This post starts with a discussion of the cheese, specifically Mississippi State Cheese, because I am a cow college cheese kind'a guy.

You may know that where other schools are somewhat famous for Tigers and Football teams, My school is somewhat famous for cheese.

Here is a short story about MSU cheese.

Story of MSU cheese

You can buy it here.

buy it here

The Ag school sells several different cheeses and other stuff in the MAFES cheese store on campus and through the mail (UPS). The two best sellers are the Edam and Vallagret. Edam is a semi hard cheese that originated in the Netherlands. MSU Edams, which have been made since around 1938 are famous. MSU ships Edam cannonballs all over the world. They mold 400 cannon balls a day (in Teak wooden molds). It seems are always sold out or close to sold out. At this moment, I think you can order everything they sell, but they will likely all be gone by Easter. For reasons only the cheese makers know, they (Edam and Villagret) are made in the fall and winter only. They make cheddar year round. I eat lots of cheese in the summer. I can't imagine why they don't make them in the summer, but they don't.

We buy five or six Edams a year.

For the past five years (or so) we've also purchased five or six wheels of Vallagret (a Norwegian Swiss) It has a wonderful nutty flavor and great melting characteristics. I think in time, it will be just as popular as the Edam. I know they already have a terrible time keeping it in stock.

These are truly beautiful cheeses. One thing I know about all of you guys is that you appreciate good food. Knowing that I'll tell you that you really should call MAFES today and order both of these cheeses. You will thank me later if you do.

Currently, we have about half of an Edam in the house

and I am sorry to say I used the last of our Vallagret tonight making Mac and Cheese, which is the actual subject of this post.

Mac and Cheese

To make my Mac and Cheese, I used both Edam and Vallagret. - about 200 grams of Edam

Shredded to make about a cup and a half - eventually I shredded the small piece left in this photo.

and maybe a quarter cup of the Vallagret.

I used maybe a cup and a quarter of Large elbow Macaroni which makes about three servings

It was boiled to al dente in lightly salted water, then drained.

I intended to cook my Mac and Cheese in that small bowl, but used too much Mac and had to go to a bigger bowl.

Jim Anderson (Walter Anderson's grandson) of Shearwater Pottery in Gautier, MS (pronounced Gaw-Shea) threw the bowl in the photo maybe ten years back. It's probably a little expensive for a baked cheese casserole but IMO Walter would be proud of his grandson throwing it so that I could use it to bake Mac and Cheese tonight.

I like a béchamel to help tie up my Mac and Cheese so I made maybe 3/4 cup of the white sauce with a Tablespoon of butter, a Tablespoon of flour (cooked for three minutes to cook away the flour taste) and converted to béchamel with a half cup of heavy cream. It was nice and thick and very rich, which is what I wanted.

Here is the bowl of macaroni with most of the Edam and the Vallagret.

Then the béchamel

and everything mixed, then the rest of the Edam sprinkled on top with a little crushed cracker.

Into the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes while I make a vegetable to accompany my Mac and Cheese.

It came out looking like this.

Baby spinach with parmesan cheese

It takes a lot of spinach to make a serving of spinach. What I show here barely makes two servings when sweated down

I added a splash of white wine with the spinach leaves because I like white wine and sweated down the spinach. In no time at all, you have considerably less spinach to work with. It's ok to add more spinach as it cooks down. Sometimes, I'll add more to the sauté pan three or four times.

This isn't a lot of parmesan. It just looks that way when micro-planed.

To the wilted spinach, I added a couple of Tablespoons of white wine, the same amount of heavy cream and the parmesan

Plated:

Fork Views

Not a bad Monday night dinner.

Now, go buy some cheese from university educated Cows. I promise you won't regret it.

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