Some Things Are Sacred

I’ve just finished making heaven in a casserole dish, also known as, my Mum’s mac and cheese. As a general rule, we don’t eat a lot of processed food, and yeah, I know how to make mac and cheese from scratch with a roux etc… and it’s good, but it’s not the same. Some things are sacred enough to break the rules. This is one of those sacred things.

My Mum’s “recipe” uses Velveeta cheese product. (I just can’t make myself say “cheese” cos, we’ll it isn’t cheese). Though, really, there isn’t a a “recipe”. She learned how to make it by watching her mother make it. So, um, I guess it’s actually my grandmother’s recipe.

I had to watch her make it twice before I was able to make even a CLOSE reproduction of it. There are some fine stirring details that are important, lots of watching involved so as not to scorch the cheese sauce, and it’s important not to put on too much bread crumb or it’ll just be nasty. She wrote her “instructions” (not a recipe) down for me once and it says: “Cook some elbow mac in a pot, drain. In another pot heat some milk, put in some butter, Velveeta, dry mustard and pepper. Cook until smooth. Add to noodles. Dump into a casserole dish. Sprinkle with bread crumbs or crackers, and shredded cheese. Dot with butter. Bake at 350”. That’s it. That’s the “recipe”. No measurements. No times. Zip.

Now, I’m known for not exactly measuring things when I cook, and I’m equally known for “tinkering” with recipes. To quote Pirates of the Carribean “they’re more like guidelines”. And yes, I tinkered with this recipe just a little bit. Just a little. But, I think it’s turned out pretty well.

My Mum on the other hand, is the queen of exact. She likes things to fit, to go, to work together, to be efficient and to turn out. She likes measurements. And it works very well for her. She’s one of the most dedicated and hardest working people I know. If anyone is going to find a way to make something work or to figure something out; it’s going to be her. I admire that. A lot. And I aspire to that, in a more half-assed, meander-y kind of way. (It makes her crazy, I know).

So, that there wasn’t a “recipe” telling me how much pasta or milk or Velveeta to use, or telling me how long to stir for, surprised me. But, I’m glad to have taken the time to learn this “recipe”. I love knowing that my late Grandmother used to make it for my Mum and that she used to eat it as a kid. I love having something to make for my family that was one of my absolute favourite meals as a kid. I love that my family loves it. And though, my eye was calculating the amounts of ingredients today, I’m not going to write it down, yet. I’m going to let my mind and my memories help me make it each time, for a little while longer. And hopefully, I’ll be able to teach my girls how to make it and in time, they’ll carry the memories of this simple dish to their own families.

So on this cold evening, we’ll have a delicious, warm, comforting meal served with a big salad on the side to help ease my niggle of a conscience about the artery clogging trans fats in the Velveeta. But we’ll enjoy it; of that I have no doubts.

Apparently I've Made the Source of All Evil

Remember when I made my list of “things to do before Christmas”? Yes, I keep referring to it. Well, one of the things was to determine what baking to do this year.

I made the gingerbread men, I’ll likely make cheese cake for Christmas dinner (because that’s what we do) and I think I want to try a bread pudding. We went to a restaurant once, a while ago, and had an AMAZING bread pudding with a whisky cream sauce that knocked our socks off. The food itself wasn’t much to write home about, but this dessert? One of the best I’ve ever had at a restaurant. Ever. I think I drooled just thinking about it. Mmmmmm….

Huh, where was I? Oh yeah! Holiday baking! When my Mum is here next week we’re going to make butter tarts . It’s not Christmas for us unless we have butter tarts. This year, we’re going to make mini ones for our Christmas Eve finger food extravaganza. When I asked Hubster if he wanted me to make anything in particular, he said right away: Nanaimo bars. These embody Christmas for him, and really, I don’t know too many Canadian holiday celebrations that don’t include a pan of these bars.

What are Nanaimo bars? What? You don’t KNOW? Oy.

See the link above for the long history of these bars. Here is the short version: The base is a mix of butter, cocoa, nuts, sugar and coconut. The filling is almost a custard, with 100% more butter – it’s made of icing sugar, cream, butter, and custard powder (almost impossible to get here in the States) or vanilla pudding mix. The topping is chocolate, and you guessed it, more butter. I guess we Canadians like a lot ‘o butter in our holiday treats.

You don’t bake this bar at all, it’s done in layers that are refrigerated. The top gets hard, the filing stays creamy and the base is nice and chewy. It really is a neat dessert; but rich. How could it not be with almost a pound of butter in it?

I made these 2 years ago and I wasn’t really thrilled with how they turned out. The recipe I used was way too sweet and the filling seemed gritty. I searched through a few and found this gem of a web site:

http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/

I used their recipe and the bars turned out really well. (Note: if you use this recipe – it doesn’t tell you the exact weight of chocolate to use for the topping – after consulting some other recipes, I used 4 ounces. It worked really well). I liked that the egg in the base got cooked a bit in the microwave, so I didn't have to worry about RAW eggs in food I'd serve to children or have to go through the hassle of finding egg powder.

I enjoyed reading through some of their recipes and will definitely go back there again.

ANYWAY… since these bars are so rich we do not need a whole pan of them in our house, I plan to pass some onto the neighbours and Hubster took some into work to share with his co-workers. He offered them up and within minutes received a call from a friend that just said “These are the source of all evil. Wow. Can I have the recipe?”.

Here is the recipe:
http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/search?q=nanaimo+bars

So go ahead and whip up a batch of these babies, eat them until you’re sick and give the rest away. It’s a Canadian tradition.