Comfort Food

So, here's the deal: with extra free time this afternoon, I read a couple of magazines while watching two shows I DVR'd last week when I came across 3 recipes for mac 'n cheese. When it's rainy weather, I like to bake -- but my tolerance for sugar has decreased significantly, while my taste for mac 'n cheese has skyrocketed. I will make a pan of mac 'n cheese from the ground up: grating cheese, making white sauce, the whole from scratch thing.

I stopped at the page of recipes and started reading ingredients. The mac can be spiral pasta pieces, elbow or flat noodles, the cheese cheddar or Jack, with parmesan, Velveeta, cream cheese, mozzarella and Gorgonzola welcome taste additions. Some recipes use ranch salad dressing mix, while another adds Worcestershire and a third likes onion powder and garlic powder for zip. One adds crushed saltines for crunch, while the other one adds bread crumbs. My tummy was responding favorably and I started formulating a plan to make each of the recipes, one at a time, a week apart.

My brain wandered back to mac 'n cheese with tuna, frozen peas, cream of mushroom soup, and crunchy bread crumb topping, past variations of an old favorite. I remembered that I never liked any variation as well as the old standard my mom set: elbow mac, homemade white sauce with the cheese melted in, made in layers with heaping extra cheese on top. When that recipe was browned on top and bubbling throughout, it was ready and I was always willing.

The magazine is no longer open to the variations on mac 'n cheese recipes. The same old thing is what I want when I want mac 'n cheese, my favorite comfort food, and I always have those basics in the kitchen cupboard.