Pot Holder Mac and Cheese

I am famous for my macaroni and cheese. Not because it is the best thing you can wrap your tastebuds around, but because of a very special ingredient.


Back in 1991, Christmas time to be exact, I was making macaroni and cheese for the family Christmas meal. I was renting a half house that had very poor lighting...or on somedays no lighting at all in the kitchen. When I think back, I should have worried more about that. Could have been bad wiring. On said day, I was preparing the macaroni and cheese and the lights went out. The appliances still worked, so I continued on with dish and made use of a flashlight to mix it all together. I had set out my favorite potholders that one of my aunts had made for me. I didn't want to forget to grab them when I was ready to run out the door. I mixed all the ingredients together, placed them in a glass 9x13 pan and baked the mac and cheese according to the directions. When it was finished baking, I went to sit the dish on the potholders and couldn't find them. I looked everywhere for those potholders. I had been all over the house while the dish was baking, so they could have been anywhere. With no time to spare, I quickly grabbed another set and got on my way. Never giving them a second thought.

Now let me say, all the family was at this meal. It was at my grandparent's house. I'm not sure who noticed first, me or my cousin Angel, but the macaroni was very dry. This hadn't happened before. I was annoyed by that fact. I worked so hard on that dish. At some point, Angel calls me over to the dish to take a look inside. She thought something was wrong with the macaroni. We dug around and found out why the dish was dry. My potholders that I had "lost" were on the inside of the pan. Before I knew it, everyone had to take a look. There is no way to keep this secret from getting out. Thus, potholder macaroni and cheese was born. It has been 19 years and any mention of my macaroni and cheese gets the family jokesters rolling! Can someone else please do something that would top this so I can play too!! Below is the recipe that I had used at the time. You can omit the potholders if you'd like. It is much more creamy without them.

3 cups macaroni cooked according to package and drained

1 Tbsp. butter or margarine

2 cups evaporated milk

3 cups sharp cheese, shredded

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

Combine all ingredients and pour into a 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and bake for 30 minutes at 350. Or you can mix all ingredients and cook in a crockpot for several hours. I still use this recipe and have added a bunch of new macaroni and cheese recipes to my collection.



I still have those potholders. They came out very nice in the wash.

Labels: Recipes 1/