374 mil ---> ~1/4 cup? Not 375 or 373? Want to be sure I get it right.
<g>

> Once those were
>done, I removed those and added 374ml of Chardonnay and reduced it until
>it was about a quarter of a cup. I didn't want a bunch of extra liquid
>in the cheese sauce, of course. It turned out nice and creamy...not as
>creamy as Velveeta would have been, but it was still about what I
>expected.
>
>I had already baked three packages of Blue Ribbon brand hickory-smoked
>bacon. I probably ate half of a package while cooking <blush>, which is
>why I baked three packages. I wanted little bits of bacon in there, so
>I tossed it all in the food processor and gave it a few spins. And
>since this bacon somehow ended up with some little hard bits, I figured
>that it would be good to soften them up a little with the cheese sauce.
>
>So I mixed it all together and to me, it was taste bud ecastasy.
>
>I had to actually make two dishes of it because there was one person who
>I knew didn't like mushrooms. So I made a smaller dish just for her.
>And her granddaughter and her boyfriend got the macaroni & cheese
>without mushrooms, and they passed it to their grandfather. Four of us
>ate the one with mushrooms.
>
>One person said with some animation and enthusiasm, that LOOKS so good!
>And, of course, the smell of bacon wafted out of the dish, which helped
>the enthusiasm.
>
>As it turns out, nobody got seconds, nobody moaned in ecstasy, and
>nobody took any home with them, the third of which is fine. I don't
>like hauling home leftovers either.
>
>So.... I loved the stuff. I had never made it before and I didn't have
>a recipe or anything. I just made it up and I wondered if I'm a victim
>of cook's bias, or do you think a dish like this would really be that
>bad? Usually, at our get-togethers, if something is good, people moan
>and go "Mmmmmmmmm" and comment on how good things are. I didn't want to
>just come right out and ask anybody what they thought of it. I figured
>the silence was enough.
>
>Note: This is Texas, I might add... and a small town where lots of
>people like beans & cornbread, barbecue, chili, and foods like that. And
>perhaps some silence was because one family was upset that their oven
>had broken down and they had to bring the meat over to finish it off in
>the house where we were eating. That also means that the macaroni &
>cheese I made sat on the table untouched for about 35-40 minutes or so
>before anybody got any.
>
>What do you think? Did I try to get too fancy with macaroni &
>cheese? Maybe I should have just gotten a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese and
>stuck with that. (Yuck.)
>
>Damaeus