New Hampshire does macaroni better than Yankee Doodle with a feathered-cap!

Get your sporks ready! The Second Annual New Hampshire's Own Mac & Cheese Bake Off returns for another helping of cheesy goodness! Courtesy of the Granite State Dairy Promotion, the Bake Off will be held on Saturday, January 14^th from 2pm-6pm at the Holiday Inn, 172 North Main Street, Concord. Judged categories include Best NH Made: Made with 100% milk and cheese from NH dairy producers. Best Traditional: You know, the kind grandma use to make. Any dairy product or brand may be used.
Most Creative or Exotic: You name it, as long as its macaroni and cheese based, you can enter it. Any dairy product or brand may be used and Best Restaurant: Open to restaurants, cafes and eateries. Admission tickets are $10 at the door for those hungry patrons who would like to taste their way through the entries and vote for "The People's Choice Award."

Macaroni has a very elusive history. Pasta origins are attributed to an ancient-culture laundry list including: the Etruscans, the Chinese, the Greeks, and the Romans, as well as the Arabs; and the etymology of macaroni is just as uncertain.

One of my favorite Web sites, the Online Etymology Dictionary (I'm a nerd; what can I say?) dates the word macaroni back to 16^th century Mediterranean linguistics, possibly from the late Greek word makaria, meaning "food made from barley." There is also a note regarding 18^th century use to mean "fop or dandy" or fashionable, hence Yankee Doodle's stylish headwear!

Yankee Doodle didn't bring our favorite noodle-dish to America, though; Thomas Jefferson did! Jefferson returned home from a visit to France with recipes and a pasta machine and served macaroni and cheese at an 1802 state dinner. Perhaps the greatest spike in cheesy-popularity came from the Kraft Foods Mac & Cheese release in 1937 during the Great Depression. The dish became widely popular and was very affordable since shoppers could get two boxes for one food ration stamp. The original Kraft Macaroni box was yellow and wouldn't become our infamous "blue-box" until 1954, almost two decades later!

As evidenced by the NH Dairy Promotion Bake Off, and popular Food Network TV shows, everyone has their own way of making their macaroni the cheesiest! Last year we asked NH.com Facebook Fans for their favorite Macaroni & Cheese Mix-In recipes, the responses were mouth-watering!

This year we've surveyed again; here are our 2012 Macaroni poll results:

Macaroni: Yellow or white cheddar? Which do you prefer?

The response to this question was hilarious! 40% Prefer White cheese, 40% prefer Yellow cheese, 10% prefer either/both and 10% prefer neither!

When you make boxed Mac & Cheese, do you prefer the powdered sauce or Velveeta?

Velveeta took the lead with a 44% preference over 22% who prefer the powdered sauce. There was a landslide write-in for Annie's Homegrown Brand with a 33% preference!

Do you cook your mac & cheese on the stove-top or bake it in the oven?

Stove-top had a strong lead for a while in the voting process but oven took the lead at the end with a 48% preference toward baking Mac & Cheese to a crunchy, gooey goodness. Stove-top got a 24% preference, and 28% preferred both or either.

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