hello! we are going to make it through this year and at this point it probably won’t even kill us!

not that i think a year is something to be thought of as having “made it through another one” because that’s no way to live a life. but there were certainly times this year when death and all his friends were truly invading my personal space. (and not just the days i was feeling overly dramatic: “oh god i can’t open this jar of pickles!! the end is near!!!!!”) such as while i stumbled half-dead through the icy, mid-april parking lot to attempt to clean a foot and a half of snow off my car. or while, like, listening to the news.

a couple years ago now, i read a thing on the internet that went like this:

“me in 2016: 2017 will be the year of healing and pain relief
me: *wakes up on January 1st, 2017 still with intense pain and symptoms*
me in 2017: 2018 will be the year of healing and”

well. 2018 was not the year of healing and. but i think 2019 might be that year, despite how we wake up feeling on january 1. i’m hanging in there, and whatever you’re going through, i hope you are too. last year i shared with you a list of not so much resolutions, but things i wanted to accomplish in the new year. (there’s a difference, you know?) it was a long list and i accomplished not even half of them , but i have no regrets. much of what i was unable to complete was due to changing circumstances and things i couldn’t control, and i’m incredibly proud of the things i did accomplish this year, whether they were on that list or not.

two of the things on my list were ones that i made a point of trying to complete in these last few weeks of 2018. and as soon as i post this, i’ll have crossed off both of them!!!! a couple days ago i finished stephen king’s dark tower series. something i first endeavored to do maybe like 6 years ago. for those interested, i thought the series was good but not amazing (the ending was wild though). so i crossed that off my list. and today i “finally post that mac and cheese recipe i’ve been planning for like years” (which i hope you make and find to be a little better than “good but not amazing”).

and it’s true. today i share with you a recipe that has been in the works since before this blog was born, when baby started her very first list of recipe ideas. maybe also like 6 years ago. but actually this recipe goes back much further, because written towards the top of that list was something like “mac and cheese for cats for people” and obviously there’s a centuries-old story behind that.

when my sister and i were lil ones with half-formed ideas about the world, we imagined a future for ourselves in which we each lived in huge mansions in california and had several fluffy white cats that resembled our favorite childhood stuffed animals. these cats, we knew, were going to live in luxury. and that apparently meant dining nightly upon a bowl of “mac and cheese for cats”. (because if there’s something more luxurious than mac and cheese, neither my 7-year-old self nor my 27-year-old self has been able to think of what that could be). we came up with some kind of recipe – something involving lots of cream, lots of cheese, and maybe a sprinkling of macaroni noodles, that we would cook and feed to our cats (please don’t feed this to your cats). you know. just normal stuff.

years later i, not so much being a fan of stovetop mac and cheese, naturally wanted to come up with a recipe for stovetop mac and cheese. i didn’t know what it would involve, other than lots of cream, lots of cheese, and maybe a sprinkling of macaroni noodles. so this recipe is inspired by mac and cheese for cats, i guess. but here is what it became. you fry, yes, fry, your pasta. add in the cheese and fry that too. you’re left with a deliciously crispy mess of toasty noodles and cheese, which you then top with a cream sauce filled with secret ingredients like onion and celery. you immediately feel a little better about yourself. you know how they say that celery has negative calories because you burn more calories from chewing it than you gain from eating it? i don’t know if that’s true but the last step in this recipe is definitely to remind yourself of that while digging into a bowl of this mac. or don’t and just remind yourself how far you’ve come and that you deserve a luxury like mac and cheese now and again.

here is a list for 2019 (i tried to keep it a little lighter this year because i don’t know what the future holds for me) and then a recipe. i’d love to hear your lists for the year because if you are reading this then i love and care about you and am interested to know what you hope 2019 has in store for you. into the new year we go. let’s go together and hold in our hearts the hope of good things to come

happy new year.

-kara

  • make 2019 a year of healing and
  • create a photorealistic render
  • buy only used clothing (whenever possible)
  • cook a lot from a modern way to cook and lady and pups
  • try photoscanning
  • read mark z danielewski’s “familiar” series
  • practice self care in a real way
  • make decisions that lead to the consumption of as much good food as possible
  • create a recipe inspired by a piece of art
  • learn how to make song mashups
  • finally finish that dang 3d dog creation course
  • create a blender tutorial of my own
  • go to meditation more often
  • work on developing my own personal art style
  • write an article with my sister about the effect of immigration on the twin cities food scene
  • learn needle felting
  • learn to do the flippity sauteing thing

crispy, crunchy stovetop mac and cheese

ingredients

for the sauce (adapted from vegetarian for a new generation by liana krissoff):

  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 4 ribs celery, finely diced
  • 1 medium onion, finely diced
  • ½ tsp dried thyme
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup
  • grated parmesan

for the mac and cheese:

  • 3/4 lb. macaroni, cooked al dente according to package
  • 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 3 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
  • freshly ground black pepper for serving

to make the sauce:

  1. in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. add the celery, onion, thyme, a pinch of salt, and several grindings of pepper. cook, stirring occasionally, until the celery is very soft but not browned, 12 to 15 minutes.
  2. add the wine and cook until it’s mostly evaporated, about 2 minutes. add the cream and another pinch of salt. bring the mixture to a simmer, then remove the pan from heat and stir in the parmesan. transfer to a blender and puree until smooth. (you can use an immersion blender but i found that i was not able to get a smooth enough consistency).

to make the mac and cheese:

  1. melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. add the pasta and stir to coat it with the butter, then let cook without stirring until the noodles begin to get crispy and brown. then stir and repeat until approximately half the noodles have become brown and crispy on at least one side. add in the cheese, stir and let cook until the cheese is crispy. remove pan from heat.
  2. pour the sauce back into the saucepan and re-heat, if needed. then pour it over the macaroni mixture and serve, topped with lots of black pepper.