"Macaroni and cheese" news and stories

KitchenDaily expert Marcus Samuelsson combines a classic American macaroni and cheese with Italian spaghetti alla carbonara to create this decadent dish. Crisp, salty bacon and uncooked eggs are all it takes to elevate pedestrian mac & cheese into a meal that will have your guests swooning.

If you've been dreaming of a food truck that sells only mac-and-cheese dishes, you can wake up now. A Chicago food truck is doing just that. The Southern Mac & Cheese Truck, which rolled out earlier this month, claims to offer two dozen types of macaroni-and-cheese, with the options rotating weekly. Should you happen to be in the Windy City this week, you can choose from these four: Cheddar cheese with grilled Vienna beef franks; pulled chicken, blue-cheese and Buffalo sauce; smoked Gouda, apple and walnuts; and sundried tomatoes with caramelized onions.

Looking for a way to make your mac and cheese more interesting? Try these clever little Macaroni and Cheese Drums. Just mix any vegetable you like into the mac and cheese (chopped spinach or broccoli are good options), then use thinly sliced zucchini or pastry dough to create the drums. Kids love them, and you will, too.

Get the Macaroni and Cheese Drums recipe.

There's still plenty of time before turkey and stuffing is upon us. These are the days of food fests, from mac-and-cheese (above) to pork cracklins, of the venerable chili cook-off in Terlingua, Texas, and the over-the-top gingerbread house DIY face-off in North Carolina. Here are seven festivals you won't want to miss.

Denver International Wine Festival, Denver, Colo., Nov. 3-7: Colorado is much more than beer. Its about pinot and Burgundy as well. Denver Wine Week, the Mile High City's annual event, now in its sixth year, offers up more than 400 wines. The festival kicks off with an Iron Chef-style bout in which local chefs will go toque to toque pairing food and wine. The Grand Tasting of International Wines and Food on Friday will showcase wines from more than 100 wineries selected by the editors of Wine Country International magazine. The festival isn't exclusive to oenophiles, though. Craft beer and artisan spirits are also on the tasting menu.

Original Terlingua International Chili Championship Cook-Off, Terlingua, Tex., Nov. 4-6: In addition to one whopper of a 44th annual chili cook-off, there will also be contests for the best ribs, black-eyed peas, margarita, as well as the ugliest hat. In a party as big as Texas, you can also dance to live music, and cruise the arts and craft show.

Romanian Food Festival, Colleyville, Tex, Nov. 5-7: If you just happen to be in Texas for the Terlingua Chili Cook-off, head to the Dallas-Forth Worth area for what may be the delicious opposite of chili -- Romanian food. The fifth annual celebration is organized by the parishioners of St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox Church, and will feature traditional fare like ciorba (hearty soups), sarmale (cabbage rolls), and mamaliga (a cheesy polenta dish), as well as folk dancing, a show by Romanian singer George Rotaru and boxing. Let's hope the boxers leave the cabbage rolls alone before the match. As they say in Romania, "Pofta Buna!" Bon Appetit!

In celebration of National Pasta Month, the editors at YumSugar rounded up 10 of their favorite macaroni and cheese recipes.

We've got our eyes on the Three-Cheese Mini Macs, Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese and the good old Kraft-Style Stovetop Mac. But we must warn you, if you're hungry, looking at this gallery will be torturous.

YumSugar's Must-Try Mac and Cheese Recipes