Mac and Cheese Soup

Yum











Let me elaborate a little.

After my requisite brotein shakes and BCAA BroSciences, and after Sidney finished baking for the Farmers' Market, she and I were going to make dinner. We had in mind to make some roasted chicken thighs with some roasted potatoes. There was a lot of roasting scheduled for this evening. Sidney's mom decided that some macaroni and cheese would complement this roastfest nicely. The mac and cheese that she had in mind is the baked variety that has been feature on this blog at least once. ("The War of the Carbs" and "Mac-ing Me Crazy") Nothing too out of the ordinary about that.

We commenced preparations of the potatoes and chicken thighs. For the thighs, we put 'em in a pan, poured some salad dressing over them, and then sprinkled some Montreal Chicken Seasoning on top.

Easy.

For the potatoes, we diced up some red potatoes, threw 'em in a bag with some oil, onions, and rosemary, shook 'em up, and plopped 'em down on a pan.

Easy.

For the macaroni and cheese, we simply put some uncooked macaroni in a pan, threw in some shredded cheese, some milk, and some butter, and threw it in the oven.

Again, easy.

But there's a catch.

The chicken thighs, cooked in the pan on the grill, came out perfect.

As did the potatoes, which were baked in the oven.

But then there was the matter of the macaroni and cheese. This is precisely where the catch comes in. And we ain't talkin bout no little minnow you just caught out of the crick down yonder with that line hooked round your big toe. Oh no, I'm talking about that 1,500-pound marlin caught off the coast of Peru in 1969 by Alfred Glassell, Jr. But even that catch may not compare to this catch.

You see, it all started with a common problem most people have. We buy stuff, stuff it in the fridge, and forget about it. This has been the case with various cheeses over the past months. Being in block form and shrink-wrapped, no one was eating it. Sidney's mom decided to shred all this cheese so it would get used up more quickly. She was doing this with the idea that some of it (12 ounces, per the recipe) would get used in the macaroni and cheese. After she had finished shredding all the cheese, it was sitting in a bowl. Now read carefully. I thought all of this cheese was to be used in the macaroni and cheese. I payed no attention as to how much cheese it actually was. Well, according to some, it was too much. You be the judge. (The following is a video of this macaroni and cheese almost immediately after coming out of a 375-degree oven for about an hour)

At any rate, it was absolutely delicious!!! Especially when combined with the seasoned skin from the chicken, the cheddar and pepper jack buttery dripping goodness of this stuff simply cannot be denied!

It was by far the "greasiest" thing I've ever eaten, and that's saying something. I mean, I've eaten a deep fried bacon cheeseburger from Dyer's.

Some estimates place the amount of cheese around 24 ounces, others are more toward the 2 pound mark. But I would do it all again.

All said and done, I had these two large thighs, a medium thigh, and one small thigh. I had this macaroni and cheese, along with a small (couple bites) with each additional thigh. I limited my consumption of potatoes to this small serving.

So I don't really know how many calories I've eaten today. I felt pretty full, so that's not a good sign. But in the grand scheme of things, I didn't gorge myself. That's for tomorrow.