Monday's Meal

So begins our first day of summer vacation. Yay!!!!

I have been making macaroni and cheese a lot lately. Saturday was a cub scout pack meeting and I made a double batch to take because it was a potluck. The only one of us who got any of it was my son. We're talking a professional sheet cake pan full -- it requires two cake mixes if that gives you any idea. But it was completely gone and we weren't at the end of the line either.

The recipe came from the Hillbilly Housewife website. This is an abbreviated version. Hers has a lot of helpful commentary too. It also requires powdered milk. I've put a note at the bottom for those of you who only keep liquid milk. I also usually have large rather than medium eggs so I just substitute one large for two medium. It's not exact but it seems to work well. To find the original recipe, click here. Enjoy.


Macaroni and Cheese per Hillbilly Housewife

2 cups dry macaroni
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup instant dry milk powder
1/4 cup margarine, melted (1/2 a stick)
2 medium eggs
3 cups shredded cheese (Colby is traditional)
4 oz of Velveeta type cheese, cut into chunks OR the equivalent of sliced sandwich cheese, torn into smallish pieces
a pinch of dry mustard
a pinch of salt

Boil the macaroni until it is tender in plenty of boiling salted water. Drain well.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil or spray a 3-quart casserole or a 9 by 13-inch rectangular pan. Combine the dry milk powder, water, melted margarine, eggs, dry mustard and salt. Stir in cheeses. Add macaroni. Stir well and pour into baking dish.

Bake at 350 ° for about half an hour.

Note: When using liquid milk, my best measurements indicate that you should use 3 cups of liquid milk and omit the water (which is 3 cups in the original recipe) and dry milk in the recipe. I always use dry milk so I have never tried it with liquid milk. You may want to experiment some. It is good enough in my opinion that it might be worth keeping a small package of dry milk on hand.