Chili Mac 'n' Cheese

Saturday 26 November

One day as we were passing Sitwell's, a hippy-dippy Clifton coffee shop, Holt spotted that they were serving Chili Mac 'n' Cheese.  Anything billed as chili around here tends to be the Cincinnati version of sweet makaronia me kyma, but we actually needed an idea to flesh out a single portion of (our own genuine, New Mexican style) chili that we had left over from 7 November and frozen.  

This was the perfect thing to make for dinner after our five hour drive home from Tennessee, since it went together quickly and the oven helped heat up the house.

We defrosted the chili and put in the bottom of our second-largest round pyrex baker.  On top of it went 6 oz. of penne, boiled, in a cheese sauce made of 2 Tbsp. onion sautéed in 2 Tbsp. butter, dusted with 2 Tbsp. flour and browned as a roux.  Then add 1 cup milk, stir assiduously until thickened, and add 1/2 cup each asiago and coljack cheese.  Top the dish with 1/2 cup grated coljack, and bake at the People's temperature, first 30 mins. covered and then uncovered till bubbly and brown.

Not prepossessing, but good and homey.