Southern Style Mac and Cheese

This summer we visited some family in Georgia. It was my first trip to the south, unless you count a layover in the Atlanta airport. As we were planning what we would do on our trip, I said the the only things I cared about was visiting a plantation and eating southern food. Luckily, we got to experience both of these and much more. It was such a great trip. The southern food may have been my favorite. Our family took us to a nice buffet style dinner at the Blue Wilow Inn. They had fried okra, fried green tomatoes, chicken and dumplings, pecan pie. Pretty much everything you need for a southern style dinner. One of my favorites was the macaroni and cheese. It was so good. The best part is that they have a few of their recipes online including their macaroni and cheese recipe, so even though we can't fly out to Georgia every month, we can eat like we're there.  I have altered this recipe slightly, but it still tastes authentic.

Side note: I posted another baked macaroni and cheese recipe on here a few months ago. I still love that recipe, and it is different and worth trying. I think we will probably go back and forth between these two recipes. Also, please don't think that we just eat a ton of mac and cheese. I know it isn't exactly healthy, but sometimes it just tastes so good.

Here is what you need:
8 oz Macaroni Noodles
1 t Vegetable Shortening
1 C Cheddar Cheese, divided
1/2 C Cheese Whiz
3/4 C Milk
2 Eggs, beaten
1 T Mayo
1/2 t Mustard

Topping:
2 T Butter
1 C Bread Crumbs

1. Cook noodles according to package directions, adding shortening to the water.

2. After draining the water off the noodles, combine them with all other ingredients. Place in a greased 8x8 pan. Save 1/4 cup of the cheese to sprinkle on top.

3. In a pan, melt butter and add bread crumbs. Coat bread crumbs in the butter and cook until bread crumbs are lightly browned. Spread on top.
Let me explain this picture.I wanted to put bread crumbs on top, but Husband wanted to stick with the original recipe, so we compromised by just putting bread crumbs on half. But after tasting some from both sides, I won Husband over and now we bread crumb the entire thing!

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, and enjoy.

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