====== Macaroni Casserole ======

This recipe is adapted from one called //"Meat-Macaroni Supper"// in the //Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book//.  The original calls for a can of condensed cream of celery soup, which I can't readily find here in Alsace, and a can of "luncheon meat" (Spam, I guess?) which isn't available, either, at least not with ingredients I want to eat.

Celery stalks haven't always been available here as consistently as they now are, so I usually didn't include celery; if one does, the choice of slice, dice, or chop depends on the texture one wants it to give to the casserole, so I'm not specifying.

^ Cook macaroni ^^^
| 4 | servings | cooked macaroni (240g before cooking).  ((The original recipe called for 3.5 oz. raw macaroni, which is only about 100g., and claimed to make 4-6 servings!  I figure, based on Barilla's lasagna recipe which uses 12 20g sheets for 4 servings, that 240g of raw macaroni should be called for.)) |
^ Prepare cream of celery soup substitute ^^^
|  ^ * | Preheat oven to 350° F, (=175°C) |
| 3 | Tb | butter |
| 1/2 | C | chopped onion |
| 1/2 | C | sliced, diced, or chopped celery (optional) |
|  || In a sauce pan (suitable for making a 2-C Béchamel), sauté onions (and celery) in butter until soft but not browned. Remove and set aside, leaving as much butter as possible in the pan |
| 2 | Tb | flour |
| 2 | C | milk |
| 1 | C | (=4 oz=115g) grated cheese (Emmenthal, Gouda, Edam, Pyrenées, etc.) ((original recipe did not call for so much, and none in the sauce, just a little to //gratiner//. Looking again to lasagna as a model, the recipes I use call for 100g of cheese--or 55g of Parmesan, which is drier.  What's more, a Sauce Mornay calls for 100g of finely grated cheese for 1/2 litre(approx. 2 C), so I think this amount is about right.))|
|  || __Béchamel->Mornay :__ cook flour in butter a couple of minutes on low (but do not brown).  Add milk, whisk and heat until thick and bubbly.\\  Add grated cheese, reserving about 1/4 C. |
^ Assemble  and bake ^^^
| 1 | can | (= 8 oz. = 230g) peeled tomatoes, broken into pieces. The juice, too. |
| 1/4 | tsp | thyme |
| 1/4 | C | bell pepper, chopped |
| 12 | oz. | hot dogs (poultry hot dogs), quartered length-wise and cut into 1.5-inch lengths. |
|  || Mix together sauce, macaroni, onion (and celery) with all the remaining ingredients. |
|  || Turn in to a baking dish, top with remaining grated chees.  |
|  || Bake 35-40 minutes |