Family Meal Plan: Comfort-in-a-Bowl Pimento Mac and Cheese + Crumbly Breadcrumb Topping

Comfort-in-a-Bowl Pimento Mac and Cheese

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• bake :

  to cook food with dry heat, as in an oven.

• boil :

  to cook a food in liquid heated to the point of gas bubbles and steam forming (boiling point is 212 F at sea level).

• measure :

  to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

• mix :

  to thoroughly combine two or more ingredients until uniform in texture.

• slice :

  to cut into thin pieces using a sawing motion with your knife.

• sprinkle :

  to scatter small drops or particles of an ingredient evenly or randomly over food. 

• stir :

  to mix together two or more ingredients with a spoon or spatula, usually in a circle pattern, or figure eight, or in whatever direction you like!

• toast :

  to brown and crisp food in a heated skillet or oven, or in a toaster.

History of Mac 'n Cheese!

• Pasta and cheese recipes were first in 14th century Italian and medieval English cookbooks. A more modern recipe was found in a 1769 English housekeeping book. So how did macaroni and cheese become such a popular American dish? The prevailing story involves Thomas Jefferson, the third US president. Is it way too gouda to be true?! 
• The story says that Jefferson encountered macaroni and cheese when he traveled to Paris and northern Italy in the 1700s. He sketched the pasta and took detailed notes on how to make it. Then, in 1793, he sent an American ambassador all the way to Paris just to purchase a pasta machine so he could make his own macaroni. After a year of waiting, the device was finally brought back to Jefferson, and guess what?  It didn't work!
• But Jefferson did not give up. He started importing dried macaroni pasta and Parmesan cheese from Italy to serve at his dinner parties at his home in Virginia. In 1802, Jefferson served the very first macaroni and cheese dish at a state dinner, which he named "a pie called macaroni." It was considered an exotic and fancy meal. As far as we know, this was the first time anyone in North America ate mac 'n cheese.
• At that time, mac 'n cheese was considered a cuisine of the upper-class. However, Thomas Jefferson had slaves who cooked for him and his family. These slaves made this "fancy" dish their own, and mac 'n cheese became and remains a staple southern "soul food" dish. 
• About two decades (20 years) after Jefferson served the first cheese pasta dish at his dinner party, a recipe called "macaroni and cheese" was published in the 1824 cookbook called The Virginia Housewife. A distant cousin of Jefferson's, Mary Randolph, wrote it. 
• During the Great Depression in the USA in the 1930s, Kraft Foods created a boxed version: Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. As a result, mac' n cheese became affordable and accessible to all Americans, and it has been one of America's most popular comfort foods ever since.
• July 14 is "National Mac and Cheese Day!"

Let's Learn About the Southern United States!

• The southern region of the United States is also referred to as the Southern States, or just "the South." The area lies between the Western states and the Atlantic Ocean. Midwestern and Northeastern states are to its north, and Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico are to its south. 
• From west to east, the states included in the South are Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. 
• The term "Deep South" usually applies to Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
• Native Americans inhabited the region as early as 11,000 to 9,500 BCE. They lived on food they grew, hunted, and fished.
• Eleven Southern states seceded from the Union from 1860 to 1861 and became the Confederate States of America. Their secession and the dispute about the expansion of slavery caused the Civil War (1861-1865), the war between the North and the South. At the war's end, the Southern states returned to the Union. 
• Southern culture was influenced by indigenous peoples, immigrants from England, Spain, and France, and enslaved Africans. As a result, the area's language, food, music, architecture, and literature may include one or more of these influences.  
• The climate in the region is diverse and depends on a state's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes and tornadoes are extreme types of weather seen in the South.
• Animals that are unique to the South include the nine-banded armadillo, the cottonmouth (snake), the roseate spoonbill (wading bird), and the American alligator.
• Stock car racing got its start in Southern states. NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina. 
• There are a wide variety of foods in Southern cuisine. Cajun and creole dishes originated in Louisiana. You can find Caribbean cooking influences in Florida, including Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican. 
• Various types of barbecue are popular in the South, and each state has its own cooking or smoking techniques, dry rub, and BBQ sauce that make its barbecue style unique.
• Other well-known Southern dishes are Southern fried chicken, red beans and rice, fried catfish and hush puppies, and Hoppin' John, a black-eyed pea and rice dish commonly served on New Year's Day.