The Best Mostaccioli Recipe Yet Written

My mother was renowned for her delectable baked goods, but not so much for her cooking of every day meals.

Personally, I truly loved almost all the casseroles and such that she used to make in order to keep a large family fed. There were a few from time to time (containing unidentifiable green things) which were less to my liking, of course. The one undeniable exception to that rule and all the love I hold dear for my mother's food creations is the Sloppy Joes she used to put together. I do not blame her though--she just opened up a can of Manwich sauce and threw it on top of browned ground beef. I do blame her for buying the stuff though, but that is an entirely different story...

So anyways.

To break up the spaghetti/tortilla casserole/hamburgers/Hawaiian haystack/macaroni casserole/taco salad/steak dinner dinner routine, my mom would make a dish called Mostaccioli. It isn't fancy, but it's quick, easy, and something any child will eat who loves cheese and pasta. And truth be told, my brothers and I love it still. For her 60th Birthday Anniversary party, I made her famous bread and Mostaccioli. The triple-batch was gone in no time.

Ok. and one more thing. If you want to be uber authentic about how you do my mom's Mostaccioli, you cannot say it properly like an Italian would say it.

There are a few different ways to say it:

mostaccioli



The second link is the closest to how my mom would say it, except she put high emphasis on different syllables making it sound fabulous to me.

I will write out precisely how my mom said mostaccioli
using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet):  mo stɑ t͡ʃi o li

as well as in messed-up-let-me-try-to-write-it-how-she-said-it-English, for those of you who are unfamiliar with IPA: moh - stah - chee - oh - lee

I am not certain how well that will translate with font issues, etc.  but I promise you she pronounced each syllable and would even add in a hint of dramatic Italian accent when she would let us know what was for dinner (when asked for the tenth time Mom, what's for dinner?)

And so you know, I cannot force myself to say it any other way than how my mom would say it. I don't care what Shakespeare wrote, it just wouldn't be the same dish if called by any other name.

And now for the Recipe of All Recipes for Mohstahcheeolee:

1 lb. browned ground beef
1 jar of Prego spaghetti sauce*
1 lb. box of mostaccioli** pasta, cooked al dente. Drained and rinsed.
1/2 Velveeta loaf, cut into thick slices (approximately 1/4 - 1/2 inch)

13X9 glass baking dish

Preheat oven to 350F

Mix sauce into ground beef once beef is finished browning.
Once pasta is cooked-- drain, rinse, and pour back into pot.
Then, pour beef/sauce mixture onto pasta and stir well.
Next, scoop pasta mixture in three separate layers, placing Velveeta slices on top of each layer of pasta. 

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30-40 minutes at 350F


* I make my own sauce, but if you want to be uber authentic, remember Prego is the brand to trust.

** Penne may be substituted if necessary.

*** At the height of my mother's food production days, she would double the recipe, bake it in a large roasting pan (like you use for roasting a turkey), and leave it in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour. If you like the pasta a bit on the over-baked side, leave it in for an hour. I think that only happened when she got distracted by our shenanigans and forgot about it. The over-baked edges grew on me and I like it best that way now.

Enjoy!

Related Links:

The Best White Bread Recipe Yet Written

The Best Pumpkin Cookie Recipe Yet Written

a recipe to go with a recipe

So when you make bread (using the all things purple: The Best White Bread Recipe Yet Written recipe) and it doesn't quite go right, the following recipe is a fantastic way to keep from just throwing all that hard work into-- the trash.
Most people use a loaf of French bread for the French Toast Casserole, but I use messed up homemade bread.

French Toast Casserole

1-2 loaves Messed up bread (or French bread) cut into 1" cubes

8 eggs

3 cups milk

4 tsp. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt, optional

topping:
2 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. sugar
2-4 tsp. ground cinnamon (to taste)

Coat a 9x13 (or if you are doubling it--a half sheet) pan with cooking spray.
Spread bread pieces evenly in pan.
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and salt.
Pour mixture over bread.
Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.
Dot with butter.
Combine cinnamon and sugar; sprinkle over the top.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 F for 45-50 minutes
OR once an inserted knife comes out clean.
Let stand for 5-10 minutes.
Syrup only necessary for the sweet tooth in the family, use if desired.

This dish goes a long way and most people like it a lot. I came up with the idea to use messed up bread in it because I mess my bread up about every 1 in 10 times I bake it. So, I got resourceful.
I don't like to waste--especially not food--when I can help it.

 And so you know, gorgeous bread works just as well!

The Best Pumpkin Cookie Recipe Yet Written

photography by Shannon J.

Autumn is a fabulous time to bake up some yummy, warm pumpkin cookies and that is precisely why I share this particular recipe with you now. Well, and a certain sister-in-law has been reminding me to give it to her for months now so her husband (one of my brothers) will stop bugging her to make them and they can enjoy eternal marital bliss once again...

So anyways--

My mom did not need any particular season or holiday to get her in the mood for these scrumptious delights. She continually kept on hand around 10-20 cans of pumpkin. And mind you, they were not the small cans. They had to be the chunky double-can sized cans because it was "cheaper that way". 

(Honestly, I think she just wanted to make sure she could make those cookies even if World War III broke out.)

Mom would have piles of the cake-like cookies steaming on her two large cooling racks, on the light country blue counter, making the house smell delicious. 

Whenever I bake these cookies, I think of home-- my mother's home she created for me, for my brothers, for all the many cousins, aunts, uncles, friends, and strangers she and my father welcomed through their door. How can cookies mean so much? I don't really know, but that smell and flavor bring it all to the surface and I am standing next to her, watching her mixing the batter with her large wooden spoon, which also doubled as a bottom-whooper, and waiting for that first batch to get out of the oven. 

 

So for your Autumn, Thanksgiving, November, and ANY TIME pumpkin-craving enjoyment, 

I present to you:

The Best White Bread Recipe Yet Written

photographs courtesy of Shannon

I don't know where she got it, but my mom had been making this bread recipe since I can ever remember until she got too sick to do it anymore. My brothers and I could polish off two loaves before she even got done baking the whole batch, so at the peak of our growing I think she had to double the recipe every time so there could be some left to actually use for a meal or two.

She passed it along to my best friend and my best friend once removed (her husband) and then I got it from my BFF because my mom was busy at work when I finally was ready to try making it. So anyways, by the time I got the technique down (after a few hands on trainings with mom and several calls in the middle of it) and could really make her bread well, she passed away. It is as if the bread tradition had to get passed down before she could go. I now have the privilege of passing it along to my children and sister-in-laws for them to make and taste something my mom made. It brings us closer to her even though she is gone. I love how a simple bread recipe can help bond us to our kindred dead. This is one of those flecks of brilliancy in life I have been noticing and want to point out and share with the world.