So my girlfriend has decided to bring a dish to her parents notoriously bland Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and the only problem is she has a no cooking skills at all. I mean she has a hard time making ice…
I was thinking she could probably handle a homemade Mac & Cheese dish.
So I turn to you my friends for the definitive recipe.
Anybody?
Since I am given to understand that the Universal Binding Ingredient (Cream of Mushroom soup) is required for any Thanksgiving dish, from the Campbell’s site:
Crispy Macaroni & Cheese
from: Campbell’s Kitchen
Prep Time: 20 min. • Cook Time: 20 min.
Ingredients:
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell’s® Cream of Mushroom OR 98% Fat Free Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. prepared mustard
Generous dash pepper
3 cups hot cooked elbow pasta
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 can (2.8 oz.) French’s® French Fried Onions
Directions:
MIX soup, milk, mustard, pepper, pasta and 1 1/2 cups cheese in 1 1/2-qt. casserole.
BAKE at 400°F. for 20 min. or until hot.
STIR . Sprinkle with onions and remaining cheese. Bake 1 min. more or until onions are golden. Serves 4.
Tip:
Recipe may be doubled. Use 3-qt. shallow baking dish. Serves 8 as a main dish or 12 as a side dish.
Soupless recipe:
Macaroni and Cheese
1/8 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
1/8 cup flour
1 tbs Dijon mustard
Pinch cayenne
salt/pepper
1 can 385ml evaporated milk
1 cup shredded old cheddar
1 1/2 cup macaroni, cooked
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 350F. In large saucepan melt butter and cook onion. Stir in flour, mustard, salt pepper and cayenne, cook 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk. Bring to boil over med high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat, let cool 5 minutes, stir once or twice. Stir in cheddar until melted and sauce is smooth. Stir in macaroni until well combined. Put in welll greased casserole. Combine breadcrumbs, parmesan and parsley, sprinkle on top on mac. Bake 30 minutes.
Google “Patti LaBelle’s Over The Rainbow Mac & Cheese” and you will find a gazillion hits for the BEST recipe ever. Granted, it is a heart attack on a plate, but it is SO good!
My mac’n’cheese recipe does require that you be familiar with how to make a white sauce.
This involves cooking about a tablespoon of flour in enough olive oil (you could use butter, which is probably traditional, but olive oil is easier) to cover the bottom of a smallish pot (use a nonstick pot if you can) over high heat. When the flour/oil mixture is gold-colored (this should only take a few minutes), add 2 cups of milk and stir. Don’t worry, it will thicken more later.
Heat up some salted water to boiling and put a pound of noodles in. You don’t have to use as much water or as big a pot as you normally would for pasta, because the noodles won’t cook long enough that sticking together would be a problem. Cook the noodles for a couple of minutes. They won’t be soft, but you don’t want them to be. Drain them in a colander, but don’t rinse them.
Once you have your white sauce, add grated Cheddar cheese until the sauce is a medium yellow. Good cheese really makes a difference in this recipe- you want a traditional cheese, like an English farmhouse cheddar or a nice Wisconsin or California cheddar, not a highly processed cheese like Cracker Barrel or pre-packaged shredded cheddar. Add a sprinkle of nutmeg and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper. The sauce should taste fairly strongly of cheese by the time it is ready.
If you wanted to, you could add a (drained) can or two of tuna to the cheese sauce at this point.
Spray cooking spray on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Again, you could use butter, but this is easier.
Put the noodles and the cheese sauce together (in whichever pot is big enough to hold both). Mix them up, and dump them into the pan. Spread them out in the pan. Sprinkle some bread crumbs or matzo meal (available in the kosher section of the supermarket) over the top, and sprinkle on some paprika. Spray some cooking spray on the breadcrumbs.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, or until the bread crumbs start to look browned.
I’d like to second, third, fourth, fifth and SIXTH this suggestion. This stuff is as close to heaven as you’ll ever get in earthly food.
I would just like to say that any mac and cheese recipe can be enhanced by athe addition of Chipotle sauce! Tabasco makes a pretty fair version for those who want to procure some.
My dad has put the following in mac and cheese:
-left over spaghetti sauce
-canned tuna
-cut-up hot dogs
-cubed ham
-cubed ham loaf (that one I just couldn’t handle. We actually got in a fight over it)
The best Macaroni & Cheese recipe I’ve ever stumbled across is this one:[ul][li]Buy a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese[/li]Follow the instructions on the box[/ul]Mmmmm, perfect M&C, every time.
[QUOTE=tracer]
The best Macaroni & Cheese recipe I’ve ever stumbled across is this one:[ul][li]Buy a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese[/li][li]Follow the instructions on the box[/ul]Mmmmm, perfect M&C, every time.[/li][/QUOTE]
I…I just don’t know what to say.
Here is my favorite homemade mac and cheese recipe. I took it to Christmas dinner with my husband’s family last year, and even his cranky, nothing-is-ever-good-enough great aunt had two helpings!
Enough of these hoity-toity receipes (white sauce: sheesh!). Here’s mine.
Start with tracer’s recipe, brown and drain a half-pound of ground beef, and mix it in with as much chili powder as you like. Num, num!
[QUOTE=tracer]
The best Macaroni & Cheese recipe I’ve ever stumbled across is this one:[ul][li]Buy a box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese[/li][li]Follow the instructions on the box[/ul]Mmmmm, perfect M&C, every time.[/li][/QUOTE]
It absolutely has to be the “40% cheesier” or whatever. I don’t know, the noodles are different or something.
And I’ve never followed the instructions on the box; I just add milk and butter until it looks right. 
I know, I know, the instructions on the box can be a little bit confusing if you’ve never made Kraft Macaroni & Cheese before.
Fortunately, I have a webpage that gives step-by-step instructions as to how to make Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, in exacting unambiguous language. It’s from that immortal classic tome Vegetable-Free Living:
This recipe I gleaned from the program Good Eats:
Stovetop Mac & Cheese
• 6 oz Evaporated Milk
• 2 eggs
• ½ tsp hot sauce
• ¾ tsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• fresh black pepper
• ½ lb (2 cups) elbow macaroni
• 4 TBSP butter
• 10 oz cheese
Mix eggs, milk, sauce, dry mustard salt and pepper in a bowl. Cook macaroni and add butter. Add egg mixture to macaroni and butter. Fold in cheese.
Here’s the link you meant Nightingale (your link had an extra http etc. in it). I’ve made a similar recipe before (without the sour cream, I think) and it was the best mac & cheese I’ve had since grade school. (Our grade school cafeteria had some really good food and mac & cheese was one of my favorites.)
Abort!! Abort!!!
Don’t let her cook. Buy it or buy it read-to-cook.
I know its too late, but just needed to add this.
It isn’t real mac and cheese unless its baked. Period.
I am most definitely not a cook, but I love mac & cheese and decided a while back that I should learn how to make it. So I did an internet search, and found the following recipe at All Recipes. It isn’t from scratch, and there’s no fancy stuff in it, but it’s easy & yummy:
Ingredients
1 pound elbow macaroni (cooked)
1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup
1 ½ cups milk
16 oz cheese, shredded
¼ cup dry bread crumbs
Directions[ol]
[li]Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).[/li][li]In a large saucepan over low heat, warm soup and milk; stir. Add 1/2 cup of cheese to soup and remove mixture from heat when cheese is melted.[/li][li]Add macaroni to soup; stir and pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover with bread crumbs and remaining cheese.[/li][li]Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the cheese is a golden brown.[/li][/ol]
For the cheese, I like to use a mix of pepper jack and mild cheddar; it gives it just a little “kick.” It works just as well with all cheddar, though.