So this happened..

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Replies

  • daniip_la
    daniip_la Posts: 678 Member
    I know what a roux is and I use cheddar cheese to make mac and cheese, but I admit to have microwaved a block of velveeta with a can of rotel tomatoes. Pretty good as a dip.

    The entire point of velveeta is to make cheese dip with rotel. The stuff doesn't even taste like cheese if you accidentally eat some plain.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    We don't get rotel or equivalent here, I've always been curious.

    What is American cheese like? Is it similar to mild cheddar?
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
    We don't get rotel or equivalent here, I've always been curious.

    What is American cheese like? Is it similar to mild cheddar?

    It's kinda like sliced velveeta texture-wise. Kinda gummy. Taste-wise, it's hard without having some right in front of me, but I'd say somewhere between mild cheddar and hotdog.
  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Sara1791 wrote: »
    The cheddar that is commonly available at the market usually comes in mild, sharp, extra sharp, and recently I saw something called "seriously sharp." For me, the sharper the better, because it means I can have more flavor for fewer calories.

    There are some artisanal cheese producers that make some interesting cheeses. Of course and Vermont and Wisconsin are known as big cheese producers. I live in an area of New York State that has a number of dairies and is becoming known for some nice cheeses, though I think they are specializing in young cheeses. There's a new one I can't remember the name of that I'm looking forward to trying. Personally, I'd love to have some goats and make my own. :)

    Yeah, there are tons of artisanal cheese producers in the US. I think it's a shame that people assume we don't have them, sometimes.

    I am currently a big fan of a variety of goat cheeses in different styles from a farm that comes to my favorite green market (since I adore blue cheeses I normally get their regular blue, called Black Goat, but they have a special blue only available a couple of times a year that I am hoping is available on Saturday).

    I also love the cheeses (American and imported) from this place: https://www.pastoralartisan.com/. They come with hilarious tasting notes too, which I like (I'm easy that way). (But given the conversation, I should add that the selection even at my local WF is really good.)

    Some of the US cheeses on the current tasting menu from one of the locations (they also have non-domestic cheeses on the tasting menu, of course):

    Petit Nuage (sheep) - Landmark Creamery - Wisconsin (airy, lemony, decadent)

    Cremont (cow and goat) - Vermont Creamery - Vermont (tangy, rich, cheesecake)

    Batch #13 (cow, goat, sheep) Doe Run Dairy - Pennsylvania (fruit loops, pine nuts, toothsome)

    Rosa Maria (goat) - Dutch Girl Creamery - Nebraska (beautiful spanish lady)

    Juvindale (cow) - Meadowood Farms - New York (meaty, unctuous, velvet)

    Dorset (cow) - Consider Bardwell - Vermont (strawberry fields, custard)

    Barren County Blue (raw cow) - Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese - Kentucky (bacon, cracker jacks, earth)


    This is a wealth of yummy information that must be thoroughly researched and verified. Luckily I am up to the task!
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    daniip_la wrote: »
    I know what a roux is and I use cheddar cheese to make mac and cheese, but I admit to have microwaved a block of velveeta with a can of rotel tomatoes. Pretty good as a dip.

    The entire point of velveeta is to make cheese dip with rotel. The stuff doesn't even taste like cheese if you accidentally eat some plain.

    Rotel dip, and to supplement my homemade mac n cheese. Similar to some of the versions discussed here - I start with a roux, which turns into a bechamel, but when it comes time to add cheeses - I do a blend: sharp cheddar, smoked cheddar, fontina, and a bit of velveeta. Nothing really compares to getting that creamy/meltiness like velveeta. Then I pour it all in a buttered casserole dish and sprinkle a mix of melted butter, panko breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese- sprinkle smoked paprika over the whole thing for a nice color.

    Also, I actually prefer to make a spinach queso dip with queso blanco velveeta (used to be able to find pepper jack velveeta but I think they discontinued), rotel, thawed frozen spinach, diced jalapenos, diced onion, lime juice, and cumin. Super yummy and much preferred to the traditional rotel party dip...
  • We don't get rotel or equivalent here, I've always been curious.

    What is American cheese like? Is it similar to mild cheddar?

    Just go to McD's and order a cheeseburger. That's American cheese.
  • WJS_jeepster
    WJS_jeepster Posts: 224 Member
    My Mom always started mac & cheese with a proper butter/flour roux - and then added 2 lbs. of Velveeta :p

    Mine too! When we were having soup for dinner, my mom would bring out a sleeve or two of saltines and the velveeta box (it was a velveeta-sized rectangular Tupperware with lid) and the rolling cheese slicer. My dad was the primary slicer, as he could get you a paper-thin slice of velveeta. Then that went on the saltines and was eaten alongside the soup (never in the soup).
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    edited October 2016
    I am conflicted on the matter of breadcrumbs. Yes, it adds crunch, but it detracts from the bubbly cheesiness. I can never quite make my mind up between cheesy breadcrumbs or just a layer of grated cheese.

    Sometimes I add ham to the sauce, or bits of fried bacon.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I am conflicted on the matter of breadcrumbs. Yes, it adds crunch, but it detracts from the bubbly cheesiness. I can never quite make my mind up between cheesy breadcrumbs or just a layer of grated cheese.

    Same, I don't get breadcrumbs either.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    I am conflicted on the matter of breadcrumbs. Yes, it adds crunch, but it detracts from the bubbly cheesiness. I can never quite make my mind up between cheesy breadcrumbs or just a layer of grated cheese.

    Sometimes I add ham to the sauce, or bits of fried bacon.

    My husband doesn't care for baked macaroni at all - he prefers the stovetop creamy kind, which is esssentially what mine starts out as before I put it in the casserole dish. I like both kinds, but find that the baked with breadcrumbs feels a bit fancier...
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    Is the practice of serving mac and cheese as a side dish confined to the South, or is that a general thing? I remember being invited for dinner by an American couple in our church (from Georgia I think?) and being intrigued by all the sides. The meatloaf and mashed potatoes were not surprising, but the mac and cheese took me unawares - it was like being served dinner with dinner on the side. There was also a dish that was more like a pineapple cobbler than anything else, and I have never seen someone put jam on dinner rolls to serve with the main meal. It was all delicious, but very new to me.
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
    edited October 2016
    I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.
  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
    I am from the north east of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.

    I'm gonna go with this too. All of it. Except that I'm of German and Italian descent. :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.

    I never heard of mac and cheese until I came to the US, honestly. Sometimes in France I had pasta with gruyere cheese but we typically had red sauce too (but yes it was our main dish when we had it). And WAY less cheese.

    But I love cheese so getting used to mac and cheese really wasn't hard. I just find it hard to get really good mac and cheese, and it has so many calories when it is.. I just don't bother.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Is the practice of serving mac and cheese as a side dish confined to the South, or is that a general thing? I remember being invited for dinner by an American couple in our church (from Georgia I think?) and being intrigued by all the sides. The meatloaf and mashed potatoes were not surprising, but the mac and cheese took me unawares - it was like being served dinner with dinner on the side. There was also a dish that was more like a pineapple cobbler than anything else, and I have never seen someone put jam on dinner rolls to serve with the main meal. It was all delicious, but very new to me.

    It's common here (Chicago), but I think it comes from soul food (so the south). That's actually the avenue by which I became familiar with real mac and cheese (I like breadcrumbs), as one of my friends back in my 20s was dating a guy who cooked at a soul food restaurant.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Is the practice of serving mac and cheese as a side dish confined to the South, or is that a general thing? I remember being invited for dinner by an American couple in our church (from Georgia I think?) and being intrigued by all the sides. The meatloaf and mashed potatoes were not surprising, but the mac and cheese took me unawares - it was like being served dinner with dinner on the side. There was also a dish that was more like a pineapple cobbler than anything else, and I have never seen someone put jam on dinner rolls to serve with the main meal. It was all delicious, but very new to me.

    It's common here (Chicago), but I think it comes from soul food (so the south). That's actually the avenue by which I became familiar with real mac and cheese (I like breadcrumbs), as one of my friends back in my 20s was dating a guy who cooked at a soul food restaurant.

    One day I will have real, proper, super yum soul food. It will be a good day.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited October 2016
    I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.

    My family is midwestern, and we'd eat spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner sometimes, but it was spaghetti, mostly, no one called it pasta. Mmac & cheese was only the boxed stuff, and was for kids, as a special treat meal, I think, but for the most part every meal was meat-centric. Vegetables and some starch (often potatoes, yeah, or corn or bread or occasionally rice or noodles) on the side. Even now my parents seem to think that a dinner without meat isn't really dinner and is weird. (At least fish counts as meat for those purposes, for them.)

    Pasta seems much more common throughout the US now.
  • geneticsteacher
    geneticsteacher Posts: 623 Member
    I learned the difference between yankee and southern mac & cheese from one of my students - in the South, they add eggs to the mac & cheese so it is firm, and then cut it in square to serve it. In the northern states, we like to serve it creamy and sloppy with a spoon.
  • daniip_la
    daniip_la Posts: 678 Member
    I learned the difference between yankee and southern mac & cheese from one of my students - in the South, they add eggs to the mac & cheese so it is firm, and then cut it in square to serve it. In the northern states, we like to serve it creamy and sloppy with a spoon.

    Lived in the south all my life. Eggs don't go in mac & cheese.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    This thread has morphed into yarning about my two favourites.
    Chocolate and cheese.

    <3
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
    Just wanted to add that it was my southern boy husband who introduced me to Velveeta (and Rotel).
    He also introduced me to grits. Not runny grainy grits like what gets served in diners. Creamy, cooked-in-milk and a stick of butter grits.
    And eating pork ribs and greens and black eyed peas on New Year's Day.
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.

    My family is midwestern, and we'd eat spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner sometimes, but it was spaghetti, mostly, no one called it pasta. Mmac & cheese was only the boxed stuff, and was for kids, as a special treat meal, I think, but for the most part every meal was meat-centric. Vegetables and some starch (often potatoes, yeah, or corn or bread or occasionally rice or noodles) on the side. Even now my parents seem to think that a dinner without meat isn't really dinner and is weird. (At least fish counts as meat for those purposes, for them.)

    Pasta seems much more common throughout the US now.

    I just used the generic term pasta because there are so many types of dishes and that word covers them all. I consider mac and cheese a pasta dish, just as I would spaghetti, fettucini alfredo, cavatelli and broccoli, and OMG BAKED ZITI I am so hungry!

  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
    I have a tray of homemade baked ziti in the freezer. I can't take it out because I will eat it all.
  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
    This thread has morphed into yarning about my two favourites.
    Chocolate and cheese.

    <3

    Yarning - so that's the word! Thanks!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Just wanted to add that it was my southern boy husband who introduced me to Velveeta (and Rotel).
    He also introduced me to grits. Not runny grainy grits like what gets served in diners. Creamy, cooked-in-milk and a stick of butter grits.
    And eating pork ribs and greens and black eyed peas on New Year's Day.
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.

    My family is midwestern, and we'd eat spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner sometimes, but it was spaghetti, mostly, no one called it pasta. Mmac & cheese was only the boxed stuff, and was for kids, as a special treat meal, I think, but for the most part every meal was meat-centric. Vegetables and some starch (often potatoes, yeah, or corn or bread or occasionally rice or noodles) on the side. Even now my parents seem to think that a dinner without meat isn't really dinner and is weird. (At least fish counts as meat for those purposes, for them.)

    Pasta seems much more common throughout the US now.

    I just used the generic term pasta because there are so many types of dishes and that word covers them all. I consider mac and cheese a pasta dish, just as I would spaghetti, fettucini alfredo, cavatelli and broccoli, and OMG BAKED ZITI I am so hungry!

    Oh, I always use "pasta" for that reason, and agree, but was just making the point that no one did when I was a kid (where I grew up anyway), because people only ate spaghetti or macaroni (and did not use macaroni as a generic). We did have some other non pasta kinds of noodles, sometimes. It's a funny change I notice.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Oh, and I never had grits 'til I was in my mid 20s, when a Southern friend had a party and cheese grits were served. I was an immediate convert.
  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Just wanted to add that it was my southern boy husband who introduced me to Velveeta (and Rotel).
    He also introduced me to grits. Not runny grainy grits like what gets served in diners. Creamy, cooked-in-milk and a stick of butter grits.
    And eating pork ribs and greens and black eyed peas on New Year's Day.
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.

    My family is midwestern, and we'd eat spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner sometimes, but it was spaghetti, mostly, no one called it pasta. Mmac & cheese was only the boxed stuff, and was for kids, as a special treat meal, I think, but for the most part every meal was meat-centric. Vegetables and some starch (often potatoes, yeah, or corn or bread or occasionally rice or noodles) on the side. Even now my parents seem to think that a dinner without meat isn't really dinner and is weird. (At least fish counts as meat for those purposes, for them.)

    Pasta seems much more common throughout the US now.

    I just used the generic term pasta because there are so many types of dishes and that word covers them all. I consider mac and cheese a pasta dish, just as I would spaghetti, fettucini alfredo, cavatelli and broccoli, and OMG BAKED ZITI I am so hungry!

    Oh, I always use "pasta" for that reason, and agree, but was just making the point that no one did when I was a kid (where I grew up anyway), because people only ate spaghetti or macaroni (and did not use macaroni as a generic). We did have some other non pasta kinds of noodles, sometimes. It's a funny change I notice.


    When I was a kid my father and all his family, who are Sicilian immigrants, called all kinds of pasta "macaroni." I think he still does. Pretty sure it was because he figured Americans were too stupid to understand the difference. ;)
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,158 Member
    I just have to say that after reading this thread I had to go out and try some Ferrero Rocher chocolates. I thought they were pretty good. And I grew up in the south and have never heard of putting eggs in mac and cheese.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Sara1791 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Just wanted to add that it was my southern boy husband who introduced me to Velveeta (and Rotel).
    He also introduced me to grits. Not runny grainy grits like what gets served in diners. Creamy, cooked-in-milk and a stick of butter grits.
    And eating pork ribs and greens and black eyed peas on New Year's Day.
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.

    My family is midwestern, and we'd eat spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner sometimes, but it was spaghetti, mostly, no one called it pasta. Mmac & cheese was only the boxed stuff, and was for kids, as a special treat meal, I think, but for the most part every meal was meat-centric. Vegetables and some starch (often potatoes, yeah, or corn or bread or occasionally rice or noodles) on the side. Even now my parents seem to think that a dinner without meat isn't really dinner and is weird. (At least fish counts as meat for those purposes, for them.)

    Pasta seems much more common throughout the US now.

    I just used the generic term pasta because there are so many types of dishes and that word covers them all. I consider mac and cheese a pasta dish, just as I would spaghetti, fettucini alfredo, cavatelli and broccoli, and OMG BAKED ZITI I am so hungry!

    Oh, I always use "pasta" for that reason, and agree, but was just making the point that no one did when I was a kid (where I grew up anyway), because people only ate spaghetti or macaroni (and did not use macaroni as a generic). We did have some other non pasta kinds of noodles, sometimes. It's a funny change I notice.


    When I was a kid my father and all his family, who are Sicilian immigrants, called all kinds of pasta "macaroni." I think he still does. Pretty sure it was because he figured Americans were too stupid to understand the difference. ;)

    Yup, that's why I mentioned "not as a generic" thing. I went to college with some Italian-Americans from the NY area, and they said the same thing. They also insisted on certain pronunciations for some things as the correct one (manigot! or something like that, for example), which are neither used among those of Italian ancestry here (Chicago), at least not from what I've seen, or something I ran into in Italy itself, so I've always figured that's also a Sicilian thing. ;-)
  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Sara1791 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Just wanted to add that it was my southern boy husband who introduced me to Velveeta (and Rotel).
    He also introduced me to grits. Not runny grainy grits like what gets served in diners. Creamy, cooked-in-milk and a stick of butter grits.
    And eating pork ribs and greens and black eyed peas on New Year's Day.
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.

    My family is midwestern, and we'd eat spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner sometimes, but it was spaghetti, mostly, no one called it pasta. Mmac & cheese was only the boxed stuff, and was for kids, as a special treat meal, I think, but for the most part every meal was meat-centric. Vegetables and some starch (often potatoes, yeah, or corn or bread or occasionally rice or noodles) on the side. Even now my parents seem to think that a dinner without meat isn't really dinner and is weird. (At least fish counts as meat for those purposes, for them.)

    Pasta seems much more common throughout the US now.

    I just used the generic term pasta because there are so many types of dishes and that word covers them all. I consider mac and cheese a pasta dish, just as I would spaghetti, fettucini alfredo, cavatelli and broccoli, and OMG BAKED ZITI I am so hungry!

    Oh, I always use "pasta" for that reason, and agree, but was just making the point that no one did when I was a kid (where I grew up anyway), because people only ate spaghetti or macaroni (and did not use macaroni as a generic). We did have some other non pasta kinds of noodles, sometimes. It's a funny change I notice.


    When I was a kid my father and all his family, who are Sicilian immigrants, called all kinds of pasta "macaroni." I think he still does. Pretty sure it was because he figured Americans were too stupid to understand the difference. ;)

    Yup, that's why I mentioned "not as a generic" thing. I went to college with some Italian-Americans from the NY area, and they said the same thing. They also insisted on certain pronunciations for some things as the correct one (manigot! or something like that, for example), which are neither used among those of Italian ancestry here (Chicago), at least not from what I've seen, or something I ran into in Italy itself, so I've always figured that's also a Sicilian thing. ;-)

    Don't get me started on dialects! :) I love language and its evolutions. Too bad I only speak English.
  • CorneliusPhoton
    CorneliusPhoton Posts: 965 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Sara1791 wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Just wanted to add that it was my southern boy husband who introduced me to Velveeta (and Rotel).
    He also introduced me to grits. Not runny grainy grits like what gets served in diners. Creamy, cooked-in-milk and a stick of butter grits.
    And eating pork ribs and greens and black eyed peas on New Year's Day.
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I am from the north east area of the US and grew up with meat and vegetables (German descent) for dinner. I can't see cheesy noodles as a main dish/dinner unless maybe when I was a poor college student. :) If it has some meat in it, then I feel a lot better about it - like lasagna as long as it has meat sauce. Or something with a lower pasta to cheese ratio. Stuffed shells comes to mind. Mmmm ricotta... There are a lot of regional and cultural differences here. I had many Italian neighbors and it seemed that they ate pasta as main dishes much more often than we did.

    My family is midwestern, and we'd eat spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner sometimes, but it was spaghetti, mostly, no one called it pasta. Mmac & cheese was only the boxed stuff, and was for kids, as a special treat meal, I think, but for the most part every meal was meat-centric. Vegetables and some starch (often potatoes, yeah, or corn or bread or occasionally rice or noodles) on the side. Even now my parents seem to think that a dinner without meat isn't really dinner and is weird. (At least fish counts as meat for those purposes, for them.)

    Pasta seems much more common throughout the US now.

    I just used the generic term pasta because there are so many types of dishes and that word covers them all. I consider mac and cheese a pasta dish, just as I would spaghetti, fettucini alfredo, cavatelli and broccoli, and OMG BAKED ZITI I am so hungry!

    Oh, I always use "pasta" for that reason, and agree, but was just making the point that no one did when I was a kid (where I grew up anyway), because people only ate spaghetti or macaroni (and did not use macaroni as a generic). We did have some other non pasta kinds of noodles, sometimes. It's a funny change I notice.


    When I was a kid my father and all his family, who are Sicilian immigrants, called all kinds of pasta "macaroni." I think he still does. Pretty sure it was because he figured Americans were too stupid to understand the difference. ;)

    Yup, that's why I mentioned "not as a generic" thing. I went to college with some Italian-Americans from the NY area, and they said the same thing. They also insisted on certain pronunciations for some things as the correct one (manigot! or something like that, for example), which are neither used among those of Italian ancestry here (Chicago), at least not from what I've seen, or something I ran into in Italy itself, so I've always figured that's also a Sicilian thing. ;-)

    ManniGOT! And GavaDEEL!