Mhm.

So for the first method, I turned to my followers on Instagram I posted on my instagram story.

What is your favorite way of dressing up box?

Macaroni and cheese waited 24 hours and sifted through the responses which were all great.

But one of them piqued my interest.

Instead of using water to boil the noodles, somebody suggested to use milk instead.

Right now I am lucky enough to have milk in my fridge.

It seems very simple, but I feel like it would make the noodles creamier because the cheese powder is already so grainy.

So hopefully boiling it in milk will make it more rich.

So I'm gonna try that.

So for method One, we have just three ingredients.

Really.

Macaroni and cheese, the milk and some butter in that little green box.

It says to prepare with less fat way are in quarantine.

I'm not concerned of fat free right now, so let's kind of just throw caution to the wind.

But I mean, this milk is 2% so I guess we're not completely going there.

I know going in that milk boils pretty quickly, so I'm going to keep an eye out on this.

Okay?

So it's not over boiling, and it's been two seconds, so I am going to fix myself a drink.

Okay, so I'm back.

It looks like it's about to start boiling, so I'm gonna get the noodles.

Rather you.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

That's remember when I said so, I'm going to keep an eye out on this, and then it would be really difficult to clean up.

Things better be worth it.

Y'all.

So it said 7 to 8 minutes.

So I will start at seven and just taste.

Then we're just gonna give it a little stir.

Maybe the milk in this thing.

Well, I don't know.

Loosen up the powdered.

She's a little bit more than water.

I don't know.

I'm just I'm just guessing at this point.

So from the instagram submission that I got it said thio add in heavy cream as well.

So I actually think I have a little in my fresh Let me check also, what is What is this'll?

You know, que sauce mixes going in.

Okay, so now I'm gonna add in this'll heavy cream.

Just a little splash.

Yeah.

Splash.

Okay, that seems e get a loosen things up a bit.

Oh, but you know, that is good.

Macaroni and cheese when it sounds like this.

All right, I'm gonna plate and then I'll see you in a bit.

I picked my second method by searching the Internet, and my mission was basically to just find the most creative out of the box way that I confined, but something that I could still do with relative ease in my kitchen.

What did I do wrong?

The one that I decided to pick Waas fried macaroni and cheese balls.

I mean, you see this in restaurant and to take a box macaroni and cheese and just do a simple tweaking and make it into a glorious appetizer.

Sounds great to me.

I looked at a bunch of recipes but decided to go with damn delicious for this one because I've been following that recipe blogged for a while now.

And China's recipes from what I've tried I've always been knockouts for the recipe.

It calls for homemade or store bought mac and cheese and I'll just be preparing this to the box instructions.

They have it, but it's up there and it spirals.

Now that the macaroni and cheese is done, I am going thio.

Chill it before I fry it.

Then the recipe calls for panko, breadcrumbs, two eggs and some chives cause we're stocking quarantine.

I was thinking to myself, What if I just make the bread crumbs from scratch just because I have the time?

So for that, I'm going to be using some leftover bread that I have.

I'm just going to kind of eyeball this and cut it into little cubes.

E wonder what the difference is between breadcrumbs and panko.

Breadcrumbs.

I feel like I should know the answer to this, but I do not all that I have chopped up all of my bread into these little cubes.

I'm just going to blend them in a food processor.

That looks good.

Yeah, that sounds like it's definitely ready.

It's been three hours now, and the boxed macaroni and cheese should have been chilled all the way through.

All right, let's start assembling thes balls.

Okay, so that's that's one ball from the recipe just said to chill for a few hours and then form it into balls.

But, like, right now, the noodles air, like, kind of like falling apart as I'm going on.

Then put in the milk.

Ooh, and noodle down on, then the bread crumbs.

How is it falling apart like this?

What did I do wrong?

I'm gonna just try to put some flour in with the other ones, See if that works.

E don't know, man.

Okay, let's try this one.

Not disintegrating.

Okay, now, okay.

We have way.

Have no separation, which is good.

I'm kind of proud of myself for finding a makeshift resolution to this.

I don't know if it's actually gonna pay off in the end for the last two.

I kind of want to take the homemade bird, comes from inside and try it with the store.

But one thing, just just if there is a drastic difference.

Basically, this one is the closest thing to the actual recipe.

It's going in.

It sounds good.

Oh, like golden brown color.

I let okay.

Yeah.

For our third and final method, I reached out to chef David Elkins from Murray's Cheese Bar in New York City.

Obviously Murray's brick and mortar stores are closed at the moment, but Murray's usually is like a one stop shop for all things cheese.

They sell cheese over the counter.

I mean, they have cheese related foods, and they even have an extensive Mac and cheese menu.

So I decided to hop on a Skype call with Chef David and see what he recommends me doing.

What are your thoughts about Box Mac and cheese?

It's acceptable, especially in times like these.

I mean, if you want a taste of comfort food really quick, the shelf stable e think it's a good option.

So now that I've tried the two methods that I told you about, how would you make it?

There's always the auction ad ingredients in, and I, my mind goes to a version of our signature Mac and cheese that we offered The restaurant are French Onion Mac, which uses caramelized onion and bacon lardons so you can get all of those ingredients, including the three cheeses that we use, which is Marie's cage were French raclette and a stocking called Cheddar.

Those are all available on our website emergencies dot com.

We're still shipping nationwide.

Any melted cheese is a good cheese.

You could mix whatever into pasta and heat it up.

It's gonna be great.

But if you prepared your box stovetop Mac and cheese according to directions, then you could, um, caramelize.

Some sweet onions, which takes about 45 minutes to an hour, could do it right.

I have the time.

Okay?

It's super simple to do.

You just have a little butter in a pan, let it go low and slow for a long time.

So it's a deep brown.

It's been about 20 s.

So it's been about 20 minutes now.

And the onions are still, uh, cooking caramelizing.

I'm bored.

I'm bored.

Okay, so it has been about an hour and 20 minutes since I started caramelizing Thea Onions, and they are brown now.

And then I would dice ups, um, like slab thick cut slab bacon.

If you have it.

Maybe a quarter inch dice.

And just throw that in the oven 3 50 or, like 12 15 minutes, you could add those ingredients into your pot of Mac and cheese, then, like put it in a casserole.

What kind of cheese is should I put on top before it goes into the oven.

I think just a great general guideline is a cheddar cheese to add kind of tanginess or acidity, A cheese that melts really well, in this case, Rick, let.

But if you don't have a clip, you could also use something like Bellagio or even a fontina and then the flavorful nutty cheese like a Greer or can't say something like that.

Do you think, though, that like the three cheeses that you kind of curated to make this at home, is going to compliment or, like, mask that cheese powder?

Um, they're definitely gonna mask it.

If he doesn't know if you use enough and with when it comes to, like a ratio, should I just eyeball it or how much do I know to put in?

We use a 1 to 1 to one.

So people parts of all the cheeses, then you should be good to go.

That's like a lot of Jesus.

Jesus, E e don't know if I'm gonna use all that.

I think I did good.

I think I did.

Okay.

There's so much pots and pans in my sink now, and it's giving me anxiety, but we're just gonna choose not to think about that Getting fancy with box Mac and cheese.

So why not celebrate with a glass of wine?

Right?

Right.

Nothing is going to planned literally about E.

So I would take that shredded cheese and kind of put it on top.

And then they maybe broil it for, like, five or six minutes until it's like bubbly and brown e just realized.

Um, since I'm broiling it at the end, should I put that rack to the closest to the top of the oven?

Or did I do that later?

I'm just gonna go with I'll do it now.

You just don't wanna like you don't want to keep it in the oven too long for too high a p because then the cheese is gonna start toe break.

Yeah, eso Visually, it looks very similar to regular pots Are running cheese.

I don't find any, like distinguishing smell or textural comparison that convinces me that this will be like life changing.

But let's see, but don't allow.

Oh, that's very surprising.

Okay, It definitely as a subtle sweetness, subtle nuttiness because you are boiling it that milk, Does it taste like macaroni and cheese no.

Does it taste like a restaurant version of a macaroni and cheese ball?

Also?

No.

It literally just tastes like bland noodles fried with panko on top.

That caramelized onion is everything.

It's still got that orange hue from the box.

Macaroni and cheese mhm.

Hmm.

But it does not taste like boxed macaroni and cheese.

The three cheese is really, really make the macaroni and cheese have, like so much more of a complex flavor.

Obviously, it's kind of like funky and pungent.