As I sit and watch our next snowstorm begin to fall (collective sigh from the winter-weary among us), I am enjoying a wonderful warm bowl of macaroni and cheese. No, no and emphatically NO, it was not from a box. There's nothing wrong with boxed M&C, although foodies might disagree. But, there's just something special in making it yourself and hey, I know my way around a kitchen.
Stove-top mac and cheese at its most basic is macaroni in a white sauce with your cheese of choice melted into it. Do I know how to make a white sauce from scratch? Do I know how to grate cheese to add to the sauce? Do I know how to cook pasta to proper al dente doneness? Uh, yeah. None of it takes a seasoned culinary specialist. Really.
Thirty minutes later – voila, homemade mac and cheese, cheddar the fromage du jour. It warms the fingers wrapped 'round the bowl, as eating it at a table is just too civilized. It tantalizes the tongue with its silken cheese-sauciness with touches of bacon (forgive me, vegetarians and vegans) and Dijon mustard (forgive me, mac and cheese purists) added in. It warms the body from the belly outward, and we won't even think about the calorie count because it's comfort food and comfort food isn't meant to be thought of how as to it fits into any dietary restrictions.
And comfort food, most importantly, is supposed to make us smile and forget our troubles and worries for a while. Let the snow fall – it's winter after all. For just one bowl in time, ignore the crappy weather. I did.
Only 40 more days until spring.
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