Even the Comfortable Need Comfort
    Every family, I guess, has a macaroni and cheese recipe, just like every family has a specialty potato salad and specialty dessert recipe. These are the recipes that usually end up at buffets. My family's mac & cheese never went to a buffet. It was a meal, not a side dish, and the only one who made it was Mom, so it was served only when Mom cooked and always hailed. It was straighforward: boiled and drained macaroni, cups of grated yellow cheddar (usually longhorn, on the aged side), browned hamburger, mixed together in the Revereware round aluminum pan that Mom and I still have and use, slathered with ketchup and more cheese and baked in a medium-hot oven for about a half hour. That's not something you want to take to a buffet.
    It also wasn't strictly a Comfort Food dish in our household, since we had it maybe once a month, never on a Sunday, which is the only pretty regular day Mom cooked.
    I use adapted versions of a lot of recipes we ate regularly a in my growing-up home, although there are many I loved and never make, like my mother's Universally Famous Chicken Mexicali (yes, I did get her to tell me how to make it, and I've got it on the other computer). The mac & cheese one, though, was inevitable in some version. It's one of those meals containing something Mom will eat some of when she doesn't want to eat. It's also excellent for raising sodium, and a good source of iron. I've completely readapted the recipe to gather in lots of flavor but get rid of the ketchup, which is loaded with sugar. This is one of Mom's, "Mmmm, we should have this more often," dinners.*  *  *  *  *More than Mac & Cheese
Ingredients:
1 7.25 oz box of Kraft "The Cheesiest" Macaroni & Cheese Dinner
8 oz very lean ground beef
6 oz very lean pork sausage
¾ cup chopped yellow onion
¾ cup chopped celery with leaves
½ cup chopped green pepper
1 clove garlic, sliced very thin
1 loosely packed cup grated Vermont White Cheddar
1 Tbl margarine
2 - 3 splashes of Half & Half or whatever milk you use
1½ tsp Old Bay Seasoning
Preparation:
    While boiling water for macaroni, brown ground beef and sausage over medium high heat. Although lean, the meat will produce enough oil in which to saute the chopped vegetables, throwing them in with the meat when you detect only a few pink spots. Lightly saute vegetables and garlic until they are bright, crisp, not yet transluscent. Turn off burner. Continue to stir mixture while sprinkling Old Bay Seasoning over it. Allow to cool while...
    ...boiling and draining macaroni according to package directions. When boiled, drained macaroni has been dumped back in it's cooking pan, add seasoning packet from package, milk, margarine and grated cheese. Stir melted and creamy. Add meat & vegetable mixture. Stir well.
    Serve.*  *  *  *  *    I served Mom less tonight than I usually do. She ate all she was served and was satisfied. She arose late today, lagged around, wasn't really even interested in TV, took a long nap, hung out this evening...her urine remains cloudy. I have enough pills to double up on the dosage for the next three days. I think I'll do that. That means I'll have to think of meals to tempt her to stay up long enough not to clash antibiotics with iron. Maybe we'll do a Cobb salad and garlic bread tomorrow...

Labels: comfort food, family recipes, mom's food history

- posted by Gail Rae @ 22:04   email...this post