Recipe: Italian Macaroni and Cheese

A couple of weeks ago, I got together with my bestie Ally to hang out, talk wedding, and cook the most delicious macaroni and cheese ever. I've had a couple of requests to share the recipe, so I took pictures during the process and would like to share them here with y'all!

Ingredients:

-12 ounces wide egg noodles
-3 cups whipping cream
-1 1/2 cups whole milk
-1 tablespoon all purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
-2 cups (packed) grated fontina or cheddar
-3/4 cups (packed) grated mozzarella
-3/4 cups (packed) finely grated parmesan
-4 ounces ham, diced
-2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Butter a 13x9 inch glass baking dish, set aside.

Pan sear diced ham, set aside.

Cook noodles in salted water until tender, but firm.
Drain, but do not rinse.

In large bowl, whisk cream, milk, flour, salt, pepper. Stir
in 1 cup fontina, 1/2 cup parmesan, 1/2 cup mozzarella, ham, and parsley.
Add noodles, and toss to coat.

Transfer noodle mixture into baking dish. Top with remaining
cheese, and bake until sauce bubbles and cheese melts and begins
to brown, approximately 20 minutes.

Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

We also put together a simple salad,

And a fresh sliced French bread, paired with
a homemade garlic butter.

Voila, dinner is served!

Meow.

Holy hiatus, Batman.

Alright, so I'll admit that sometimes... Okay, most times, I have difficulty keeping up with things I've started (i.e. this blog). In my defense, life tends to catch up with me and makes having enough down-time to pretend I have something valuable to share with the world via blog post nearly impossible.

That probably didn't make any sense. Oh well.

I can't promise it won't happen again, but for now I'm back. Still with no real rhyme or reason, but still honest and filled with little insights into my mind and life.

Speaking of my life, a lot has changed in the several months since I last wrote. For those of you who are interested, here's a quick game of catch-up, in no particular order:

-I quit my crappy job in favor of a new, slightly less crappy job.
-Said slightly less crappy job caused some issues, and hence I quit said job. I am now jobless, but looking forward to figuring out what comes next.
-I met the love of my life, a wonderful man named Justin who (God only knows how) puts up with me and claims to be as enamored with me as I am with him. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that one.
-I moved out of the apartment I was living in with my siblings, and am now living with said wonderful man. We're currently in a debate as to whether or not it's plausible to rearrange the living room furniture, but other than that it's going well. Neither has threatened the other with weapons... Yet...

I'm sure there's more, but it's nearly 3am and my brain's automatic shut-off went into effect about 3 hours ago. Y'all should be impressed I'm still functioning well enough to almost make sense.

Ta ta for now, folks.