Macaroni and Cheese

Growing up we never had boxed mac & cheese, but macaroni & cheese was a regular side dish at home.
Mom always made it this way and its how I usually make it, I do sometimes make the more complicated kind with a white sauce, several kinds of stringy cheeses, baked in the oven with bread crumbs on top, but seriously these are so good and SO simple I don't know why I would ever do it differently.
You only dirty one pot, really its not really different from boxed mac & cheese, you boil the macaroni, drain and add some stuff.
easy peasy!!

Start with 4 simple ingredients, (oops I forgot the salt & pepper)but this is all you will need.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups macaroni (uncooked)
1 cup milk
12 oz. Velveeta cheese
1/4 cup butter
salt & pepper to taste

boil macaroni as directed on box, drain, but do not rinse, add butter, milk and Velveeta, salt & pepper, cover and heat on low heat till cheese is melted.

ENJOY
Rose


**do not overcook the macaroni, who likes mushy pasta? me neither :(

 

 

 

 

M & M Cookies

  

 

We Love these cookies, in fact I am enjoying one right now as I write this post, its Saturday morning, the house is quiet, hubby went fishing, daughter is at sleepover, I have a cookie, a fresh pot of coffee, Life is good!!

I modified this recipe a little bit from one of my Amish/Mennonite cookbooks.

ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
2 3/4 cup flour
M & M's ( I used about 2 cups)

combine softened butter, sugars, add eggs and vanilla, beat well, add flour, salt, soda, stir in M & M's, I press them down a little bit before baking, bake at 375 for around 10 min.
Me and the kids like our cookies soft and Merle likes them crisp, so I bake some a little harder for him.

You can also substitute chocolate chips for M & M's if you want.

ENJOY!

Rose

The Very Best Homemade Bread

 

Ok so this is the very BEST bread, this is my mother-in-laws recipe that I had to learn about when we first got married. we LOVE - LOVE - LOVE this bread.

 

.....ok so you may think making homemade bread is complicated and time consuming, but the more you make it the easier it gets...and if you have a Kitchen Aid mixer...easy peasy!!

 

 

I always said I don't want a Kitchen Aid, but hubby said YES you need one, and bought me one anyhow......Great Idea!...

 After its finished you want to oil the top a bit to keep it from drying out.....

 Set your bowl on a towel and cover with another towel......and walk away...

 ...after about and hour or so, it will look like this.....punch it down ...or knead ...whatever you want to call it, really no rules....after you have it punched down again, cover it back up again and walk away..... :)

Keep a little oil to keep your hands greased....

This recipe makes 4 loaves...YAY... so you can put some in the freezer,  OR you can make some really good friends by sharing...or share with friends you already have.....totally up to you

When it rose up again the second time, punch it down again and divide into 4 equal parts,

Punch, knead, smack, throw it around....whatever you want to do with it, what you are doing is getting rid of all the air bubbles...no magic way of doing it,  when my kids were little I used to give them a piece and they would punch, hit, smack...you get the idea...

Always use the oil to keep your hands greased.....no fun to have the dough sticking to your hands, I also grease the countertop a bit to keep it from sticking..

Place the loaves in the pans and pierce with a fork, to get rid of any remaining air bubbles....

I try to make nice looking loaves but as you can see they don't always look all that great, but after they rise in the pan...doesn't really matter...unless you are OCD you can make them perfectly formed.

After they are pierced, cover AGAIN....till they look like this (above)



 Bake to perfection....BTW your house will smell heavenly!!

While its still warm, add a nice big layer of butter......and.....ENJOY!

 

 

Homemade Bread

3 Tlbs. bread flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 cup boiling water

2 cups warm water

2 rounded Tlbs. yeast (not rapid rise)

scant Tlbs. salt

2/3 cup oil (veg)

8 cups bread flour

butter for top of bread

 

warm up mixer bowl with hot water, combine 3 Tlbs bread flour, brown sugar, honey and 1 cup boiling water, mix well.

add 2 cups warm water, (not hot, not room temp, somewhere in between).add yeast and stir, let set for about 15 minutes to let the yeast start to work. 

add salt and 3 cups of flour, stir well,

attach dough hook to mixer, add the rest of the flour and the oil and let the mixer do the rest,

 

grease the top of the dough, cover up and let rise for approx. 1 1/2 hrs., or until doubled in size, punch dough down and let rise a 2nd. time. After 2nd. rise punch down again and divide in 4 pieces, knead until you have gotten all the air bubbles out and shape into a loaf, place in greased bread pans and pierce with fork, cover back up again till doubled in size.

Preheat over to 350 degrees, bake loaves for 25 min.

remove from oven and let set for about 5 minutes, remove bread from pans and set on cooling racks, butter tops of loaves.

 

 

I hope you are not discouraged from this long post, its really not hard, some people think yeast is a complicated thing but its really fun to work with, so go ahead and give it a try, you will be glad you did!!

 

GOOD LUCK :)

 

Rose

 

 

 

 

My original recipe I wrote down 20 years ago. :)