Sweet Potato Mac 'n' Cheese

So today we decided to undertake this strange variation on a classic family recipe. "We'll just make a small serving of it" we thought, "just to see what it's like". We were (are?) clearly delirious, since the words "small serving" to an Italian have absolutely zero context. Nevertheless, this delirium forced us onward, and we proceeded with the following recipe:

1. Finely chop an onion and caramelize the bits in a frying pan with a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, and stupid amounts of butter. Rosemary/sage/oregano can be added here too.

2. Meanwhile, skin and slice (thinly) two small sweet potatoes. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the slices till they are shmoushy. Do not plop the potatoes in the boiling water, or you will splash boiling water everyone, including your hands (as we learned). If you do splash burning water on your hands, curse till the air is blue, then run your hands under cold water.

3. Drain the potatoes but SAVE THE WATER! You will be needing to cook the pasta soon, and why waste all that sweet-potato-watery goodness?

4. Mash the potatoes and stir in the caramelized onions.

5. Boil the sweet potato water (with a little more water added) and dump (carefully!) your macaroni (about 300g) into the water.

**At this point we looked at the proportions of onion/potato/pasta we have just started to cook and realized there would be nothing small about this concoction. Sigh**

6. Make your cheese sauce - everyone has their own way of doing this, but here's the right way. Alternate three spoons of margarine with about 5 spoons of flour in a large pot on low heat, stirring continuously. Add milk, a little at a time while still stirring, to thin out the sauce. Then GRATE YOUR CHEESE-OF-CHOICE LIKE A CRAZY PERSON (thanks to our cousin for the advice) and add it to the sauce.

**Don't forget to check on your pasta! No one likes overcooked pasta. Make sure you are good and ambidextrous before embarking on this madness as now you need to be continuously stirring multiple things.**

**Also, at this point, you should preheat your oven to 350.**

7. Once everything has melted into a gooey-cheese-mess of yumminess, stir in the sweet-potato-and-onion mixture till its even.

8. Take the hot mess off the heat. Drain the macaroni and stir it into the cheese sauce. Cover the top in bread crumbs. Pop it in the oven until the cheese bubbles.
9. Consume immediately.

Ok, so this makes TWO CASSEROLE POTS worth of mac 'n' cheese. We cannot eat this much mac 'n' cheese. We will TURN INTO a pot of mac 'n' cheese. Does anyone know if you can freeze mac 'n' cheese?

Fail. (But not in taste - its SCRUMPTIOUS!)

Eli

PS - We used a 300g package of mild cheddar, and about 150g of Gouda. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.