make some macaroni.

You're gonna need some stuff:

A basic collection of kitcheny-goods (pots, spoons, colander, etc) or a creative mind that can come up with on-the-spot alternatives

Some cheese: at least one pound of extra sharp cheddar. I tend to use white cheddar, but yellow tastes exactly the same. If you find yourself deciding between New York and Vermont cheddar, go with New York-- the Vermont is a little toooo much usually. You'll also be able to add whatever cheese you have laying around the fridge, so you'll want about half a pound of that too. Something soft will counter the sharpness, mozzarella or provolone work really nicely.

Butter, half a stick

Milk. The amount is dependent on how much cheese you're using, but if you have at least two cups of milk you should be okay.

Flour- you don't need a lot. I use about a quarter cup to aaaaaaalmost half a cup.

Salt and Pepper

Noodles. You can use any kind of noodles you want, but you want something that's going to hold cheese inside it, something big and open and delicious.

So. Let's get started.
1. Put water on to boil, in a large pot. If you're grating your own cheese, do that part before you move on to step two.
2. Start your roux: Place a saucepan on a front burner and set on low. Put the butter in and allow to melt. When it's entirely melted, add the flour and stir like crazy. When it's well blended, keep stirring it, almost constantly. If you burn it you're going to have to wash the pan and start over entirely, so it's better to just pay attention.
3. You're going to do this for quite some time. The longer you cook the roux the less the finished product is going to taste of flour. You don't want to cook it too long, but at least five-ten minutes.

4. Add a handful of cheese and a little milk, and stir. Wait a minute or two, and add a ton more cheese and some more milk also. Turn the heat from low to somewhere between low and medium. Make sure you don't add all the cheese; You're going to need a few handfuls to sprinkle on top afterward.

5. Salt and Pepper! If you're using sea salt, add salt until you think you've added too much. If it's regular table salt, add until you think you've JUST hit the "barely enough" point. And as for pepper... personally, I put a lot of pepper in my macaroni, but you can just as easily add merely a smidgen and call it good.

6. I hope you made sure to have extra cheese. By now people in the house will have wandered in and stolen bits of cheese when they thought you weren't looking. Add that to the cheese you've been snacking on, and suddenly you realize you have to get the grater back out.

7. Taste some of your cheese sauce. It's damn delicious stuff. If you want more salt or pepper, add it now. Add more milk or cheese if you need to. It should be really thick but still soupy-- Imagine the thickest potato soup you've ever seen, and then imagine it thicker still. That's what you're looking for here.

8. When the noodles are done (make sure they're al dente: you're about to put them in the oven, you don't want mush-paste-macaroni, do you?), the sauce is done. If it could use some more melting, don't worry about it. It's going to melt in the oven, which you should set to about 350. I don't worry about trivialities like preheating. Pfff.

9. Put some noodles in the dish, and pour on some sauce. Stir it all together. Repeat until it's all mixed up together, and sprinkle the extra cheese on top.

10. Bake it until you're satisfied with the browning of the cheese on top. =]

Delicious.

Some things to keep in mind:

You or others in your kitchen are going to attempt to devour this immediately. Be warned that those noodles are filled with super hot cheese and it's going to suck to have a burned mouth.

Sometimes it's good to make way more cheese sauce than you want for the noodles. It's tasty and once you start tasting to make sure you've got the seasoning right you're gonna want to eat more... And more...

It's just as good cold, but somehow better because you can slice it up like cake and it's quite cohesive. You can hold it in your hand and eat it as you drive to work or do your hair or attempt to fold laundry one-handed.

It takes less than an hour from start to finish to make this, pending you are distraction-free, and it keeps for about a week in the fridge (not that it will last that long though).