Macaroni and cheese

While sitting on the deck this morning enjoying my first cup of coffee, the lyrics of the old gospel song “Precious Memories” floated through my head:

Precious father, loving mother
Fly across the lonely years
and old home scenes of my childhood
in fond memory appears.

As you can imagine, during the past few days thoughts of my Mama have been constantly on my mind. When I woke this morning, I was thinking of her macaroni and cheese.  It saddens me that her grandchildren and great grandchildren never had an opportunity to enjoy this delicacy.  In fact, this dish was created so long ago that I am not sure that my sister ever tasted its cheesy delight.

We were raised on a country diet of pinto beans, fried potatoes, cornbread, and whatever was fresh in the garden. During the winter, we added a dish from foods that were frozen or canned during our summer harvest. At least once a week, our extra dish was macaroni and cheese.

The process for making this dish began with cooking and draining the macaroni noodles. The noodles were then mixed with lots of milk, butter, and cheese. The mixture was placed in an old loaf pan then covered with more cheese then baked in the oven.

Although this dish has not been cooked in over 40 years, when I awoke this morning, I could smell the macaroni baking in the oven and see the bubbles of cheese as Mama took it from the oven. There will never be another dish of macaroni and cheese rival what my Mama made.