{"id":232,"date":"2026-01-05T20:52:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/?p=232"},"modified":"2026-01-05T20:58:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T01:58:34","slug":"bacon-mac-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/?p=232","title":{"rendered":"Bacon Mac &amp; Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Cheese sauce:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>4 tablespoons butter or margarine<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>4 tablespoons all purpose flour<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1\/2 teaspoon salt<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>1\/2 teaspoon pepper<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2.5 &#8211; 3 cups milk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2 cups shredded cheese<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>100g Velveeta processed cheese (or 5 processed cheese slices)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>6 slices bacon (cooked and cut into pieces)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>600g elbow macaroni (cooked el dente)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Instructions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Add butter, flour, salt and pepper to a medium sauce pan, heat and stir with a whisk to form a roux.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gradually add milk and continue to whisk until smooth then cook until thickened and flour is cooked.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Turn off heat (I have an electric range and the residual heat will be enough to melt the cheese).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add shredded cheese, whisk until smooth and then repeat with processed cheese (whether using Velveeta or slices, cut processed cheese into smaller pieces to assist with blending).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Once sauce is complete, add bacon to the sauce.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cook pasta per package directions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Drain and briefly rinse pasta then add to a 5QT dutch oven or casserole dish with a lid.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add cheese sauce, blend well with pasta and bake (covered) at 350F, until mac is bubbling around the edges (about 30 mins).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Notes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We use thick cut bacon and cook it on a cookie sheet in the oven but any type or cooking method will work.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To reduce cooking time, prepare your sauce while your pasta is cooking.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If you make your sauce first, you may need to &#8220;loosen&#8221; it by whisking in a little additional milk before adding it to the pasta.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cheese sauce: Instructions: Notes:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thehicksons.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}