About once every two months, some colleagues and I cook and bring dinner to the local Ronald McDonald House in Camden, NJ. As you probably know, Ronald McDonald House provides a home-away-from-home to families of seriously ill and traumatically injured children who are being treated at nearby hospitals and operates Ronald McDonald Family Rooms within pediatric units of hospitals across the region (1).

The theme this time was comfort foods, and I signed up for macaroni and cheese, a dish I had always feared (cooking, not eating). Rather than buy a frozen, or pre-made mac & cheese dish, I thought the good folks at Ronald McDonald House deserved the best or at least something close, so I decided to try my hand at Gourmet's mac & cheese recipe. After all, I have made baked ziti many times before, how hard could this be?

The most daunting part for me was making the cheese sauce, which involved first making a roux of butter and flour, then whisking in milk, bringing it to a boil then down to a simmer, then whisking in the cheeses, all without scalding the milk or burning the bottom of the pot.

Once the sauce is done the rest is easy - boil the elbows and mix everything together, apply the topping and bake.

I just snuck a taste - not bad. Pretty good, actually!

The recipe can be found at:

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2007/08/macaroni-and-cheese

(1) http://www.ronaldhouse-snj.org/index.php