No matter the season, no matter the occasion, I’ve got the perfect side dish for you! Seriously, I’ve brought it to picnics and watched my pan be the only one that gets emptied. I’ve seen my relatives heap the stuff onto their plate by the ladle full. I’ve even witnessed my kids fighting over who gets the last of it. It’s that good. But what is it you ask? It’s my baked macaroni and cheese of course!

The best part of this recipe is that it’s easily doubled, or tripled, and the leftovers never go to waste! This past weekend I made as much as I could, and we tore through 2/3 of it in one sitting.

Here are the ingredients for a ‘modest amount:’

24 oz of elbow macaroni
1/2 cup of chopped onion
5 tablespoons of butter
5 tablespoons of flour
5 cups of milk
1 teaspoon mustard
1.5 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
and cheese.

One of the beautiful pieces of this recipe is that you can use whatever cheese you have in the fridge, and it will come out great.

I recommend the following: 1.5 cups mild cheddar, 1 cup sharp cheddar, 1 cup colby jack, and 1 cup mozzarella. Try to have it all finely shredded. It will melt easier.

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven for 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2) Put on the water, and cook the elbow macaroni according to the package.

3) Chopped onion and the butter go in a medium saucepan. Saute it for five minutes.

4) Pour in the flour, a little at a time, and stir it CONSTANTLY. It will clump up as you go, so as soon as you have the flour in, start pouring in some milk. Go slow. Stir it until everything moves smoothly. Then pour in the spices.

5) Heat the mixture up and start dropping in your shredded cheese. Stir in a little at a time, and make sure it melts into the mixture. If it’s too sharp, add in some more mozzarella. Taste it regularly, and when you have the taste down, when you lift a tasting spoon the mixture will be stringy.

6) Pour the cooked macaroni into the baking pan, and then pour the mix on top of it. You want to make sure the cheese mixture permeates the whole pan of macaroni. I recommend using a soft spatula. That way you can lift the macaroni without spilling it over the sides of the pan.

7) Cook for 30 minutes.

8) Fight over the backed mac and cheese. Get as much as you can because it’s going to go quick. If your child thinks they are entitled to the last spoonful, remind them that you’re the adult and take it. Trust me. They’ll understand when you teach them this recipe when they are older and they get to do the same exact thing to their children.

9) Experiment. Try new cheeses. It’s a very versatile recipe, and as I said, it works great no matter what you have. I’ve used american cheese, provolone, etc and it has had rave reviews every time.

10) Let us know how it goes! Come back and here and leave your tweaks in the comments!