If you're into that sort of thing

You can make a pretty decent Frappuccino knockoff at home, if you are so inclined.

Milk. Skim, Whole, Cow, Goat, Soy, whatever.
1 spoonful of instant coffee (quantity depends on your masochism level)
1 healthy squirt of Hershey's syrup (I always was partial to the mocha fraps)

Sweetener of some sort. Splenda, real sugar, Whatever.

Mix the whole shebang together (or if you're feeling sassy, throw it in a shaker). I will warn you, the instant coffee tends to take a bit to dissolve in the milk, but it will, eventually.

Of course, now I won't be able to sleep.

And because I can't remember if I have posted this before or not, it's worth repeating-

The Best Mac & Cheese, EVER.

Oh, thank you, thank you Alton Brown. I want to have your babies. We shall feed them Meat loaf and mac and cheese, and teach them the ways of food geekery.

If you're feeling fat/guilty/whatever, this works out just as well with skim milk, margarine, and 2% cheese. You can also use less cheese and more mustard/hot sauce.

8 ounces (1/2 package) macaroni. Elbows or shells, or corkscrews if you're feeling sassy.
Around 10 ounces of cheese. Give or take. Often I'll just use up whatever's floating around in the fridge, a little more, a little less, no big whoop. More on this in a minute-
3 tablespoons butter
3-4 tablespoons flour
2 cups or so of milk
a healthy teaspoon or two of dry mustard
a healthy shake (or 6) of hot sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste.


Cook your macaroni according to package directions. While that's going on, think about what cheese you want. I'm partial to sharp cheddar when I have it. However, I've used various combinations including portions of:
Cottage Cheese (just a few spoonsful)
String Cheese
Italian Blend
Cheese Whiz
Colby Jack
Pepper Jack
Parmesan
Sandwich cheese
Swiss
Taco Flavored cheese

I've yet to turn out a crappy batch of Mac and Cheese. The trick is the dry mustard & hot sauce. If you've got a really bland cheese mix going on, kick up the mustard and hot sauce quotient, to help out. The hot sauce really doesn't add much heat, you've got too much dairy goin' on for that. Anyway... the sauce.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in your flour and cook for a minute or two. Slowly, add your milk, whisking constantly until it's lump-free. Add the mustard and hot sauce and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (or near to it) until the mixture is thick, and reminds you of sauce (just as it comes to a boil, usually). Take the sauce off the heat, and stir in your cheese(s) a bit at a time, melting the previous addition thoroughly before adding the next. Once your cheese is incorporated, taste the sauce to see if you need to tweak the seasonings, then mix with the cooked, drained macaroni.

Pop the whole shebang into a lubed-up casserole dish, top with breadcrumbs, cornflakes, or just some parsley, and whip it into a 350 degree oven until the sauce sets up a bit and the top is a bit brown.

Yum!

Also: if your sauce won't get thick enough, it may be because there wasn't enough flour in the original roux. No big deal, you can tweak the quantities next time. In the meantime, you can fake it with a little cornstarch, and some extra cheese (parmesan's a good thickener). After it's in the oven, it thickens up a bit more too, so chances are, nobody will notice. Besides, even when Mac and Cheese is bad, it's damned good.