Loving the Neely's!

The Neely's used to get on my nerves being so lovey dovey and all but they totally grew on me! In fact, I even downloaded their last season to watch on my iPhone! Their recipes are simple and down to earth. (I guess that's why they're called "Down Home" with the Neely's right?) I watched their Christmas Special and one of the dishes that I knew I had to try was the Spicy Mac and Cheese. We LOVE Mac and Cheese at our house and I'm always looking for new ways to jazz it up and this dish did NOT disappoint! I couldn't find Chorizo or White Cheddar so I substituted some Spicy Pork Sausage and Sharp Yellow Cheddar instead. I've actually never roasted tomatoes before and at first I was gonna get lazy and skip that step but I'm SO glad I didn't! It only took 20 minutes and SO totally worth it! The tomatoes became so intensely flavorful and you'd never guess they were only drizzled with some olive oil, salt and pepper. I'm glad I made a double batch too cuz those tomatoes would be good in just about anything, even by themselves! Now back to how yummy the Mac and Cheese was. The crunchy Fried Onion topping was just PERFECT and we love spicy food so this was our kinda meal! I know the left-overs won't last long in the fridge!