It definitely was good and I would certainly make it again. When I had initially taken it out after the 45 min the first time, it was very creamy and would have been ready to go. So if I had to do it over again, I would do the same except cook it in the oven closer to serving time, check on it after 15 min or so to add in the shredded cheese and go from there. It was a little thick, but still tasted very good. So, I let it sit again and about an hour before the party, put it in the roaster, added the shredded cheese and put it on warm. I was anticipating it taking much longer so unfortunately, it was way earlier than when I was going to serve it. I cooked it at 350 and went to stir it after 45 min and it was cooked through already. Stir well at 1 hour into the cooking and check the texture.
(Thankful we have an extra fridge we can use for stuff like this) The day I was cooking it, I pulled it out of the refrigerator in the morning to start getting it to room temp. Dump 2 cups milk, 1 cup standard (not whole wheat or other non-standard) macaroni, teaspoon dry mustard, teaspoon salt, teaspoon each of pepper, garlic powder, and paprika, and l tablespoon butter into a smallish slow cooker.
I took the roaster pan out of the freezer and put it in the refrigerator 3 days before I was cooking it to start to thaw it.
I put the prepared mac and cheese (minus the shredded cheese) in the roaster pan and put that in the freezer. How does it feel like eating your favorite macaroni full of cheese I know you wanna eat this right now but you have to wait till you can learn how to make macaroni and cheese at home. This recipe worked well freezing, thawing and cooking in the oven/roaster.