My son asked for something nostalgic today.

Tweet

When my son was young, for a time his great-grandparents lived next door to us. We planned it that way, so that they would have our help, but for some time they helped us, too. Son was very close to his great-grandfather, and the apple of great-grandma's eye, too--he was the only great grandson for many years. He ate a lot of lunches with them after they retired, and they were the best cooks, ever. Homemade everything, fresh vegetables out of the garden, delicious pies...they did it all and they did it well. One of the old-time dishes they made sometimes was sort of a depression-era dish--macaroni and tomatoes. Never heard of it? They made it back then when times were tough. It consisted of chopped, home canned tomatoes, cooked macaroni of any type or shape, salt, pepper, and a spoonful of sugar. Sugar? Yes, sugar. If they had bacon drippings, a spoonful of that went into the pot. People who make in now, often jazz it up a lot more than they were able to during the depression. Now there are recipes to add meats, cooked bacon, onions, etc. And of course, so many people also toss cheese on everything now, too. But son just wanted it ''how Grandma Lucy fixed it!'' so that's what I made. I left out the bacon drippings, we neither one wanted that. He has had a really bad week, has barely eaten anything for days...but he ate this! Two bowls full. I call it a win, he asked for it, and he ate it and had a second helping. He wondered why it went out of style and people don't really make it anymore, but palates have advanced a lot, as well as ingredients. I couldn't believe how much he enjoyed this. Go figure, he usually likes dinners that require me to do a lot more involved cooking than this! Sometimes, old school, simple things do taste really good. **I forgot to take a picture of mine, so this is from Pinterest.