Cheddar Cheese Mac and Cheese

This dish has been around forever it seems. Do you know who I mean by Chef Ramsy. He is a gourmet Chef with a reality show called Hells Kitchen. Anyway, even as a famous gourmet chef, he offers a Gourmet Mac and Cheese dish in his world famous Restaurants. There are lots of variations out there and I have tried a few of them. For me, I like a sharp and tangy Mac and Cheese. White Cheddar Cheese works oh soooooooooo well for this recipe. I'll give you a mac and cheese recipe that has a little twist.....a little beef flavor.

I received 3 Cheese Gift Baskets at my house warming party and one of them came with 10 different Cheddar Cheese recipes. This is one of those recipes, here is what you'll need:

12 ounces of low-fat cottage cheese.
8 ounces of lowfat sour cream.
4 cups of elbow macaroni, cooked.
2 cups of white cheddar cheese, shredded.
½ cup of skimmed milk.
1 green onion, chopped.
¾ teaspoon of salt.
½ teaspoon of pepper.
2 egg whites.
Butter-flavored cooking spray.
1 teaspoon powdered beef boulion
¼ cup dry bread crumbs
¼ teaspoon paprika
Fresh oregano sprigs, to garnish.

In an Electric Blender, combine the cottage cheese and sour cream.

Combine the cottage cheese mixture, macaroni, and next 6 ingredients; then spoon into a 2 Quart Casserole Dish coated with cooking spray.

Sprinkle with beef flavor, breadcrumbs and paprika; then coat with cooking spray.

Cover and bake at 350°F for about 30-35 minutes.

Uncover, then bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Garnish with fresh oregano sprigs

Have you ever heard of Wine Country baskets. Its a company that produces really cool Wine gift baskets. I'm sure you have heard of wine and cheese going well together, but certain wines go better with certain cheeses. Heres what happened to me.

A friend was over one night for supper and we were having my famous Cheddar Cheese Mac and Cheese. She new what was on the menu for the night and she brought a bottle of Merlot. Merlot is a dry red wine best served at about 65-68 degrees. This bottle was from Chille. I was kind of surprised. I mean, Mac and Cheese with a glass of wine just did not seem right. Boy was I wrong. My friend told me that Merlot goes very well with a sharp, tangy Cheddar, and it did. It's neat how the two blend to make a unique flavor for your taste buds.

You can find a guide for wines and Cheeses here Cheese Gift Baskets & Sugar Free Sweets