Weekend Cooking.. "Slow Cooker Revolution" Macaroni and Cheese

Well, the slow cooker was still out on the counter from last week's post, so I figured it was time to take it for another spin. I search through my new favorite slow cooker cookbook, Slow Cooker Revolution, and picked...yes, Mac and Cheese. Because who does not love mac and cheese!

Young and old, male and female, everyone loves it.
And making it in the slow cooker seems so bizarre, I had to give it a try.
So here is the recipe and then I will give the completed dish a rating.
I will have you know that I had to eat a lot of the resulting mac and cheese to give a fair review, so I hope you all appreciate that. ;-)

Macaroni and Cheese

• vegetable oil spray
• 2 (12-ounce) cans evaporated milk
• 2 (11-ounce) cans condensed cheddar cheese soup
• 2 1/2 cups water, plus extra hot water as needed
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 8 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 8 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 pound elbow macaroni
• optional Toasted Bread Crumbs Topping

Toasted Bread-Crumb Topping
Process 2 slices white sandwich bread, torn into pieces, to course crumbs in food processor, about 10 pulses. Melt 2 Tablespoons butter in 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add bread crumbs and toast, stirring often, until golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to bowl and season with salt and pepper. 


Spray inside of slow cooker pot with vegetable spray and then line with a collar of doubled over foil (to prevent over browning). Spray foil collar with oil as well.
Bring evaporated milk, soup, water, mustard and cayenne to simmer in large pot. Slowly whisk in cheese until completely melted, then stir in macaroni.

Transfer mixture to slow cooker, cover and cook until tender, about 2 hours on high.

Remove foil collar. gently stir pasta, adding hot water if needed to loosen sauce consistency. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with Toasted Bread-Crumb Topping, if using and serve.

OK, there is good news and bad new.
The good news is that it was delicious. Creamy and cheesy...very good.
Be sure to add the cayenne and mustard. You can not taste it specifically but it add a great deal I think. And be sure to spray the cooker before you add the collar. That was not in their recipe and the cleanup from a bit of baled on sauce that got through was not fun. 
And it was easy. No boiling the macaroni and making a separate sauce.
Did I mention it was delicious?!

The bad news.
Well, while it was easy, I wonder if it was that much easier than the regular way of making it.
And since it only cooks 2 hours this it not a "put in the slow cooker and go to work" recipe. Unless you work a very short day.

It was a fun recipe to try, cool to see how the raw macaroni cooked and the results were delicious. Yes, I would make it this way again. So bottom line, I think this was a winner.

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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