How to make macaroni and cheese if you're not a chef

This post is dedicated to my brother who wants creamy mac n cheese but doesn't want to feed his family the neon orange stuff.  Maybe the best part about this recipe is that you make the sauce in the time it takes to cook the pasta.  There's no reason to use the boxed stuff ever really.

First, fill the largest pot you have with water and bring it to a boil.  While you're waiting for the water to boil, start making your cheese sauce.  At some point during the making of your cheese sauce, the water will come to a boil, pause your sauce, salt the water and put the pasta in and cook according to the package directions.

Cheese sauce;
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 handfuls of grated cheddar cheese
salt to taste
In a medium sized pot, on medium heat, melt the butter, then add the flour.  (what you have here is called a roux)  Stir in a splash of milk and stir until it's all incorporated and smooth, then add a little more milk, and keep stirring.  Then add about half of the milk you have left.  Keep it on medium heat and keep stirring.  Put the rest of the milk in.  Keep stirring while the sauce heats up and continues to thicken.
(Now you have a basic white sauce, which also happens to be the base of a creamy soup.  From here you can add another cup of milk, a can of crushed tomatoes and you have cream of tomato soup.  Or you can add cut cooked potatoes and a can of clams and you have clam chowder.  The possibilities are endless.)
When the sauce is thick, taste it.  If you can taste or feel the flour, let it simmer a little while longer.  When it's good, add your cheese, turn off the heat and put the lid on.  In a few minutes the cheese will be melted and you can stir it in.  You now have a cheese sauce.
Stir the cheese sauce with your pasta and you can eat it or you can put it in a casserole dish and bake it at 350F until the top is crusty and bubbly.  (feel free to top it with more cheese or crushed ritz crackers or bacon bits)
This is the most basic of macaroni and cheese.  Here are some variations;
-cook a diced onion in the butter until the onion is clear at the beginning of making your sauce, then add the flour and continue making the sauce as directed.
-add dry mustard, a pinch of cayenne and/or a pinch of nutmeg to your cheese sauce to add a little punch of flavour.
-when your pasta is about half cooked, add a handful of raw or frozen veggies (broccoli is my fave)
-use any kind of cheese you want instead of cheddar.  I have used leftover cheeseball, which was fantastic.
-if you want to cut the fat and calories replace half the milk with chicken broth.  If you want it rich and creamy, use whole milk.  Any milk you have on hand will work.

Enjoy!