i sure do wish i had that fancy white smiling glove to give me directions

all my local friends, at some point or another, have had mac n' cheese shoved down their throat by me.  i enjoy making crack n' cheese, and i'm pretty good at it.  i've learned many lessons over the years but for some reason i totally destroyed it this time.  i know that cheeses like cheddar break really easily at high temperatures unless you start with a roux.  i cannot use a roux, and i almost never ever use only cheddar for a mac n' cheese because i like to add something more creamy or exotic but my ego got the best of me.  i thought if i used fancy white cheddars they would behave differently.  they did not :-\  anyway, i call this fancy pants hamburger helper (do you get the white smiling glove thing now?)  ~1.25 hours cook + prep time, yields ten servings ~4 carbs per serving.

ingredients:

1 cup red wine
1 medium spaghetti squash
6 slices bacon
1 lb ground beef
24 oz cheese - grated
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp montreal steak seasoning
1 tsp beef base
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp ancho chili powder
0.5 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp dehydrated onion
0.5 tsp crushed red pepper

• preheat oven to 350F.
• cut spaghetti squash in half long ways.  this is pretty difficult because as soon as you get one knife in, it'll get stuck.  my strategy is to use two really strong, thickly bladed knives, and keep switching until one gets stuck and i can use the next.  you'll figure it out.  place the two halves of spaghetti squash open side down in a baking dish, add a cup or two of water to the bottom, until there is standing water all over the pan.  cover the pan loosely with aluminum foil and cook in the oven for ~1 hour or until you can stick a knife in it easily.
• cook bacon until extra crispy and set aside to drain off fat.  crumble it up into small pieces.  i have put many things over the top of a mac n' cheese to add texture, from crumbled hot fries, to potato chips, to bread crumbs, to croutons.  i'll use whatever seems like a good idea.  this time around, i'm using bacon to add some crisp to the top of it all.
• brown the ground beef in the bacon fat over medium heat.  keep breaking it up until it's in small pieces.  add all of the dry seasonings.  when the beef is completely cooked, add the beef base and the wine (beef wine again, you know i like it), turn heat up to medium-high and keep cooking until all of the liquid is cooked off.
• when squash is totally cooked, scoop out the seeds and throw away.  with a shallow pronged fork (i use a spork, cause i have one and its cool) gently slide through the squash fibers so that they come out looking like spaghetti.  place these, along with your meat, in a greased baking dish.
• to make your sauce, put cream in heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat.  when cream comes to a soft boil, begin adding your cheese in small increments until it is completely melted.  when sauce is thick and cheesy, add this to spaghetti squash and stir well.  add the crumbled bacon to the top of the mac n' cheese.
• everything is totally cooked, so i throw mine under the broiler for about five minutes until golden on top.

finished product.  once again, beware cheddar with out something else added to the sauce.  it ends up greasy like this cause the cheese breaks.  still delicious tho, just greasy.