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Aint Ruby's Mac N Cheese

Cause if you say Aunt properly it sounds like Ain't.

Ruby was my grandmother. She was one of several middle siblings (9 total) who every Christmas converged on my Aunt Susan's home. At least 100 people would show up and eat, talk, cackle, and swap presents. It was only as an adult I came to realize how odd the whole thing was. Women my age have grandkids which means my mother's cousins have great great grandkids.  My Aunt Susan's house is nice, but 100 people meant half in the yard, men out in the shop, and tripping over kids. As a child I most remember that there were only two bathrooms and I wasn't really supposed to use Aunt Susan's and Uncle Jim's. No clue if that was an official rule or something I came up with in my own mind; I came up with and self imposed a lot of arbitrary rules on myself as a kid.

Anyway, one of Barbara Ann (Virginia's daughter and hence my mother's double cousin)'s girl folk loved Christmas because she got to eat Aunt Ruby's Mac 'n Cheese. She loved it so - looked forward to it all year and finally one year got up the nerve (and remembered) to ask for the recipe. { I think this is who it was - it might have been my brother}

My grandmother - who with six kids of her own cooked daily for eight said -  'oh, It's easy.You buy a tray of Stouffer's and then top it with a bag of shredded cheese. They sell it at the Winn-Dixie'. This is the same woman whose recipe for collards, when pressed was "you wash 'em, chop 'em, and cook 'em 'til they're done."


Because I wanted to test my skills of cookery, I also called my mother in law to see how she makes mac n cheese. I got a version of , well, you just kind of wing it - noodles, an egg, some sharp cheese, and half and half, some people use a roux but I don't because I don't like the sour. Make sure the half n half fills the casserole.  I'm going to make it tonight and see how it goes over in the am at the potluck.



*Corrected - I don't know why I wrote Aunt Lilly earlier, it was clearly Aunt Virginia, Granny's older sister who married JC. Granny married JC's brother JB.

Also, added in from my Aunt Susan, apparently they learned this trick from Sunday School. Crucial to passing off is that you thaw the Stouffers, add a little milk, and put it in your own dish. #thingsyoulearninsundayschool

Comments

  1. It was a "rule" - one year I remember Susan saying that you should not to "her and Jim's" bathroom as it was "bot cleaned up". But when you need to go, you do not care!

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