I have to admit that I really like mac&cheese.

Somewhere along the way it got added to my list of "comfort foods." Unfortunately, the corporate food scientists have done mac&cheese a disservice over the past years. Mac&cheese has become a cheap food over the years and the cheap stuff is, IMO, barely edible. This stuff is pretty foul (apologies to those who disagree).



The middle-of-the-road "upgrade" to the foul stuff above isn't bad.....but it isn't exactly good either. Not something you'd serve to the relatives at Thanksgiving, if you know what I mean. You know the kind I'm talking about, right? It's the version that has the metallic pouch filled with liquid cheese in it.



It's OK stuff......fills a niche in the pantry and has it's use.

The frozen varieties are sometimes foul, but sometimes half decent. But they're expensive and take up precious freezer space. And I've still not had one that I'd be happy about serving to guests.



So we've got bad, fair and half-decent.

Can you do better with homemade?

The answer to that is a resounding "YES!" It's not hard to make really good mac&cheese and it's not too much more expensive than the store-bought stuff. And I'm talking about a mac&cheese that'll make people go "WOW!" and roll their eyes in delight.

I'll post a recipe in a bit.

KIT'S BAKED MACARONI & CHEESE Makes 10-12 Servings Ingredients: ½ pkg. elbow macaroni (8 oz.) 1-½ tsp. salt or seasoned salt ½ cup butter or margarine 5 cups milk 1/3 cup un-sifted Flour 4 cups shredded extra sharp cheese (1 lb.) 2 tsp. dry mustard Directions: Cook pasta according to package directions.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  In a large saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter; stir in flour, mustard and salt.  Gradually stir in milk.  Cook and stir until mixture thickens slightly and bubbles.  Remove from heat.  Add 2 cups of the cheese; stir until melted.  In a large bowl, combine sauce with pasta.  Spoon the mixture into a greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish.  Top with remaining 2 cups of cheese.  Bake for 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.  Let stand 10 minutes.

My friend Kit gave me this recipe and it's served me well. I sometimes add a 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper to it but it works nicely as is.

Cracker Barrel extra-sharp cheddar does a really nice job here. I find the Cracker Barrel products to be overpriced, but they seem to show up on sale--usually "Buy one, getone"--fairly frequently.

Now for the details....

The ingredients are pretty simple.....


I like to weigh the macaroni out, but you can just divide a 16 oz. package by eye if you want.


Grease up a 9" X 13" (or so) baking dish with some shortening and set it aside.


Melt your butter while your starting the pasta to boil. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.


Grate your cheese up while the butter melts over low heat. Set the cheese aside.


Whisk the salt and mustard (pepper optional) into the melted butter over medium heat....don't let it brown.


Then slowly add the milk while continuing to whisk the mixture. When the mixture bubbles and has thickened a little bit, remove it from the heat and add half the reserved cheese. Mix until the cheese has melted.


The resulting mixture will look too soupy.....don't worry about that, it'll thicken and come together when it bakes. Don't get too worried about it....you aren't making some kind of fine French white sauce here.


Put the mixture in your baking dish and use a squeegee to get out all the sauce.


Cover uniformly with the remaining cheese and place baking dish in preheated oven.


Remove after 40 minutes or when the top is nicely browned.


Serve with hearty food of your choice.


Enjoy.

Quoted: looks good, but whats that on the plate in the background?

BBQ'd chicken breasts.

Quoted: I'm not a big one for mac n cheese (the kids and their boxes of 'yellow death' have ruined it for me), but that looks GOOD.  I'm going to have to try it. Thanks for sharing.

Give it a try and report back......I swear to you the homemade version is nothing like the crap in a box stuff you buy in the supermarket.