answer:I don’t know what you know, but I’m assuming you know how to make a white sauce or a roux. I like to brown my flour before adding my milk and/or cream. Cream, of course, makes it really rich. I also spice the roux with curry and oregano and nutmeg and salt and pepper. Then I add the milk and cream and make it to little bit thick consistency. Kind of like cold maple syrup in flow, I guess. For cheese, I use two or three different kinds. Mostly I use a really sharp cheddar—aged as many years as I can find (5 years is the oldest I’ve seen around here). I also add some Gruyere and then a bit of an aged Gouda, if I feel like it. I might consider aged provolone or reggiano parmesan. So I grate as much of that as I think I can stand (sorry, I do this all by feel and have no idea how much of anything I use). The more cheese, the better is my motto. Then I dump the (cooked) macaroni in, stir, and serve with more nutmeg (or Edna, as my kids call it) to grate on top. I am not a fan of baking macaroni and cheese, nor of bread crumbs or whatever else people do with it, but of course you could do that if you wanted. Depends on what your audience is expecting. This is not something anyone would appear with at a Thanksgiving in my family. We go for more of the New England tradition. I believe mac and cheese is more of a Southern thing for Thanksgiving? No telling, though. People move all over the country and traditions are all jumbled up.