Originally from: http://www.thegoodiegirl.ca/best-homemade-macaroni-cheese/
This is something fun to do with tasty food so we wanted to share it for you! Enjoy!
I’ve recently had some encouragement to include more posts on non-sweets recipes. Since then, I’ve been looking at everything that I usually make, all my go-to recipes, to see if there were any exceptional ones to pass along to you.
So, today for you, I have the best homemade macaroni and cheese recipe.
This is a regular for us – I bring it to potlucks all the time and change up the recipe a little with new meat or cheese in it. This recipe is not fussy or even fancy, but it is amazingly good! Comfort food is a great way to describe it, whether you want to curl up on a cold wintery night with a plate of it or serve it as a side with pulled pork – the pan is always scraped clean – never any leftovers!
I like it best with bacon, but I’ve also made it with ham or chicken. I suppose you could even throw in some broccoli if you like too.
As an added bonus, this recipe is even better the longer it sits, in case you do have leftovers, you’ll be eager to get to lunch the next day!
Best Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
Ingredients
1¾ cups macaroni or other medium tubular pasta (like penne or fusili)
3 tablespoons butter
¼ cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon dry mustard
¼ teaspoon black pepper
⅛ teaspoon paprika
1½ cups 1% milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 cups grated cheese (your choice of type)
¼ cup breadcrumbs (I use PC Panko Crumbs)
Parmesan cheese for sprinkling
Bacon, Ham or Chicken – optional
Instructions
Boil the pasta until al dente, set it aside in the same pot (you will use it later). (You may want to stir in a little butter to keep the noodles from sticking).
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a medium sized sauce pan, over medium heat, melt the butter.
In a small bowl, mix together the the flour, salt, dry mustard, pepper, and paprika. Once mixed, pour into pan with melted butter.
Stir constantly over medium heat for about three minutes. It will form a paste.
Now, stir in the milk and cream, keeping on medium heat and whisking constantly for about 10 minutes, until the sauce thickens.
Remove from heat, and stir in 2 cups of the cheese, stirring until melted.
Pour the cheese sauce over the noodles gently until all noodles are covered.
Stir in bacon or desired meat.
Add half the noodles mixture to a 9×9 glass pan or casserole dish.
Sprinkle on about a cup of grated cheese and add the rest of the noodles.
Cover the top with the rest of the cheese and dust with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese (optional).
Bake (uncovered) for about 40 minutes, until it starts getting a slightly dry and browned on top.
Let it sit about 10 minutes before eating.
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This is one of my favorite recipes from my new cookbook (well, one of about 140 favorite recipes from my new cookbook—ha! I love food) and I wanted to share it with you because the title sounds very Christmasy AND it happens to be out-of-this-world yummy. It also happens to be a fabulous dish for the freezer: You can make it now, freeze it unbaked, then save it for one of those busy days during Christmastime when you don’t have time to make dinner but your family is banging their forks on the table. 
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add diced onion and minced garlic, and saute it until the onion starts to soften, about 4.992839948 minutes. 
Add some baby spinach…
And cook it, stirring constantly, until it’s lightly wilted, about 2.33049488787 minutes. 
Let it cool a bit, then place the spinach inside a few paper towels and squeeze out as much liquid as you possibly can. 
Give it a rough chop and set it aside. 
Now, back to the skillet you sauteed the spinach in: Turn the heat to medium-low, then melt some butter and sprinkle some flour over the top.
Whisk it together to make a roux, then cook it for a minute or two, stirring gently.
Slowly add milk, whisking out lumps as you go…
And cook it until the white sauce is thickened, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Turn off the heat and add salt and pepper…
And some basil and parsley! Stir it around and set it aside (you can add another 1/4 cup milk if it gets too thick!)
Now you need the cheese mixture! Ricotta, Parmesan, egg, a little more basil and parsley, a little salt and pepper…
Then drop in the spinach…
And stir it in. (And, if you’re me, eat a big spoonful. Raw eggs don’t scare me.)
Now grab some jumbo cooked pasta shells (let ’em cool) and use a spoon to smear the spinach/cheese mixture inside. Stuff ’em generously!
Place ’em seam side down in a 9 x 13 pan, whether it’s foil or ceramic. (Put a little marinara sauce in the bottom of the pan first.)
Pour the rest of the marinara evenly over the shells (but do not spread it into an even layer.)
Then ladle the white sauce over the marinara in a zig-zag/line design.
Finally, sprinkle on some extra Parmesan! You could even top it with mozzarella…but it’s delicious as it is.
If you’re baking it right away, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake the shells for 25 to 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. (If you’d rather freeze it, cover the pan of unbaked shells tightly with heavy foil and freeze for up to 6 months. Then bake it in a preheated 375 degree oven for 1 hour 30 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 10 to 30 minutes more, depending on how frozen it was. Alternatively, you can thaw the pan in the refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours, then bake as directed.)
Serve 2 to 3 shells at a time!
Wowzers.
Wowzers!
Photo: KitchenAid
It’s been almost two months since my cookbook was released, and I have loved hearing from those of you who’ve been enjoying it! Along those lines, it’s been almost four months since my product line was released and that’s been a lot of fun, too. So to celebrate, I’m repeating this fun giveaway I had a few weeks ago! 
One copy of The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime! It’s chock full of my classic dinnertime recipes, each with lots of suggested variation and make-ahead tips. This is my favorite of my cookbooks so far, as it answers the daily question “What the heck am I going to make for dinner tonight?”
PW Cast Iron Cookbook Holder. (Pssst. Sorry about the butterfly. I can’t help myself.)
PW Timeless Beauty Dutch Oven. I’m showing it here with the plain black knob, but it comes with a butterfly, too! And more importantly, it matches my cookbook. Ha. 
PW Batter Bowl! One of my favorite items in the whole line. There’s something about polka dots. 
This set of four footed bowls. Use them for cereal, soup, ingredient prep, popcorn…anything goes!
Ahhhh, this butter dish. I love it, and I want you to have one! 
And for fun (and cream), this PW Cow Creamer. Whether you actually use it for cream or you just park it on your windowsill, I promise it’ll make ya smile. 
I made all sorts of sweet and delightful treats over the weekend, and boy are my arms tired! And actually, they’re not tired from actually making all the sweet and delightful treats. They’re tired from washing all the dang dishes associated with making all the sweet and delightful treats.
Start with half a cup of brown sugar…
And 6 tablespoons beautiful, glorious butter. That there Land O’ Lakes variety. Of course!
Then add an egg yolk…
Half a teaspoon of vanilla…
Then cream it together until it’s all mixed, scraping the sides along the way.
Next comes a cup of flour…
(Plus 2 tablespoons flour, to be precise!)…
1/2 teaspoon baking powder…
And salt. 
Mix it on low speed until it all comes together. Now, I did wind up adding an additional tablespoon of butter, because my egg yolk was on the small side…and everything wound up just fine. 
When the dough is ready, scoop up small portions…
Put it in mini muffin cups…
Then use your fingers to press the dough into the bottom of each cup. 
Use your thumb to press a little impression in the middle.
The cups are ready! Next comes the filling, which is where the real craziness comes in.
It starts with a cup of chopped pecans, which is different from a cup of pecans, chopped. In this case, I threw some pecans into the food processor, chopped them, then measured a cup of them.
Add a half a cup of brown sugar to the pecans…
Stir it together…
Then…get ready…
Add some heavy cream. 
Last thing is a little vanilla…
Then stir it until it all comes together!
Now, add a teaspoon of the mixture on top of each muffin cup.
That’s all there is to it!
Then bake them at 350 for about 13 to 15 minutes.
Let them sit in the pan for about 5 minutes to set up…
These are utterly divine. They taste exactly like a pecan pie, but in little bite form. And I’ll repeat: Make at least a double batch! They disappear super fast. 
