Covered it again, with tinfoil, for about half the bake time. I got up early the next morning, took the covers off and popped that baby in the oven. And due to making this the night before and not wanting it to dry out - once everything was ready to bake, I covered the pan with tinfoil and then sealed it with the lid that came with the pan and put it in the fridge overnight. I went to Target and in the milk/cheese aisle, I got the cheap blocks of Target brand cheese - 8 oz block of each as follows (NOTE: I doubled my recipe to 12 servings): Monterey Jack, Colby Jack, Sharp Cheddar, Provolone When it came time to add the cheese I thought 'there's no way I need all this!' but MAN am I glad I added all that was recommended! I didn't use dry mustard - I've never bought it in my life and wasn't about to spend $2.50+ on something I needed a tsp of, so I just squirted the right amount of mustard from a bottle in my fridge. Let the butter melt in the pan and just added flour, etc. I just won my work's Pasta Cook Off (yesterday!) with this recipe!! Super easy to make (I was almost asleep on my feet by the time I made it) and doesn't require any weird/expensive/hard to find ingredients! I made a few changes - I forgot to buy onion so I made it without.
Man, I will be making this dish my whole life! It is so delicious! Baked it for about 45 minutes covered, then took the top off, added crushed crackers, and baked for another 10 minutes. I used almost 32 ounces of pasta, leaving about enough out for a regular sized bowl of pasta (probably a couple ounces). It was amazing! I also doubled the pasta again this time. This time I used (proportionally) 1/2 sharp white cheddar, 1/4 regular cheddar, and 1/4 mozzarella. Update: I baked this dish for our BBQ and it was a HIT! I doubled the recipe and even then it was all gone by the end of the party. This recipe is a great base for a delicious dish. I plan on playing around with different measurements of both regular cheddar, sharp white cheddar, and mozzarella. I plan on making this for a graduation party we're having in a week and I'm very excited to see how it turns out. Even with almost 16 oz of pasta, the dish was still very creamy and not dry at all.
If you want your mac and cheese EXTREMELY creamy, I guess that's good. With just 8 oz, it looked like cheese soup with some noodles in it. Also I used almost an entire 16 oz package of macaroni.
I baked the dish covered for thirty minutes and then added the crackers and baked uncovered for 10 minutes. I made a few changes, including switching processed American cheese for Mozzarella and adding some crushed up crackers on top. I made this dish for family dinner tonight and it was amazing! My mom, dad, and sister went crazy for it.