Return of the Mac (And Cheese)

Ok, so I'm not so great at keeping up with things. I work pretty hard and I juggle a lot, and then one day, it all just turns into, "Nope, nope, nope." A little part of me shuts down. Much like Allie Brosh, I fail at being an adult. I was reaching critical mass on the fail part, when I finally hit my vacation. I had eight blissful days in a row of not having to go to work or be responsible for anything more than my personal hygiene and feeding myself and Tony. It was amazing. And it was very needed.

Here's the failure part: I made some awesome food that I in no way blogged about. I didn't even take pictures of it. I enjoyed my time doing nothing and lazing about. It was marvelous, but I missed some really good opportunities. To my credit, this is usually where my projects die. I hit the adult fail, critical mass, total meltdown point and then I just never go back to the things that I was doing before the breakdown. This time, I'm still trying. I came back! This is how you know I'm really trying to commit to this, internet. This is how you know! So I give you the post I meant to write before vacation about macaroni and cheese.

My very generous father recently sent me a copy of Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything. It's a fantastic cookbook. It has wonderful notes on technique. It includes tons of variations on recipes. It's a great cookbook. The only thing I regret is that I don't have a food processor to use to fully appreciate the full scale of the cookbook.

I was craving macaroni and cheese. Since I'm the only one here who can really appreciate the joy of macaroni and cheese, I decided to make it for myself while Tony was at work. I opted to use Mark Bittman's recipe because it is a very simple recipe and incredibly easy to follow. It basically involves producing a bechamel sauce, adding cheese to it, pouring the mix over slightly under-cooked pasta, and baking with breadcrumbs on top.

It tasted phenomenal. I opted to use sharp cheddar, but I think it would be fun to experiment with other cheeses. I also used tricolor rotini because I like the extra flavor that particular pasta brings to the dish. The breadcrumbs gave a lovely addition to the texture. I think the only thing I would do differently is to perhaps add a little bit of garlic next time, since I pretty much love garlic in everything. I think the combination of the creaminess of the bechamel and the sharp cheddar would be wonderfully complimented by just a little garlic.

Sadly, I don't foresee myself making this particular dish very often. It makes quite a bit of macaroni and cheese, which I'm the only one eating. It would be a great dish for me to take to a potluck or party, though. I think that's what this recipe will become. It's simple and cheap. It's fairly quick to throw together. All in all, not a bad way to have dinner. It's just too bad no one here can appreciate cheese like I can.