With an Associate’s degree in Applied Science, I’ve been working in the high tech industry since 1998. Started my career at Ninelives, Inc., creating and redesigning Web sites using a combination of HTML, CSS, ASP and Access database. Since then, I spent four years at Microsoft as a Web development engineer and software developer. In 2003, joined the development team at Diligenz, Inc. as Web development team lead where I maintained B2B Web services solutions among other things. Left the company in 2007 to spend a year at AT&T Mobility before becoming a member of the IT team at Zenic Cubed in 2008.Last night I decided to make some Mac & Cheese after seeing a simple recipe on AllRecipe.com. I’ve never been much of a “measurer” when it came to cooking, which is probably why I don’t like baking, so I just “guesstimated” on the amount of everything. But here’s a quick recipe that turned out quite well last night.
Ingredients/Needed:
- Bag of Noodles (macaroni, ziti, swirly kind, shells, what ever you want)
- Sharp Cheddar Cheese, about half a brick at least (or what ever type of chees(es) you wanna use)
- Milk, I used Fat Free, but you can use what you have on hand. About 12oz should do.
- Bag of Doritos, if you don’t wanna keep to much around a Grab Bag will do just fine for this recipe.
- Casserole Dish
Quick Cooking:
- Boil Water
- Pre-heat oven to 375
- Cook pasta, until Al Dente
- Layer the noodles and cheese
- Pour milk on top of the entire dish
- Place crushed (finely smashed) Doritos on top of dish
- Put in oven for about 30 minutes, or until top is golden brown
- Eat to hearts content.
The Cooking Story:
Start boiling some water… After it can started boiling and you are reading to start the noodle cooking process, go ahead and Pre-Heat the oven to 375.
Now all I did was boil the noodles until they were “al dente”… Wait, what? What the heck is “Al Dente”, well it’s like uhm, yea… I couldn’t give you a could explanation of this, so I simply boiled for about 7 minutes, grab one of the noodles out with my bare fingers (ok, so maybe I used a fork), cut it in half and checked if there was still a “thin” white center to the noodle. This is basically the part that is undone.
Strain the “al dente” noodles, then let the fun layer process begin.
I started by covering the inside of the casserole dish with “non-stick tinfoil”, cause I would rather have less clean up. You could also butter the inside of the pan to help removal of it later.
Crushing of the Doritos… I toss my Doritos into a Zip lock bag, crushing them to remove as much air as possible, then simply taking my massive fist and in a up & down motion, smashed the chips to smithereens. I also grabbed by Chef’s Knife, turned it upside down, and began to smash it into finer bits. Crush to your hearts content, doesn’t need to be perfect.
I created about 3 layers total or Noodles + Cheese on top…. Poor some of that tasty milk all over the top of the dish, I used roughly about 12oz of milk, but that is just a guess. As I bought a small 16oz bottle of Fat Free Milk, took a couple quick drinks of it, then poured the rest on the dish.
Then after you have layered your tasty dish simply sprinkle your Crushed Doritos over the entire top.
Now toss in your oven for about 30 minutes OR until the top of that awesome dish is Golden Brown (aka, darker but NOT burnt).
HOORAY, now it’s time to dig in and wonder how you ever lived without a taste Doritos crust on your Mac & Cheese.
