Mac and Cheese Throwdown!

Today I hosted a Mac and Cheese Throwdown. It was awesome! I'd planned this event a while ago so by the time today rolled around I was SO ready to sample all of the mac and cheese! Just because, I've reposted the text of my Facebook event below so you can see it...

Cartoon of a wedge of cheese and a macaroni noodle holding their hands
towards each other with a red heart floating over their heads between them.

"It's time for a mac and cheese throwdown! Bring yourselves, bring your friends/partners/kids, bring some mac and cheese to enter into the competition, and most importantly bring your appetite!

 Guests will be sampling and voting on the contest entries in shoebox ballot style. Eating starts at 12:30pm. Voting begins at 1pm.

There will be three categories of mac and cheese:

Traditional - Must be vegetarian and must stick to the traditional format of macaroni, cheese(s), other dairy, spices, and optional breadcrumbs. Stovetop or baked but no "weird" ingredients.

Unconventional - Must be vegetarian and must contain both macaroni and cheese. Other than that, anything goes!

Vegan - No animal products whatsoever. Must contain macaroni and some sort of creamy or "cheesy" sauce.

If you want me to be extra happy, let me know ahead of time whether you're bringing mac and cheese and which category it falls into so I can aim to have a somewhat balanced amount in each category."

We had about 30 people there if you count the kids and we had a good amount of contest entries which were fairly evenly split among the categories. The non-cooks who asked what they could bring got assigned salad, fruit, and drinks. Fancy even made vegan cupcakes for the occasion! Joy got really into party planning and wound up making a playlist of kid-appropriate but actually good dance music for us. The party was outside so we set the speakers, prizes, and ballot box up on a table in the backyard. Then we put up Plum's pop-up tent and we set up the mac and cheese underneath it in case it rained. Fancy and Alice were the best early arrival guests ever and they assembled picnic tables for the occasion.

Joy and her cousin making the prize-winning
"Traditional" mac and cheese entry.

Secondo drawing signs for the party.

Sign on our lamp post that says "Mac in the Back"
and is decorated with Pokémon and with balloons.

The prizes and ballot box.

The food! 

Fancy and Alice put together picnic tables for the occasion.

Primo playing the drums.

Friends photo! Me, Alice, and Plath.

Friend's daughter I sometimes babysit.

More friends!

Party shot!

The three contest winners were: Fancy's Vegan Mac and Cheese, Joy's Cheese Monstah, and my Chinese Mac and Cheese. The only thing that could have improved this party was if someone decided to dress up in a mac and cheese costume like this child:

White kid with curly blonde hair in an "Easy Mac" halloween costume.