(no subject)

[axelrod]

I am looking for an easy, made-from-scratch mac&cheese recipe.

I'm also open to more complicated recipes with more than the bare minimum of ingredients, but the priority is something that is dead easy, for those times when everything seems overwhelming and just too complicated - not that physical tiredness isn't a problem for me sometimes, but it's the mental-level stuff that really becomes the obstacle, you know?

I strongly prefer something made from scratch, because that works out to be cheaper and I want to make mac&cheese one of my staples, but if there's a mix that you adore feel free to toss that out (I like Annie's, myself) since sometimes it is a choice between something premade and just not eating an actual meal.

I do not like cheddar cheese-based mac&cheese. Monterey jack cheese is already one of my staples but I am all about the dairy products and am not opposed to regularly buying another kind of cheese as well.

Ways of adding animal protein which don't make the recipe much more complicated would be awesome too. I don't think of mac&cheese as something you put meat in, but I'm willing to experiment.

I'm also interested in different ways of seasoning mac&cheese - I've used nutmeg and paprika in the past.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

ETA: I, personally, do not eat pork, though including recipes and variations which do for the sake of other members of the comm is fine with me. 

Comments

[fred_mouse]

A friend used to put cubes of polony or other processed meat in his macaroni cheese, because it didn't require cooking, so didn't require a second pot. Pretty sure he used to boil the pasta til nearly done, drain, put the pasta back in the pot, add milk to nearly cover it, add the meat, and leave it to heat. When it looked like the milk was hot, he would mix cornflour (two tbsp, I think - I watched him make it a lot, but it was a long time ago) and cold milk or water, and then pour it in - it needed to be stirred pretty thoroughly, as it would thicken really fast. Then he would turn off the heat and mix in the cheese that he had grated while waiting for the pasta to boil.