Cheese Explosion

So funny story: over 2 weeks ago, I walked in to volunteer at the East End Food Coop for my usual Tuesday afternoon shift, when I noticed that all of the cheese coolers were empty.  Apparently some pipes had some leaks in them, and so they had to take everything out.  Even though the merchandise was still good, they couldn't sell any of it.  But they could give it away to employees and loyal volunteers (aka me).  After my shift is done, and I've been told by at least 5 different people about the free cheese and tofu products they have, I make my way back to the veggie cooler to find the holy grail of cheese: an entire cart full of local artisan cheeses, from Monterrey Jack to Cheddar to Swiss to Colby to Mozzarella to Provolone to Smoked Gouda to Sage Jack.  They encouraged me to take as much as I wanted and to not forget my friends who might like some too.  I walked out of there with well over 20 bricks of cheese.

Needless to say, we've been working through the cheese bit by bit, but we still have a lot left.  Tonight, I braved my fears and made homemade macaroni and cheese.  My fear lies in the fact that I grew up on the blue box stuff, so my view of Mac n Cheese is rather narrowly limited to that.  My fear is that I don't know what real Mac n Cheese should taste like.  But fear no more, I say.  I found out tonight!

I adapted a recipe from allrecipes.com.  Here's what I did:

Preheated the oven to 400 degrees.  Greased a 9X13 casserole pan.  Boiled for 8 minutes in a pot too small (note to self for next time) 1 pound (16 oz.) wheat elbow macaroni.  Drained pasta.

While that was boiling, I combined the following in a large bowl, almost too small for the end product (note to self for next time):
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 cup shredded provolone
1 1/2 cup shredded colby
1 cup shredded swiss
1/2 cup shredded smoked gouda
1 cup shredded monterrey jack

Mmmm....cheese explosion....

Next I made the sauce:
3/4 cup plain yogurt (subbed for sour cream which I didn't have)
3/4 cup heavy cream (arteries began to clog at this point in the night)
1/4 cup chicken broth (the recipe's reviews said it was a little dry, so I added this)
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. Jamaican jerk seasoning (probably could've used more)

Wait...there's nothing in here!  Because Alyssa forgot to take the picture when it was full :-(

Finally, I combined the drained pasta and cream/yogurt sauce with the cheese.  Stirred thoroughly, popped it in the pan, and topped with a little bit of cheese I reserved and bread crumbs. 

Popped it in the oven for 10 minutes, until the cheese was melted.  Then put it under the broiler for about 3-5 minutes, and voila!

Cheese explosion turned yummy goodness, topped with fresh parsley.

The only thing that slightly redeemed the health factor for this meal was serving it alongside steamed broccoli and sliced tomatoes.

But take my advice: don't go back for seconds (note for next time).  Your tummy (and arteries) will thank me.