Toasted Mac and Cheese with Bacon Melt

Welcome to the Air Comfort Solutions Kitchen as the weather gets cooler, grilling season is coming to an end at least outside. In this edition of the Cooking Corner, our friend the Cowboy Cook Jeff Tracy shows us how to do a hearty mac and cheese grilled sandwich.

Ingredients

16oz Elbow Macaroni or 2 Box’s Kraft mac and cheese

4 tbsp. butter

1/4 c. ½ and ½

3 c. shredded Wisconsin aged cheddar cheese

4 slices cooked bacon, chopped

4 pieces of Canadian bacon (Ham)

8 Sourdough Rounds

Directions

Cook elbows until they are almost soft, then drain and add two tablespoons of butter while the pan is still warm enough to melt the butter. Then add the ½ and ½ along with the bacon pieces and grated or shredded Wisconsin-aged sharp cheddar. Fold it all together.

Butter both sides of each sourdough round. Cover the rounds with cheddar cheese, then spoon macaroni and more cheddar cheese on top. Ad a round on top, you have the option here to put more Cheese on the top of the round.

Place the sandwich on a baking sheet with parchment and pop it in the oven at 400* until the cheese melted and has a nice crust on it. You can

also do this in a frying pan if you wish. I use the oven with parchment it’s a bit less to clean up afterward.

You can also place round-cut ham, or as it’s known, Canadian Bacon on the bottom round before you add the mac and cheese. It will take a minute or so longer to cook but keep an eye on it so as not to burn the whole sammich!

When I make these, I don’t normally use the powered cheese mixture in the box. It’s your choice. It certainly won’t hurt anything.

Arugula Salad

4 cups young arugula leaves, rinsed and dried

2 roasted skinless chicken breasts cut into strips

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

4 large radishes sliced

1/3 cup halved black olives

1/3 cup cashews

¼ cup halved black olives

6 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoon raspberry vinegar

salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles

Directions

In a large bowl, combine arugula, cherry tomatoes, radishes, cashews, oil, vinegar, Blue Cheese crumbles Parmesan cheese. Add the Raspberry vinegar and oil dressing, mix a bit more. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss well to mix.

Place the chicken breast strips on top of the mixed salad