Yum yum yum--Macaroni and Cheese with Ham

Macaroni and Cheese with Ham
Liberace Cooks! Copyright 1970

12 ounces elbow macaroni I used 14.5 ounces of Smart Taste macaroni
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk I used 1% milk
4 cups grated Cheddar cheese I used Cabot 50% Light Cheddar
1 teaspoon salt
Dash white pepper
1 cup sour cream I used lite sour cream
2 cups diced cooked ham

Cook the macaroni according to package directions. Melt the butter, blend in the flour, and gradually stir in the milk. Cook and stir until thickened. Add the cheese, salt, and pepper and continue to cook until the cheese is just melted. Stir in the sour cream. Grease a large casserole and make layers of half the drained macaroni and ham. Pour half the cheese sauce over the top. Repeat, using the remaining macaroni, ham and sauce. Bake in a 350 degree oven for half an hour.

Serves 8.
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When I saw this cookbook I had to grab it just for the kitsch factor but it's actually a really good cookbook. There are a variety of recipes, including some reflecting Liberace's Polish heritage which I can especially appreciate. He loved to entertain and the book is sectioned off into different types of entertaining - buffet, outdoor, indoor, etc.

This recipe is from the TV dining section. TV dining! Yes, Liberace had a dining room/television room. I love it. I admit, I like to watch television while I eat. I like to fall asleep with the television on. I once had a small apartment in which I had a great view of the television from the bathroom - pure heaven!

I chose this recipe since I had some ham in the freezer, leftover from Russian Easter. Nevermind that I needed to buy $5 worth of cheese to make this but at least I used up that extra ham. You could probably get away with less cheese and you could use a less expensive cheese but I like the Cabot's 50% Light Cheddar and I used two blocks of it.

Personally, I thought this ranked up there as one of my favorite macaroni and cheese recipes. I was impatient and didn't bake it long enough to get a crust on top (in retrospect, I should have save a bit of the shredded cheese for the top). Otherwise, I loved the flavor and the texture. The sour cream gave it a nice tang and that ham my MIL gave me was really good.

My blood sugar was pretty low when I checked it after dinner. I was ticked that I didn't eat more of this. I sure wanted to.

Blast From The Past: Horn and Hardart’s Baked Macaroni and Cheese from November 2005. That's also a favorite macaroni and cheese recipe of mine. Comparing it to today's recipe, I don't think I could put one over the other - they're quite different. That one was more gooey, today's is creamier and tangier. Which I would choose would depend on my mood at any given time.

Question of the Day: Should macaroni and cheese be creamy or gooey? Or do you like it another way?