Bethany and her scientist father mostly ate take-out, but she did make mac-n-cheese on occasion and loved it. This delicious twist on the classic recipe escalates the kid-menu food all the way to the adult table. And the recipe can be made for potlucks, family get-togethers, neighborhood parties, etc. Or if you’re one of those anti-social types like Bethany and her dad, you can make the large pan and freeze a portion for later use. Move over boxed mac-n-cheese—there’s a new mac daddy in the house.
BETHANY’S POTLUCK-STYLE BAKED MAC-N-CHEESE
Ingredients:
2 boxes of 16oz large shell macaroni, cook al dente
1 package 8oz shredded sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 package 8oz shredded pepper jack cheese
1 roll of Ritz crackers, crumbled
1 cup butter
1/3-1/2 stick of butter
Sriracha or hot sauce
¼ cup milk
½ tbsp. chicken bullion
1¾ cups flour
2 cups heavy cream
4oz cream cheese
Directions:
Cook shells al dente, per directions on box
Roux:
Melt 1 cup butter in large soup pot, med-high heat
Wisk in 1 ¾ cups flour until thick paste forms
Add ½ tbsp. chicken bullion
Add in 2 cups heavy cream, both packages of shredded cheeses, and 4oz cream cheese and mix well
If sauce is too thick, add ¼ cup milk (or more if needed) to thin
Add a few squirts of Sriracha or hot sauce and mix
Mix in the cooked noodles and coat evenly
Pour into large casserole dish
Topping:
Melt 1/3-1/2 stick butter
Using a rolling pin, crumble a stack of Ritz crackers in the package
Combine the crackers and melted butter in a bowl and saturate the crumbs with butter
Add a few squirts of Sriracha or hot sauce
Sprinkle atop the mac-n-cheese and broil until toasty
Eat. Enjoy. Repeat.
Bethany should be dead, just like the doctors predicted.
But along came the butterflies, altering the order of nature.
And now nature is hell bent on revenge.
Because when fate’s path is disrupted, it’s only a matter of time before balance must be restored.
At birth, Bethany Keatley was diagnosed with a rare bone disease and sent home from the hospital to die. Despite losing her mother to cancer before she turned two, Bethany defeated her prognosis and now, at fifteen, with hindered growth making her appear ten years old, she is alive and well thanks to the hormone injections which her scientist father developed.
But if growing up isn’t hard enough already, being small makes her a target and a social outcast. The only way she’s been able to escape her high school tormenters so far is by working hard, achieving good grades, and through her unusual friendship with star football player Jeremiah Wright. That is until a misunderstanding with new girl Zoey Margold. Beautiful and brazen, Zoey and her followers make it their focus to break Bethany.
Yet dealing with the bullies becomes the least of Bethany’s worries. The mice on which her dad tests the butterfly hormone are showing side effects no one saw coming and now her plan to leave the small minded town of Springs, Georgia and become a scientist has all but shattered. Her world becomes a prison and her existence a life sentence.
But nature has her own plans for Bethany.
Haunting. Twisted. Incredible. Like nothing you’ve ever read before.
ABOUT REBECCA:
Rebecca Carpenter is a native of western Colorado. She is married with two grown children and four awesome grandchildren. She owns and runs a large childcare center where she shares her love for books. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing, and exploring the beautiful mountains of Colorado.
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