July's biggest holiday might be the Fourth, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth celebrating every holiday July has to offer—like July 7th, or National Macaroni Day. Here's a roundup of seven of our favorite mac and cheeses to make at home. More

A couple weeks ago, we alerted you about Paula Deen's deep-fried mac and cheese bacon bites. How could you one-up that big chunk of crispy awesomeness? Brad and Lily have figured it out. But since they were created through an insta-movie program, the conversation is all in robotic computer voice. Lily's "YES YES YES," in reaction to the buffalo sauce and Ranch suggestion, sounds more like a math teacher lecturing on cosine. She even throws her hands in the air like only a computerized, unfeeling woman can. Watch the video, after the jump.... More

Mac and cheese wrapped in bacon, breaded, and then deep-fried makes perfect sense if you first stop and ask yourself, "What would Paula Deen do?" And she has done it. The video evidence, after the jump.... More

"Many of the 'cheesiest' products in the supermarket are not made with real cheese." Photograph from srboisvert on Flickr When I was a kid, Kraft used to run a very memorable commercial for their boxed Macaroni and Cheese in which they marketed their product as "the cheesiest." In fact, it was so cheesy, the ad argued, it should be called "Kraft Cheese and Macaroni," as if the order of the components determined their relative importance. Well, Kraft's dirty little not-so-secret is that their boxed macaroni and cheese doesn't even contain real cheese but a sort of alchemical admixture of cheese's component parts: whey, milkfat, and milk protein concentrate. And now, if Sen. Darrel Aubertine's bill passes in the New York... More

There's good, mouthwatering food porn, and then there's Gridskipper's NYC Macaroni and Cheese Porn Gallery. Macaroni and cheese samples from ten New York restaurants are photographed in all their gooey, glistening, residual cheese-trailing glory to illustrate the wide variety of macaroni and cheese that New York has to offer. The gallery is informative, but I have a feeling the photos don't capture the tastiness that each restaurant has to offer. Gridskipper will reveal its choice for the best macaroni and cheese sometime today.... More

Remember when Paula Deen tried to kill us with deep-fried butter? She's back, this time with a recipe for fried mac and cheese. And not just any garden variety mac-and-cheese recipe. Nope. This one calls for a pound of bacon and five eggs total. Wait—only 4 tablespoons butter? Is that a typo? [via Matt J.]... More

Mac, cheese, and morels. Photograph by Matthew Amster-Burton In his book Dinner with Dad, Cameron Stracher talks about what happened when he served his kids real macaroni and cheese topped with crunchy breadcrumbs. They rebelled. They said it was burnt. In my house, we've had exactly the opposite experience. Periodically, spurred on by something like this Salon article, I will try a new recipe for homemade macaroni. I've made custardy, cheesy, stovetop, and oven versions. The result is always the same: Iris, my three-year-old, is fine with any macaroni. Her parents—whose foodie credentials, I assure you, are unassailable—prefer the stuff from the box. We're not into canned ravioli or frozen burger patties. I make my own panko-breaded chicken strips.... More