Cheese Souffle

Cheese Souffle

As Christmas rushes full speed toward us, I'm sharing a recipe that we enjoyed at Thanksgiving. (I'm a little behind with posting recipes.) This was delicious and it would certainly fit into a Christmas menu, too.

Jessica brought a friend home for Thanksgiving and since he was away from his own family over the holiday, she asked if his family had a traditional Thanksgiving recipe. His answer was cheese souffle. Since it's not something that has ever turned up on our Thanksgiving table, she asked if he would like to make it for the big family dinner. His family always has cheese souffle like our family always has macaroni and cheese. Having the souffle was a way to make him feel at home.

Well, it was so good on Thanksgiving Day that before they headed back to the city a couple of days later, he made it one more time for us. Where we live, dishes like this souffle and our mac & cheese are served as side dishes. But I also think if I added a salad, this souffle would make a great supper.

CHEESE SOUFFLE

3 cups saltine cracker crumbs (a little less than 2 sleeves)
4 cups grated extra sharp cheddar cheese (Cracker Barrel--with the red wrapper)
3 cups milk
4 extra large eggs
Red cayenne pepper and salt to taste

Put saltines in a ziploc bag and crush with your hand to make crumbs.

Heat milk to tepid and pour over crumbs and cheese.  Mix.

Add beaten eggs and rest of ingredients.  Pour into greased soufflé dish. 

Bake at 350 degrees for almost 1 hour, uncovered. Done when a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.


I don't own a true souffle dish, but a round 2-1/2 qt. CorningWare French White baking dish worked just fine. And here's a tip for warming the milk— heat the milk in the microwave, in 30-second bursts, stirring each time, until it's the right temp.

This is beautifully puffed when it comes out of the oven. And then it falls pretty quickly. Know that is normal and does not affect the taste. It is also good to know that the leftovers are delicious. Just warm it a bit in the microwave.

Thanks to Todd (and Todd's mom, I'm sure) for sharing this recipe with our family.

Give Of Your Best

 

Pattern: Honey Cowl

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh DK (Madly, Truly, Deeply)

Needles: size 8

This is the sixth Honey Cowl I've made. It's a great project to work on while traveling. Simple to knit, but not boring. I have given most of them away as gifts. But this one was mine.

I was wearing it and when someone admired it—for the second time—I took it off and gave it to her. It even matched her blouse. I really liked this cowl and it wasn't so easy to part with. It's not so hard to give away something you don't love, or to give something that was made for that purpose from the start. This felt different. But it felt right.

My mother was always giving. And, one thing I remember about her was that she gave "of her best." It was not the cast-offs that she passed along. She always said to only give things you would want for yourself. Once, when I was in about 2nd grade, she bought two new dresses for a classmate that desperately needed them. So much better than giving that child old clothes. There wasn't a lot of extra money in our house. Often there was no extra money. But she always could find a way to be generous. Extravagantly generous.

We studied "extravagant generosity" at our church. Reading and talking about it is one thing. But I watched it in action every day when I was growing up. I'm still trying to come close to what my mother did. I've always been fairly generous. Especially when it's easy. This year I want to be extravagantly generous.

The best acts of generosity are done in silence. But I'm writing this here as a challenge to myself. And as a reminder to myself to be aware when opportunities present themselves. By nature, I am deliberate. I act carefully. I like to think things through. In choosing to be generous, sometimes there is ample time to think about what to do and how to do it, but there are other times it's best to take action in the moment. Those are the hard ones.

I know there are people who love the city. 

But, goodness, I love seeing the sunrise 

from my kitchen. 

The view is different every morning. 

Sometime spectacularly colorful. 

Sometimes it's only gray. 

I love them all. 

Busy, Busy

I think I'm going back to Baby Sister's house. I just thought I was busy there. 

We have gone non-stop here today. We left early this morning to buy herbs for the garden. If you know me, you'd know I'm pretty much useless when it comes to yard and garden stuff. But it's easy to pretend you're a gardener when you see all the pretty colors in the displays at the store.

Thankfully Granddaddy humors me and lets me think I've helped when he's done nearly all the work. I picked out a few packets of flower seeds to sow behind the herbs and he put them in the ground. He also planted the herbs. I actually did help a little. A very little.

We even fixed a pot to put on Mommy's deck. Hopefully she will have fresh herbs in a few weeks for her cooking. Using fresh herbs makes people think you are a fabulous cook.




Then it was back inside to get busy in the kitchen. Our church is having a covered dish lunch right after the morning worship service for our members and to feed 70 volunteers who will arrive tomorrow for Salkahatchie Summer Service. 70 extra people to feed (many of them teenage boys) means we need extra food.

For things like that, it's best if I stick with the basics. Macaroni and cheese is always a winner at church dinners. And I discovered you can layer the noodles and cheese a day ahead. Tomorrow I will mix the milk and egg part and bake it.

These two dishes are done and ready to finish in the morning. I made a pan of brownies for good measure. I surely hope everyone else is home cooking, too.

Mimiiii.......  Where are you?????

Not back there....

Come bacckkkk.....

(At least I'm pretending she misses me.)

Macaroni and Cheese

We called it macaroni pie when I was growing up. But somewhere along the way--about the same time paper sacks became paper bags and we started to call dinner "lunch" and supper became "dinner"--macaroni pie became macaroni and cheese.

I was grown before I realized that the rest of the world doesn't make macaroni and cheese like we do around here. This is not the cheese sauce version. Nor do we serve it as a main dish. It's a side dish here. Restaurants list it under "vegetables." This only makes sense here in the South probably.

When I was working as a home economist years ago, I did a program for a ladies club and they had a covered dish lunch after the program. It turned out that almost everyone had brought macaroni and cheese. I think there were twelve dishes of it on the table. All good.

After reading my Easter blog post, Robin asked that I share my recipe, so here it is. If you look through church cookbooks, you will find dozens of variations but this is the way my mother made it. And we think it's as good as any. (Actually we think it is the best.)

Macaroni & Cheese

16-oz. box elbow macaroni (we like the small elbows)

16-oz. sharp Cheddar cheese (NY sharp when I can find it)

4 cups milk (I use fat-free or 1%)

4 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

a sprinkle of black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook macaroni according to directions on the box. Drain. While macaroni cooks, grate the cheese. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with PAM. Put half the macaroni in the baking dish, layer half the cheese over it, add the rest of macaroni and then the remaining cheese.

Mix the milk, eggs, salt and pepper. Pour over the macaroni and cheese. Use just enough to cover the macaroni.  (Sometimes I don’t use quite all of the milk/egg mixture. And I have been known to add a little bit more milk if the 4-cups didn't cover it.)

Bake, uncovered, for 35-45 minutes, until lightly browned on top.  Let rest for about 15 minutes before serving so that it "sets."

If you keep the one egg/one cup of milk ratio, you can make any size dish you need. I've done everything from a tiny two-cup dish to a huge foil pan for a church dinner. You will need to adjust the baking time, though. I pretty much go by the "just beginning to brown" as my signal that it's done.

I also learned this Thanksgiving that you can layer the macaroni and cheese in the dish the day before baking. Store covered in the refrigerator. Mix the milk and egg the next day and pour over the macaroni and bake. Why did I not know this 30 years ago?

Thanks, Robin, for making me write out the recipe! I should have done that a long time ago.