It's in the oven...I can smell it from up here.

[Sarah]

Macaroni is just pasta. You could use any kind of non-string pasta with the recipe S uses. Ziti, bow ties (farfalle), rotini, et cetera would all work.

I would have done S's recipe a little bit differently. I would have made a cheese sauce separately (oil/butter, water, shredded cheeses on a double boiler). Then I would add that sauce with the pasta and put more shredded cheese on top, maybe with bread crumbs and grated parmesan on the very top. Mexican cheeses would have made an interesting mix up for the cheese sauce.

I haven't ventured into any special cooking experiments lately. The last thing I did was a 10 pound vegetable barley lentil soup from scratch. Half of it is waiting in my freezer to be thawed.

Lately, I have considered making some chili. It's getting very cold here now, and that would warm me up very well. I haven't made any since I had to cut out all of that food, so this should be fun. I want to make it very spicy, to warm me up. I'm thinking 6 different kinds of peppers and lots of spices. I'm gonna see about putting some beans in it- probably black beans. I need to figure out the rest of the filler, though. Onions for sure. I've never tried putting rice in it, so that could be good. I'm definitely going to want crackers on the side. Yeah, this should be fun!

[SOLDIER #819]

I would have done S's recipe a little bit differently. I would have made a cheese sauce separately (oil/butter, water, shredded cheeses on a double boiler). Then I would add that sauce with the pasta and put more shredded cheese on top, maybe with bread crumbs and grated parmesan on the very top. Mexican cheeses would have made an interesting mix up for the cheese sauce.

It really wasn't a sauce per say (the end result is anything but). More like I just drained the pasta and added to it whatever would be the body. The only liquid there was was milk to keep it a bit moist. How would you go about making a cheese sauce out of the bare ingredients? Normally I rely on the heat of the pasta to melt down the necessaries (like Velveeta or whatever).

I have business with mah spicy chili.

Sounds reeeally good...

I eat a LOT of macaroni and cheese so i'm always adding variants to it. Adding meats (hot dogs!), seasonings, broccoli, and hot sauce as i see fit.

Hot sauce is a wonderful addition to mac and cheese if you need to change the flavor a bit. After serving it just douse it in something. I recommend Chalula Garlic Onion (or just original Chalula) but Tabasco's Chipotle is also fantastic.

Yeah, I was thinking of replacing one of the ingredients with pepper jack or chipotle cheddar and maybe throwing some sort of sausage into it. Only problem is that my mom's a vegetarian, so I can't do meat unless I make the effort to make half of it with and half without. As it stands I really want to get rid of the blandness, even if I have to pour tabasco all over it...That doesn't sound half bad, lol. Maybe I should take a cue from your Chalula and mince a clove or two of garlic into it.

My next mac & cheese is going to be a disaster.