A friend's recipe for the best mac and cheese ever. Warning: you need one specialized ingredient, sodium citrate, which you can buy on Amazon. You might be able to find it at the grocery store, called sour salt. It emulsifies cheese and turns any melted cheese into a pourable "nacho cheez" consistency instead of lumps of protein floating in melted fat. You need the granulated kind, not liquid. I have. A pound of it will last a long time and you can use it for other things as well, like creamy sauces that aren't homogenized, or smoother gravy probably.

A cup of liquid (cheap white wine, dry vermouth, beer, stock, water are all fine...though I'm told IPA makes it too bitter)
A cup of half and half, or milk if you don't want to be so decadent
Half pound of uncooked small noodles (macaroni, rotini, whatever you like but it should have a rough shape to hold the sauce better)
Half pound of any cheese or combination of cheese, shredded (but not velveeta/American which are already processed to be pourable when melted)
Garlic, herbs, whatever you want to taste. I used herbes de provence and a cajun seasoning blend.

Preheat oven to 350
Bring the wine/beer/stock to a boil in a medium to small oven safe pot over medium heat
Add the shredded cheese and stir
When the cheese is completely melted add exactly 1 1/2 teaspoons of sodium citrate and stir (gotta measure this exactly)
Use a stick blender to mix it all together into a soupy consistency
Add the half and half or milk and blend together again
Put the blender in soapy water so the cheese sauce doesn't congeal on it
Add the dry pasta and stir it all together
Put the lid on the pot and put the pot in the oven for 20 mins
After 20 mins, take the pot out, stir, and let it cool on the stove for 5-10 mins with the lid on. It will seem too soupy when first out of the oven but the sauce will solidify and become the perfect texture when it's cool enough to eat

Brian, if you're reading this I hope you don't mind my sharing your recipe!