Magical Macaroni

Today, I've been more than a little grumpy.

Maybe it was the weekend with relatives, maybe it's because I've been a little under the weather the past few days, maybe it's the fact that Greg was out golfing and having fun today while I did laundry. . . whatever. Either way, I'm not quite as cheery as I like to think I normally am. So when Greg called to kindly let me know he was on his way home I more or less bit his head off. I have that marvelous talent to completely gut someone with harsh words in one minute or less, and I absolutely hate it when I do it. Especially to Greg. So. . .after stewing about it for a bit, I called him back to apologize, then wallowed around the house in my misery for another 45 minutes.

Sweet Greg, he called me to let me know he was at the store and asked if I needed anything. I didn't even need to think about it for a nano-second.

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese please!

For no matter how good of a cook I have become in our past 3 years of marriage, Greg is the only one who can make this mac and cheese the way that I love it, all buttery and fattening. I can't figure it out no many how many times I do it, it's always a bit too milky, or a bit too dry. And it does always cheer me up pretty quick. If chocolate cake is an IV drip of sheer pleasure, then mac and cheese is like taking aspirin. Not quite as immediate perhaps, but still pretty darn effective after a few minutes.

Which reminds me of a time about 2 years ago that Greg had made me some mac and cheese when I was down and out with the flu. He was preparing it in the kitchen and he was really excited for me to try this particular batch. (At this point in time we were buying these little blue boxes by the ton at Sam's Club - and I'd gone through almost all of them that hellish week.) He put the bowl in my hands, and I started eating, noticing that he had added

a pinch of
no, a bit of,
heavens; a LOT of

PEPPER!

I was on fire. I gasped, I sneezed, I pawed at my tongue, I drank more water than was good for me and finally got around to asking what happened. Apparently he was experimenting a bit with the pepper when the top of the jar fell off and the whole lot of it fell into the pot. Rather than dump it all out and start over, he thought he'd just stir it all in and see how it tasted.

Not very good in this humble writer's opinion.

But we always laugh over that story whenever we do have mac and cheese these days, and I swear I can still taste a hint of pepper each time I go to eat it.