• Blog
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Nav Social Icons

  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Hospitality
    • Cooking
    • Hosting
    • Household Management
    • Celebrate
    • Basics
  • Lovely Living
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Favorites
    • Hobbies
    • Parenting
    • Personal Care
    • Reflections
  • Recipes
    • Appetizer
    • Main Dish
    • Sides
    • Dessert
    • Breakfast
    • Beverage
  • Chronicles
    • The Lovely Archives
    • Family
    • Hurley House
    • Ina
    • Journals
  • Shop
    • Beauty
    • Closet
    • Cookbooks
    • Gifts
    • Home
    • Kitchen
    • Library
    • Needlepoint
    • Organization
    • Table
  • Blog
  • About
  • Mobile Menu Widgets

    Connect

    Search

  • Hospitality
    • Hosting
    • Household Management
    • Cooking
    • Basics
    • Celebrate
  • Lovely Living
    • Fashion
    • Favorites
    • Hobbies
    • Parenting
    • Beauty
    • Personal Care
    • Reflections
  • Recipes
    • Appetizer
    • Main Dish
    • Sides
    • Dessert
    • Breakfast
    • Beverage
  • Shop
    • Beauty
    • Closet
    • Cookbooks
    • Gifts
    • Home
    • Kitchen
    • Library
    • Needlepoint
    • Organization
    • Table
  • Chronicles
    • The Lovely Archives
    • Family
    • Ina
    • Journals
    • Hurley House
  • About

Macaroni and Cheese

August 22, 2019 · In: Recipes, Sides

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Some posts need a lot of words to convince you to try a recipe . Other posts need only a well-known title and a drool-worthy photograph. This is one of those posts.

Who doesn’t know and love Macaroni & Cheese? If there’s such thing as a classic American comfort food, this might be it. I have been perfecting this recipe for years, road testing it on my children, and it has received five gold stars from the Sasser youth.

The truth is, even bad Macaroni & Cheese is good. Even the stuff made from a box with the powdered neon orange “cheese” is good. My point is, I don’t have to sell you on Macaroni & Cheese.

What I do need to sell you on, and what I hope won’t keep us from continuing to respect one another, is the fact that the secret to really delicious, really creamy, really top-notch Macaroni & Cheese is a very low-brow ingredient. I’m talking about Velveeta.

I won’t even pretend to call it cheese. It’s not. It sits on the shelf and requires no refrigeration. It’s not cheese, really. But it is the secret to the macaroni universe, and I want you to know if there was another way, I would have found it.

There is not another way. Embrace the Velveeta. Your Macaroni & Cheese will thank you.

Macaroni and Cheese

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 pound elbow macaroni
  • 4 cups whole milk (do not even think about using low-fat or non-fat milk!)
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 12 ounces American or Velveeta cheese, cut into large chunks
  • 8 ounces Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons Kosher salt

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add 1/4 cup Kosher salt to the water. Add the pasta and cook according to the directions on the package. You want the pasta to be completely cooked, but with a bit of a bite, which for most standard elbow pastas is around 9 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
  • Meanwhile, heat the milk. You can do this is a small pot on the stove, or you can do it in a large glass measuring cup in the microwave. You want the milk to be steaming, but not boiling. Set it aside once it is hot.
  • In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook the butter and flour, whisking constantly, for 2 minutes. Continue whisking and slowly add the hot milk, whisking to remove any lumps. Continue whisking and cooking until you see a few bubbles pop on the surface and the mixture is thick and smooth.
  • Off the heat, add both of the cheeses, the Kosher salt, and the pepper. Stir until the cheeses are completely melted. Sometimes if my cheese is quite cold, I have to return the pot to the stove briefly (over low heat) to facilitate complete melting.
  • Add the cooked pasta to the cheese sauce, and stir well. Pour into a 9X13 baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly.

Notes

To make the macaroni and cheese ahead, refrigerate the completed dish before baking.  Add 5-10 minutes to the total cook time.

By: Katherine Sasser · In: Recipes, Sides · Tagged: pasta

you’ll also love

Spaghetti Pie
Tomato Cheddar Pie
Bunny’s Brew

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Next Post >

Ina In A Year: Week 47

Primary Sidebar

Search

Featured Posts

Spring Favorites

New Cookbooks I Am Really Enjoying

My Favorite Pie Baking Supplies

Latest on Instagram

katherinesasser

katherinesasser


See those brass tacks holding my canvas onto that
See those brass tacks holding my canvas onto that wooden frame? 

The wooden frame is made from stretcher bars, and there is a cool little tool I use to install the tacks. The whole set up isn’t complicated, but if you’re a visual learner like me, I made a little video tutorial for you over on the blog!

Elevating the everyday is not about fussy, braggad
Elevating the everyday is not about fussy, braggadocios gestures. It’s about imputing dignity and beauty into otherwise mundane or ordinary occurrences. 

It’s not about perfection. It’s about discovery. 💗

Felt right to wear a dress for Tag Sale Day! Bring
Felt right to wear a dress for Tag Sale Day! Bring on the tablecloths and tea sandwiches…let’s elevate the everyday!

Week Two of the Summer Cookbook Club is complete,
Week Two of the Summer Cookbook Club is complete, and this week was a doozy! Two big recipes with very different results. 

Check out the blog post and video for all the details!

This season’s hottest new accessory is the Ring
This season’s hottest new accessory is the Ring Pop Popsicle! 

Fantastically frosty, subtly sweet, and available in shades sure to make you salivate, this is the seasonal bling you’ve been craving. 😉

Breakfast Salad has become such an integral part o
Breakfast Salad has become such an integral part of my routine that I made it an official blog post, complete with back story, testimonial, and a recipe! Salad for breakfast? Yes please!!


Load More...



Follow on Instagram


Browse by Category

Hi, I'm Katherine

Hi, I'm Katherine
hello!

I share lifestyle content through the lens of hospitality. If you are interested in learning about the beauty that creating space can bring, you've come to the right place!

Read More

Connect

Recent Posts

Summer Cookbook Club: Week 3

Stretcher Bar and Tack Kit Tutorial

Archives

Follow Along

@katherinesasser

See those brass tacks holding my canvas onto that See those brass tacks holding my canvas onto that wooden frame? 

The wooden frame is made from stretcher bars, and there is a cool little tool I use to install the tacks. The whole set up isn’t complicated, but if you’re a visual learner like me, I made a little video tutorial for you over on the blog!
Elevating the everyday is not about fussy, braggad Elevating the everyday is not about fussy, braggadocios gestures. It’s about imputing dignity and beauty into otherwise mundane or ordinary occurrences. 

It’s not about perfection. It’s about discovery. 💗
Felt right to wear a dress for Tag Sale Day! Bring Felt right to wear a dress for Tag Sale Day! Bring on the tablecloths and tea sandwiches…let’s elevate the everyday!
Week Two of the Summer Cookbook Club is complete, Week Two of the Summer Cookbook Club is complete, and this week was a doozy! Two big recipes with very different results. 

Check out the blog post and video for all the details!
This season’s hottest new accessory is the Ring This season’s hottest new accessory is the Ring Pop Popsicle! 

Fantastically frosty, subtly sweet, and available in shades sure to make you salivate, this is the seasonal bling you’ve been craving. 😉
Breakfast Salad has become such an integral part o Breakfast Salad has become such an integral part of my routine that I made it an official blog post, complete with back story, testimonial, and a recipe! Salad for breakfast? Yes please!!
Yesterday in The Lovely I wrote about how I am not Yesterday in The Lovely I wrote about how I am not good at what I call summering.

Summering is when we embrace a season of rest. I am good at daily and weekly recharging, but an entire season of rest? Ummm, not my strong suit.

And so, when faced with something I am not yet good at, I approach it the same way I approach anything else I want to learn. I dive in and do the thing!

If you need me, I will be actively summering. Flubbing it up, figuring it out, and knowing that learning by doing is the way forward.
Lillian chose a smoky purple. Norah went with a pu Lillian chose a smoky purple. Norah went with a punchy pink. And I stuck with my favorite red. Let flip flop season begin!

Copyright © 2022 ·