Mac and cheese is a vegetable yams ain't

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Tuesday, December 17: Dressin', Ham, Mac & Cheese? What a must at your holiday feast. Maybe we wanna try something new.

 So let's talk for a memento before I give y'all these two recipes. Y'all know I have mentioned many times over that you betta be able to make a proper casserole if you plan on bein' a Southern Woman. Growin' up I always heard that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach as cliche as it says. Wait, what does that have to do with Mac & Cheese other than being a cliche quote? Anyways! Mac & Cheese is one of those dishes that is just a staple in every Southern home. One of my favorite singers, Lauren Alaina, put it like this when people asked her about her weight loss" "I just started eating better. Here in the South Mac & Cheese isn't a side dish it's a vegetable." Can I get an amen from all the Southerners reading. Ok, lemme stop cause y'all get the point and I've used references to the South and the word Southerner far more than it should be allowed in this post. This dish right here is a MUST. A must at all holiday dinners. Y'all I will hold up the meal and make everyone wait till the macaroni is finished. My God Mother usually makes a separate batch so I can have some to take home and eat on for days. The secret to gettin' it so cheesey the the cheese sauce I'ma 'bout to teach y'all.

Ingredients: 1 80z bag of Macaroni noodles 4 Tbs flour 1 & 1/2 sticks of butter 2 80z blocks of butter; Colby and Sharp Cheddar 2 & 1/2 cups of milk bag of shredded cheese. preferably at least an 80z

Directions: 1.  Do I really need to tell y’all to preheat the oven at 350? Well, preheat the oven y’all. 2. Cook the noodles to your liking. If you don't know how to cook Macaroni noodles than y'all bigger fish to fry and shouldn't be readin' this post.  3. While the noddles are cookin' we need to make the cheese sauce. Heat two cups of milk, flour and about 3/4 of each block of cheese.            4. In a pyrex dish or whatever you bake in, keep in mind it needs to be large, cups up the half stick of butter and spread it around the dish. 5. Add the drained Macaroni noodles. And then pour the cheese sauce on tops. Now add the half cup of milks in there. 6. Sprinkle the top with some of the shredded cheese. 7. This will bake for a good while and you will need to check on it here and there. Stir every time you check on it and add more shredded cheese.  7. Finally, you will slick up the last of the block cheese and layer it around on top. Let it bake until the cheese melts and forms a top of the macaroni.

This will make a lot but if your like us an always have a lot of people over at the holidays then you are probably gonna wanna double the recipe. We usually do. Also, when you heat the milk and cheese make sure to chop up the block cheese and don't just add it all at once. Slowly add it as the other cheese begins to melt. Y'all know I always say patience when be a cook in the South and this applies as well. Over all the cook time will depend on your oven and how much you make. I would so deff don't cook longer than an hour. If you are constantly stirring and adding cheese then it should cook for about 30-45 mins. Y'all enjoy and scroll down to see the next must have dish.

What can I say about Yam's other than they are that inappropriate blog word, Amazeballs. Sunday night I made this for a dinner party and when I set them on the table my friend Antonio asked how I wanted to eat them. I was confused and he goes, " is this dessert or part of the dish?" I was like," It's like dessert but we eat it with the meal" I'll say it again but y'all know we know how to mangle the nutritional value out of veggies. If you ask my Grandmas how to make these they'll tell you to just keep addin' the sugar and then argue over if you should add nutmeg and cinnamon. I add both and then pretend I didn't as not to get them started. At my college graduation party Bestfran Numeo Due ate these and it blew her mind. She kept making jokes that white people don't eat their yams like this. HA! My aunt got a kick out of that. My family from Southern Louisiana came and did all the cookin'. That's the best part of being part Cajun/Creole I get the best of both worlds at family gatherins when they are around.

Ingredients: Sugar! Lots 1 Tbs Vanilla flavoring 1 Tbs cinnamon 1 Tbs nutmeg Yams 1/2 sitck butter

Directions: 1.  Do I really need to tell y’all to preheat the oven at 350? Well, preheat the oven y’all. 2. The cook time will depend on the amount of Yams and whether you use can or fresh. Fresh Yams take longer to cook. Don't tell my Granny's but I used can to save time. Thank goodness neither of them know much about the internet let alone how to turn on a computer.  3. I used two 8 oz cans or the equivalent of about 4 yams. If the Yams need to be chopped then do so and place them in a pyrex or baking dish.            4. Cover them with about two cups of sugar, nutmeg, vanilla flavoring, cinnamon and the butter. Make sure to cut up the butter. If you use canned then make sure to pour out some of the juice before putting it in the dish. Add a little water whether you use can or fresh. You don't want to much cause this will make it's own juice. 5. Not than you can over cook Yams and that would be a hot mess.  Just make sure to check on the constantly and stir every time you do. I cooked these for about 30 minutes.