Easy Mac & Cheese

I hesitate to call this a recipe, because it is about the easiest thing a person could ever cook. However, I decided to share it because there are so many intricate recipes out there for macaroni and cheese, recipes requiring bechamel sauces and grated cheese and all sorts of troublesome complications. It is no wonder so many people eat the boxed junk. Although if I am going to be truthful, I must admit a fondness for Annie's organic mac & cheese, cooked with frozen peas. But this homemade mac & cheese is a major comfort food for me; I went through periods as a kid where it was the only thing I would deign to eat. That and "yellow pancakes."

16 ounces macaroni
16 ounces cheddar
1 quart milk

The mac & cheese I grew up on was made with elbow macaroni, but as you can see, I have switched to cellentani. It is pretty much the same thing, only with a few extra twists just for fun. I am quite particular about the cheddar I use: it must be extra sharp, and it absolutely, positively cannot be dyed that ridiculous orange color that is so prevalent. I made this recipe once while living in Minnesota, where the closest white cheddar was 35 miles away in a very expensive little health food store, and it looked so disgusting with the orange cheese I could barely choke it down. Cheese is not naturally orange, people! And the 1 quart of milk is somewhat of an approximation, I think it is actually somewhat less.



Boil water and cook the pasta al dente. While the macaroni is cooking, slice up the cheese.

Preheat the oven to 350ish.




Dump the cooked pasta into a large casserole dish and cram most of the sliced cheddar down into the pasta. Reserve some cheese to go on top.

Almost done!





Now just put a layer of cheese across the top, and add the milk. The milk should almost reach the top, but not quite.



This takes a while to bake, at least 45 minutes to an hour or more. Check on it when the whole house starts smelling good. The cheese should turn bubbly and golden brown. I should warn my delicate readers that if not cooked enough, the macaroni and cheese can be sort of soupy from all the milk. This effect disappears by the next day when you go to eat the leftovers. It can also be ameliorated by tossing the whole thing back in the oven and cooking it some more. I should also warn you that this makes a lot of food. Unless you have a big family, plan on eating it for several days. When I make this recipe nowadays, it is usually on a Sunday, and I eat it for lunch all week. Enjoy the cheesy goodness!

Basic Banana Bread

In case anyone doesn't have an easy recipe for banana bread, I thought I would share mine here. Unfortunately I don't know where I got it from. This version is scribbled in red ink on a page torn from a notebook in my handwriting. Judging by the other notes scribbled on the paper, it looks like someone gave it to me over the phone when I was working out of state.

1/3  cup shortening
1/2  cup sugar
2 eggs
1  3/4  cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2  tsp baking soda
1/2  tsp salt
1 cup mashed bananas

Two large bananas will generally produce 1 cup of banana mush. This is an area of the recipe that seems flexible. When I doubled the recipe yesterday, I used five bananas, because I had five that were too far gone to eat. It was more than two cups, and it came out fine. Last time I made the recipe, the two bananas I had one hand were small and it mashed up to less than 1 cup. Tastes good either way.


In a large bowl, cream the sugar and shortening, then add the eggs.

Stir remaining dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.




Grease pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Alternatively add dry ingredients, then bananas, to sugar/egg mixture.

Bake for 45 minutes.


I actually cooked it for closer to an hour yesterday, but I have long suspected this oven of running low. Usually I just boost the temp a little higher, but I forgot yesterday. Basically it's done when the batter is set and the bread is golden brown. My favorite way to eat this banana bread is warm, with butter. Apply thin pats of butter and microwave for 30 seconds. So good... it's almost like a dessert, banana cake maybe.


Today we went grocery shopping. When we got home, I made macaroni and cheese to pack for my lunches for the rest of the week. When I was doing field work and needed packable lunches, I got in the habit of making a big batch of something like pasta salad or tabouli on the weekends, and then eating the same thing for lunch all week. Mac & cheese is definitely not field food, as it's best hot, but with this cold weather and the stress of my first week, I'm going for comfort food.

Speaking of work, I have to go fill out a stack of paperwork that came along with the official job offer. It's just basic standard new hire stuff, the I-9, W-4s, and health insurance enrollment forms. I'm not thrilled to be doing this on my time, but I figure they wouldn't have mailed it to me if they didn't want me to do it ahead of time. Sigh. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.