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 Posted By: Katiecooks 
Apr 20  # 1 of 7
Ingredients:

2 C uncooked elbow macaroni
2 C milk
1/4 lb. dried beef - shredded
1/2 lb cheddar cheese
1 medium onion, chopped
4 hard-cooked eggs
2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup, undeluted


Directions:

Combine all ingredients in large baking dish and refrigerate 12 to 14 hours or overnight. Top with dried bread crumbs or Panko and bake at 325 degrees for one hour. Serve with crisp green salad or fruit - this is delicious. :D
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 Posted By: ChileFarmer 
Apr 20  # 2 of 7
Sure sounds interesting. But I can't do that. I can get 2 nice rib eye steaks for the same money as dry beef. It is very costly here. CF:)
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 Posted By: Katiecooks 
Apr 20  # 3 of 7
Hi CF - Sorry to hear that about dried beef, especially in Texas, home of the long-horn steer! Here, in New England, one can purchase a small, glaceen envelope of dried beef - the kind one makes creamed chipped dried beef, better know around here as Red Rag Gravey, out of - for less than $2.00. Those little packages are found - here, anyway - in the same section as bologna and other cold cuts which always cost more than the dried beef does! Two rib-eye steaks, on the other hand, could run as high as $12 and up, up, up!! Back when my husband was still in the Navy and we were stationed down in NAS Pennsacola, Fla. I was given that recipe by a co-worker and she told me that one of those little packages of chipped dried beef was all I needed to make the casserole. I recall paying under $1.00 for it at that time. Times certainly change, don't they? :)
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 Posted By: ChileFarmer 
Apr 21  # 4 of 7
Times do change, and I am not sure I am happy about most of the change.
Guess I am just getting older. Naw, I have so many blessing. CF:)
The dried beef here is the one in a small jar. I really like the dried beef on toast. I guess I could dry some myself. We make jerky I bet that would work. CF
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 Posted By: Katiecooks 
Apr 21  # 5 of 7
I should think it would - the jerky, I mean. Just while I think of it, what, specifically, is "hard tack"? I've heard of this in the past and always wondered just what it was. A form of jerky? I figured you'd probably know.
I've read stories of the western cowboys traveling on horseback during the cattle drives with a pocketful of hard tack and biscuits. Does't sound too palateable but when one's hungry I suppose most anything is good eating, huh? :D