someone who votes for the BCS rankings would think clearly and give Texas the credit they are due I was once more sorely disappointed! I guess the Fiesta Bowl will have to do, but in my time of mourning a lost Championship Bowl I need some good old fashioned comfort food. Tonight we feast on ham, homemade mac 'n cheese and lemon pepper steamed broccoli.










My confession, the ham was store bought, HEB makes some pretty killer pre-cooked meats (the smoked brisket and hams are yummy), so my laziness got the best of me and I bought (and reheated) an HEB spiral sliced honey baked ham....mmmm....cured salty sweet pork goodness! The rest however was made from scratch.

One pot (+ one pan) Mac 'n Cheese:

1LB Elbow Macaroni
4 Cups Milk
1 Stick Margarine
6 TBSP Flour
1 Tsp Paprika
1 Tsp White Pepper
1 Tsp (or more if you like it) Cayenne Pepper
Salt and Black Pepper to taste
16 oz shredded regular cheddar cheese
8 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
8 oz shredded swiss cheese

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta, cook at a rolling boil until just tender. Drain, rinse and set aside, to keep the number of dishes down, I left it in the strainer.
2. Preheat oven to 350.
3. Bring milk just to a boil in sauce pan.
4. Melt butter in a heavy sauce pan (to keep this in one pan, I used the pasta pan to make the roux). Add flour and whisk over low heat for 5 minutes. Do not brown. Remove from heat.
5. Add the milk slowly to flour mixture and whisk well. Add salt, black and white pepper, swiss cheese and paprika to mixture, return pan to heat. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens. Appx. 5 minutes. Add to pasta, mix well.
6. Grease a 13 x 9 baking pan, fill it evenly with pasta mix.
7. Distribute remaining cheeses over top of pasta mix, add cayenne, paprika, salt and black pepper to top.
8. Place dish on baking sheet, cook in oven until hot (appx 20-25 minutes).
9. Place dish under broiler, appx 4 inches from heat source, until the top is slightly golden brown and bubbly (3-4 minutes). Serve immediately.



Lemon Pepper Broccoli:

This one is really easy but I still feel obligated to write it down...

Appx 1LB Broccoli Florets
1 Large Lemon
Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper to Taste
Lemon Pepper

1. Clean broccoli - place in skillet with appx 3 TBSP of water.
2. Slice lemon into rounds (appx 1 inch thick); squeeze juice over broccoli and then place rounds in skillet with broccoli.
3. Season with salt, pepper and lemon pepper. Heat on medium-high (covered) until tender.

Easier than using the steamer (mainly because I couldn't find it) and it is easy to control how crispy the broccoli is, at my house we like to keep it pretty crisp.