Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Macaroni and cheese

macaroni.jpg
Eastside Road, February 27, 2013—
THREE GOOD FRIENDS were by for lunch today: Lindsey made macaroni and cheese. It's a staple, of course; it was almost a weekly occurance in my childhood — though never like this: ours came in kit form, in a box, sometimes with Kraft's name on it, sometimes with Chef Boy-ar-dee's.

Lindsey used a recipe she's had for years, in an old pamphlet called Casserole Cookery, published in the mid-1950s, to judge by the copyright notice, by Culinary Arts Institute, which was directed by Melanie De Proft. Lindsey has a number of these pamphlets, on various subjects, all gathered into a binder with WEST BEND stamped on the cover; perhaps they were originally sold with cooking equipment marketed by the West Bend Company, which made cookware, electrical appliances, and two-stroke engines; I see on their website that "For 100 years, West Bend® has connected home chefs and matriarchs across generations." I'm glad to be helping them out in this worthy endeavor.cookbook.jpg

The recipe is simple enough: macaroni, previously cooked and drained; white sauce flavored with a bit of dry mustard; grated Cheddar cheese; minced onion; a bit of Worcestershire sauce. Lindsey wisely omits the pound of tomatoes called for.

After the main course, accompanied by olives and pickled green beans, we had a green salad; then warm applesauce with vanilla ice cream. Good old comfort food, perfect for a lazy afternoon of conversation.

Cave, Bohigas, nv; Rosé, Domaines Bunan (Bandol), 2011

2 comments:

Curtis Faville said...

Those tomatoes are supposed to curb cancer of the prostate, Charles.

On the other hand, at our age, maybe it's too late.

Maybe we can smoke cigars and have that second magnum as consolations for having reached healthy old age.

Charles Shere said...

We eat plenty of tomatoes in season, and the occasional can of organic tomatoes out of season finds its way into a pasta sauce. At my age, though, I don't worry any longer about prostate cancer.

I tried a cigar about a year ago, my first in decades. It just seemed silly. Magnums, on the other hand…