Ketchup Catch Up

You know how I say everything is better with bacon? In college, it was all about the ketchup. I KNOW! This was back in the days (heh - like walking 2 miles uphill barefoot to school) when dorm food totally sucked. (I have heard it has much improved these days with salad bars, ala carte items and -gasp -even fresh fruit!) Turkey tettrazini, Salisbury steak, ham loaf! and miscellaneous mystery meat casseroles were the menu in my dorm. I once saw the box that the Saturday night "gourmet" steaks came in: "Grade D But Edible." The edible part - eh, not so much. I discovered early on that dousing ketchup on hamburger gravy with faux potatoes made it so you couldn't actually taste the hamburger gravy and potato flakes. And that was a good thing. So I started putting ketchup on nearly everything. Cheese colored soup with ketchup, ham and cheese sandwich with ketchup, eggs and ketchup, and my favorite, pizza with ketchup. Even the pizza sucked. Once, basically to show off, I put ketchup on ice cream and ate it, but that was more for the story than the taste.....

After college, it took some time to break the ketchup habit. It was then that I discovered that if you have good food, you don't need ketchup! But there are those meals I still love with that sweet red condiment ("cats-up" as Grandma Betty used to call it). Grilled cheese dipped in ketchup. Yummmm. Eggs with ketchup. Yummy! But my favorite? Macaroni and cheese with ketchup! Delish!

Here is a photo of the best macaroni and cheese in the world - and YES! - it has bacon!



Not the best photo, but a comfort meal to bring you out of the bluest of blues or dramatically help you with your PMS. It is like a drug, I'm telling you.
Here is the recipe - ketchup optional......

TOPPING
2 T butter, melted
2 Cups Panko bread crumbs
1 C coarsely grated extra sharp cheddar

CHEESE SAUCE AND MACARONI
1 pound good quality bacon, cooked
3 T butter
3 T flour
1/2 tsp (0r more) red pepper flakes
2 3/4 C whole milk
3/4 C heavy cream
4 C coarsely grated extra sharp cheddar
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
3/4 pound macaroni

Preheat oven to 400. Butter 3 quart shallow baking dish. Cook bacon. Cool then crumble.
Stir topping ingredients together in bowl. Set aside
To make sauce, melt butter, whisk in flour and red pepper to make roux. Whisk milk slowly, bring sauce to boil, Simmer, whisking for 3 minutes. Stir in cream, cheddar, mustard, salt and pepper.
Cook macaroni in salted water to al dente. Reserve 1 Cup past water then drain. Stir macaroni, water, crumbled bacon and sauce in bowl then transfer to baking dish. Add toppings. Bake until golden and bubbling, 25 to 35 minutes.

Eat a plate, go back for two more claiming you just need one more bite.

The Big D

It is quite difficult to get back into blogging after being gone for so long. To quote Ani DiFranco, "I got distracted." Of course she was answering her outraged lesbian fans who were questioning her choice of a man. For me, it was all about the divorce. Although it is most surely not a topic for a food blog, the divorce hit home how much food, food preparation and eating ties into my emotions, happiness and well-being.

When I was in the depths of the divorce, in misery and barely able to function on a basic level, I could hardly eat - let alone cook. Even if I could have mustered up some surge of energy, my kitchen was packed with only a few paper plates and plastic forks left. It was not necessarily a conscious choice that I gave up cooking for this time. But I needed every ounce of energy to just survive, to make through another day, to mother my son, to move and to move on. It just became a low priority for the first time since I picked up a spatula.

There were some breaks in this fast food HELL. And let me just say, I HATE fast food. I HATE McDonalds. I HATE Taco Bell. Burger King? VOMIT! I would rather eat a shoe. Convenience is no excuse to eat that crap. But it was those very shitholes from where I consumed most of my food during the "transition." Some days though, I didn't eat at all. And believe me when I say I am not one to miss a meal. But then my friend C would call to invite me over for pasta and salad. Or my mom would take me out for MEAT. Ah, meat. Even my friend Susan, who doesn't cook and has an aluminum palate, fed me chicken and noodles.

I knew it would come back, the desire to prepare, the hunger for something delicious, the clanking of the brain wondering what pairs well with a basil tomato tart. Last week I bought two new cookbooks (up to 110!) and my Bon Appetit found me at my new home. Yes, I am coming around to the old me. Although it is less of the old me - 20 pounds lighter, wiser and ready to get my hands dirty again. Or at the least sticky with some lovely batter.....