Chef's Note: The original recipe called for ½ pound of noodles - after you make this you'll see that this makes enough cheese sauce for a load of noodles... Also, I added a little more butter - more butter makes the roux come-out a little easier. Try it with some hot sauce - I think hot sauce goes with everything...
based on Baked Macaroni and Cheese from "Good Eats" serves 4+ (depending on appetite)
Ingredients
	1 pound elbow macaroni
	8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
	3 tablespoons flour
	1 tablespoon powdered mustard
	3 cups milk
	¼ cup onion, minced fine (about ¼ medium sized onion)
	1 bay leaf
	½ teaspoon paprika
	1 large egg
	1 pound super-sharp cheddar cheese (pick the sharpest yellow cheddar you can find)
	1 cup breadcrumbs
	Salt & Pepper
Instructions
1.	Preheat oven to 350°F
2.	In a large pot, cook the pasta in salted water to al dente. Don't cook it all the way through - it should be a little "underdone" when done cooking in the water - it will finish in the oven.
3.	While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Add the onion and sauté for a few minutes. Add the flour and the mustard and cook together for about 5 minutes (you're making a roux). Be sure to stir the whole time - you don't want to let it burn.
4.	Slowly stir-in the milk. Add the paprika and bay leaf to the milk mixture - simmer for 10 minutes. When the noodles are finished cooking, remove them from the pot and let them wait for you. You might want to rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking process...
5.	Remove bay leaf and temper-in the egg (this means to whip-up the egg in a separate bowl, add some of the hot milk mixture (just a little bit) to the egg - the goal is to heat the egg through so the shock of the hot milk won't scramble the egg, add a little more milk mixture until the egg is totally hot, and then dump the egg mixture back into the pot with the milk mixture).
6.	Add 3/4 or 4/5 of the cheese to the milk mixture - stir until melted. Pour-in the cooked macaroni and stir. Pour the entire thing into a baking dish (go with a 2 quart casserole dish).
7.	Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter (you can use the microwave - low setting (20-30% power) for 2 minutes). Add the bread crumbs to the melted butter and stir. Top the casserole with the remaining cheese and the bread crumb mixture. Toss into the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool for 5 minutes, and eat. Yum!