Mac-n-cheese via white sauce method? Bah I say!

So last night I finally took the next big leap forward with the pasta thing that originally came from ellsea. I made macaroni and cheese.

(Well okay, technically it wasn't macaroni because I used rotini. But really, any of the pasta things that comes in short small pieces works well (rotini, rotelle, radiatori (my favorite!), penne, ziti, macaroni, shells, wagon wheels, etc.).) (Nested parentheticals are fun!)

1 box pasta
1 pint heavy cream
half a stick of butter
8 slices of sharp cheddar
five hot dogs, sliced into small pieces
green peas (around the same amount as a mound of five hot dogs cut into pieces)
paprika
black pepper
cayenne pepper
salt

Boil the pasta.

While that's going, melt the butter in a pan. Pour in the cream after butter is melted. When cream starts bubbling, add cheese. Stir as it melts until it becomes sauce. Sprinkle in the spices. Keep stirring.

When pasta is nearly done, add the hot dogs to the pot. (Hot dogs come precooked so it's mostly just to heat them up). Dump the peas in the bottom of the colander. Drain the pasta and hot dogs over the peas. Pour pasta, hot dogs, and peas into the sauce. Mix together.

This tastes excellent. :) Much, much better than all my past attempts to make mac-n-cheese using the white sauce method. (butter + flour = roux, add milk, add cheese). Also much faster and with less to clean up.

It also works well with ham instead of hot dogs (I have an overabundance of hot dogs in my freezer, hence why I used those last night). And probably with other types of veggies as well - though I'm not sure spinach is quite right. Maybe broccoli, or carrots, or corn. Also it's good just with the pasta and cheese sauce by itself.

The reason I made this was because I had a bunch of slices of cheddar and nothing to do with them because I was tired of sandwiches.