baked macaroni – not as heavy, but just as cheese-pleasing

orange food almost always does well. mind you, macaroni can be white-ish too and just as tasty, but for now, let’s all envision golden melty macaroni with a gooey-crunchy top and warm soft middle. this recipe stems from one my dad made up; the main difference being I’ve added a few more things to flavour up the pasta and some panko for extra crunch. so, if you please, crank your oven and get yourself hungry!

pulled out of your fridge and cabinets:

half a bag of macaroni, 450g or so
1/2 a small onion, finely diced
1/2 tsp salt
lots of cracked black pepper
3-5 shakes of worcestershire, depending on how bitey you like it
1 big egg or 2 little ones
1/2 C milk
1/2 a medium tub of cottage cheese, 250 ml-ish
1/2 tsp white sugar
3-4 C sharp cheddar grated
1/2 C panko or bread crumbs

. preheat thine oven to 350
. boil the macaroni, but drain it 2 minutes before it’s properly cooked. it will finish tendering-up in the oven
. in a bowl, add the egg, diced onion, pepper, salt, sugar, worcestershire and beat with a fork
. add the cottage cheese and milk and stir
. drain the pasta and pour the milk/cheese mix over the pasta and stir

. dump half the pasta into a nice casserole dish
. sprinkle just less than half of the cheese on the pasta so it’s evenly distributed
. dump on the rest of the pasta, and the rest of the cheese on that
. sprinkle the panko on top and give it a few cracks of pepper

. either put a lid on your dish, or lightly wrap it in tinfoil and bake for half an hour
. remove lid/foil and bake for another half hour or so. you may want to turn on the broiler for the last 2 or 3 minutes if you’re partial to a crispy top

I like this with cheddar, but a cheddar/mozzarella blend is nice, or gruyere and fontina… or maybe add a little blue cheese if you like it zippy. so many cheeses, so many dinners…

 

le tea biscuits

when I was a kid I tried to eat as many of these as I could. not much has changed.
yet another recipe from my mom of her mom’s. thank you ladywomen of my family for such great food.

a very simple affair:

1/3 C good shortening
1 3/4 C all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 C milk

. set thine oven to 450
. grab a goodly bowl and put the flour, baking powder and salt in it. mix to get everything evenly incorporated
. wunk in the shortening and cut it into the flour either using two knives or a fork or a pastry cutter. I prefer the latter. you don’t want to mix this with your hands because the heat from them will melt the shortening and you won’t get nice flaky biscuits
. when the mix is all crumbly, add in the milk. if you live in a dry climate you’ll need the full 3/4 cup, but if you’re in a more humid zone, try adding a half cup first and seeing if the mix is dry enough. to incorporate the milk, use your hand to fold the dry crumbs into the milk gently while giving the bowl a quarter spin with your other hand. repeat this until a loose dough is formed and it peels away from the side of the bowl
. do 5-8 gentle kneads (pressing the heals of your hands into the dough and pushing it out to stretch it a bit) and then lightly flour a flat surface so you can roll the dough out. roll until it’s 3/4 of an inch thick and cut out rounds with a glass, or just use a knife to cut them however you like
. get ’em on a baking sheet and fire ’em into the oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown

these are obviously great with tea… serve hot with butter, or at room temp with whatever you fancy.