Food Thursday: birthday dinners

I’ve said it before but I’m going to say it again – I firmly believe the memories that will mean the most to my children are the traditions that we’ve made for ourselves. Oh sure – they’ll remember vacations and such but I think one of the best things we can do for our kids is find a way to make the ordinary special. Pajama Pant Friday. First day of school waffles. Last day of school cookies. These are the gifts that I give my children all year round. This week we’ve got another family tradition coming up – the birthday dinner.

When a birthday rolls around the birthday boy or girl gets to pick whatever they want for dinner. Oh, not at a restaurant – no, no. They get to pick whatever they want their mother to cook for them. We have a birthday coming up this week – Christmas Eve as a matter of fact. So what did the birthday girl pick for her special meal? Bacon cheeseburgers and homemade mac & cheese.

Think about that for just a minute… it’s December… in Northwest Indiana… it gets dark at 4:15pm. So this particular request is going to involve grilling in this:

But we’ll do it because we love her so! Oh and by ‘we’ I mean her father. I’ll be busy inside doing something very important I’m sure.

If the weather holds out we’ll have a house full of family to celebrate her birthday. That makes the homemade mac & cheese part of her request a little bit tricky. I’m not sure I have enough casseroles to put enough of that together. But I just got a new cookbook for the crock pot and I’m going to try a recipe from it instead! I don’t usually share recipes that I haven’t tried yet but this one seems fairly fail-safe.

Crock Pot Mac & Cheese
adapted from The Original Slow Cooker Recipe Collection
16 oz of macaroni uncooked
8 oz velveeta, cubed
2 cups of shredded mild cheddar
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 cups skim milk

1. Combine macaroni, velveeta, cheddar, salt & pepper in the crock pot.
2. Pour the milk on top.
3. Cover & cook on low 2-3 hours – stirring after 30 minutes.

Look at that – three steps, easy ingredients, no hot oven. We might just have homemade mac & cheese more often around here!

P.S. – Tune in tomorrow for the big birthday interview!