Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Its just about a requirement that all Americans love macaroni and cheese in some form and at some time in their lives, I’m no different. Growing up, my mother made a creamy homemade mac and cheese with a sauce that was smooth as silk and permeated every particle of perfectly cooked macaroni. It was my brother’s favorite so she usually made it every Sunday.
As a teen, we all became well acquainted with the boxed stuff, thrilling over the marvel and convenience of the powdery sauce which combined with milk to deliver the ideal after school snack for three busy young people on the go.
After I had my own kids, however, I quickly learned why my mother seldom ate Mac and Cheese. My kids loved it so much that I got burned out just from stirring those countless pots of pasta.
Then a few years ago I realized something - I missed my mac and cheese. I needed to reacquaint myself with it. While my mother’s mac and cheese is to die for, I longed for a stringy, cheesy, casseroley, version in my adult years. Something as far from the boxed stuff as I could get without introducing things my children would consider “weird”. Voila, Baked Macaroni and Cheese was born.
Those of you who subscribe to my email newsletter will receive an added bonus at the end of this week because I am also sending you my mother’s macaroni and cheese recipe as well as this one in my weekly recipe email!
2 1/2 cups uncooked macaroni
2 1/2 T flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
Pepper to taste (I use about a teaspoon)
4 T margarine
3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup milk
Cook pasta until tender, drain. Mix all dry ingredients together, set aside. Spray oven safe bowl or dish with cooking spray. Place half of macaroni inside. Sprinkle half of the flour mixture over top and top with half of the margarine, sliced into small slices. Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups cheese over. Repeat. Pour milk over all. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for thirty five minutes. Remove foil, bake an additional ten minutes. Serve hot.
Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy lives to read Southern Plate! I want to especially thank you for all of your comments and emails! I am usually a little behind on responding (so I can keep getting more recipes up and posted!) but I read every single one of them and always respond as soon as I can. You are all such incredibly wonderful people and I appreciate all of the extraordinary kindness you have and continue to show me!
Gratefully,
Christy
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Christy, that looks so easy to make not to mention delicious. I’m so tired of the box stuff. I will definitely be serving this one up.
Laura-Athens
Oooh its yummy. I eat it by itself whenever I make it. Did you know you can get out a whole bowl full if you do it while its hot and then just kinda smooth it back down in the dish and no one can tell!?
~grins~
Christy
I have never made it in the oven, I have always done it on the stove top, I will have to try this. My kids don’t love it as much as I do though! I was raised on this stuff! They and my Hubby like the box stuff, yuck! I am trying and loven all your recipes!!
My girls LOVE homemade macroni & cheese. In fact, every year I make it and take to friends house the day before Thanksgiving. The kids have a half-day and so we eat lunch together and the mom there makes me Pumpkin Roll! yum yum!!!
I can almost smell yours baking now… Thanks for sharing.
Hey!! thank y’all so much for reading and taking the time to comment!!! My mother makes a PHENOMENAL pumpkin roll! I am going to get her to do it soon so I can post it soon!
This mac and cheese definitely seems to appeal to moms, I dont know why kids and husbands insist on that boxed stuff when they can have this! LOL!
Hope y’all are having a great day! i’m hoping to get caught up on my comments today, we’ll see!
Christy
I would love to try your Mother’s macaroni and cheese recipe also, the ony she made when you were a child. Would you please send it to me or is it posted anythere.
I am going to try making your version of macaroni and cheese. Loved the pictures to assist with the directions. Looks delicious. I have tried many different recipes and most of them come out grainy and on the dry side for me, but yours looks yummy!
Hey Lorraine!
I sent it out as a bonus recipe to my email subscribers the week I sent this one out (I send printer friendly versions of my recipes to email subscribers, usually once a week but during Christmas and now my current plague of illness on the kids I’m behind). I don’t think I still have it typed up but I’ll try to get it posted on SP soon for ya! If I run across it during my chaos, I’ll shoot it right off to ya, too!!!
Its been a loooooooooooooooooong sleep deprived week! I probably shouldn’t be responding to comments on this little sleep as I have no idea what I am actually saying at this point. Hmmm…maybe a shower and a nights sleep are in order. Wonder if the kid’s colds and coughs will cooperate?
Thank you for commenting, I’m enjoying reading them!!
Gratefully,
Christy
I love mac and cheese and this recipe looks wonderful! I can almost taste it - I think I’ll make it this weekend. I have no idea how my kids can stand the boxed stuff either!
Thanks for all of your great recipes!
Beth
Wow, that looks divine! I can’t wait to try it. I wonder how it’d be with some chunks of ham in it? Or some sort of veggie? Do that, and you would have an entire meal!
This looks so good and is an easy recipe and fast. Guess what I am making tonight for supper! Thanks for the great recipes. You make cooking easy Christy!
I have a recipe for scalloped potatoes that layers the ingredients just like that! Except it uses sliced potatoes instead of pasta. Cool. I really like the way that mac ‘n cheese looks - so cheesy and delicious!
oh girl, I think I just gained 10 lbs drooling over the pictures!! I can’t wait to go to the store and get cheddar cheese (it never lasts around my daughter
she’s going to flip over this. I’ll probably end up using shells since I have loads of them on hand…but either way I can’t wait!
I can almost guarantee you if you serve this to the folks who “think” the box mac-n-cheese is good, they will change their minds!!
Tks for the recipe!!
Peyton’s Mimi
This looks so yummy!! Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Rosemary Mahoney
rosemarym@careington.com
OMG this looks so yummy! I bet your mom’s recipe is like mine - I will find out soon! I’m going to have to try this, it seems pretty painless compared to the way I normally do it.
BTW, I’m having issues with your comments lately. It doesn’t want to let me use my google id.
Mac & cheese!!! WhooHoo!!!
BTW Christy. I meant to tell you I saw your column in the News Courier today. Love the apple dapple cake! Look forward to reading it each week.
Laura-Athens
This looks so good. I have never baked my mac n cheese, but have had it at countless pot lucks and have wondered how to make it. Thanks
I love mac and cheese, but mine is a bit hit or miss - sometimes really creamy and other times really dry. Am looking forward to trying your recipe. Am really enjoying your e-mails and the wonderful inspirational dishes.
Oh how I love mac and cheese. I am really enjoying your newsletters too!
I’ve always had Mac and Cheese made with Velveeta. Ricky Martin even sang about it…”Livin Velveeta Loca”:)
I love any kind of Mac and Cheese except the powdered kind.. I can’t eat it.. and if I can’t eat it, ya know there’s something wrong with it!
I will try this. It looks awesome.
I can’t even put together a coherent comment this looks so good….
Wow… not out of a box? I can’t wait to fix this for the family!
Did you know that Picadilly puts NUTMEG in theirs??
*Quote Christy..”I’ll announce the winner of the slow cooker giveaway before I go to bed tonight!”
Christy..follow this watch..you’re feeling sleeeepy.. sleeeepy…..
This is one of my favorite comfort foods. I have never tried it this way though. I have always did it the hard way.:) My kids ask me once in awhile for the homemade. I think they like that better then the box. Well I guess that is wishful thinking on my part.:) I may to make this version soon.:) I made your chicken soup. It was yummy. I didn’t add enough salt though. Thanks for all the hard work you put into this.
Sharon:)
OH MY……I’m hungry now! NOthing like good old gooey Mac and Cheese! TFS!
This looks really good. I have a version too. Actually, I’m hosting Soul Food Sunday this weekend. I’m cooking a killer menu, cornbread dressing, braised beef short ribs, fried catfish, smothered chicken, collard greens - you name it! I’ll put up the pics Sunday night!
-DTW
http://www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com
It’s me again. I remember when I was a little girl growing up in TN we always had this apple cake at our church potlucks. I know it had several layers and it was so yummy. I can’t find a recipe for it and I was hoping that you might have one. All I remember was that it tasted really good and it had like three or four thin layers. Hope you can help.:) I want to make this for my family. Hope you are having a great day.:) Thanks.:)
Sharon:)
Hey everybody!!! I’m sorry I’m so behind this week! I’m doing my best to focus on posting for SP and there is just so much going on with the kids schools that I haven’t had the time i’d like to respond to comments but it is on my list and I am reading every one of them and grinning from ear to ear!!!
Sharon, I am pretty sure you are describing an apple stack cake. My great grandmother used to make them. Email me at christy@southernplate.com and I’ll get you some recipes for it! oh dear, I still owe someone some pie recipes…I’ll do that tomorrow, promise!!
Night y’all! I’m gonna go crash and dream of tutorials…I did two more today!
Christy
I have to admit, I did used to like the box mac ‘n’ cheese myself. The cheese powder they use is so cheesy, I would love finding chunks of the powder that hadn’t dissolved completely.
Mac ‘n’ cheese must be one of the easiest things to make, but I get it so wrong all the time. It usually gets all hard and dries up, or is not quite cheesy enough, or I use too much milk/cream and it’s far too wet.
I made this the other day. I thought it was OK but my husband complained that it was too dry. Maybe because I use 2% milk? I wonder if it would be better with that velveeta cheese sauce?
Could it have been the pan you baked it in. I’ve noticed if you use a 9 by 13 cake pan, it seems to come out drier. If you use a caserole pan or a deeper bowl it seems to come out creamier.
thats an excellent observation! I have always baked mine in a dish like I showed in the tutorial so I never really thought about what would happen in a 9×13 inch! thank you!
Hey April! Mine has always come out more on the gooey side. I do use whole milk but I wonder if maybe you should use a little more, maybe your pasta soaked up a bit more liquid?
My mom’s recipe for mac and cheese is made with velveeta which she makes into a sauce by adding milk and seasonings, its delicious, too! I sent it out to all of my email subscribers with their weekly recipes when I sent this one. I’ll post it on here eventually, promise!!!
~Christy
Looks good!
Can you double/triple the recipe. I have to feed about 20 folks~
I always make the custard type of mac & cheese with eggs, half n half, etc, but will try this method.
Thanks for your recipes!
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Is there any way I can get your Mothers mac and cheese recipe?
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I need you to send me your baked macaroni and cheese recipe! Looks delicious!
Now that’s what I call Mac-n-cheese! Your mom’s looked good, but man that looks even better! (Sorry mom)…*drooling over the ooey gooieness*
I made this but gonna have to halve the recipe next time–this is a ton of mcaroni! Think I’ll swap velveeta for the cheddar next time too. . . Love the site–made some fried taters this weekend too–dang, I had forgotten how good they are!!!!
ok, i just made my first mostly from scratch meal: pan fried pork chops, your baked mac and cheese, corn bread, and string beans.Nike!!! i’m so excited. i followed the recipe and it is so good. i’m well on my way to becoming a rspectable magnolia state girl. next week i’ll try biscuits. thanks christy.