Not terribly photogenic, but oh so good.
I cannot call this dish macaroni and cheese. For one, I do not like to use macaroni when creating this dish as it reminds me too much of kindergarten craft projects and I have a hard enough time controlling my impulse to run for the glitter and elmer's glue as it is. For two, the dish I know as macaroni and cheese from my childhood comes from a bright blue box and is often a suspicious orange color. That having been said, this dish is divine. I do not know how I spent the formative years of my life having never had "real" macaroni and cheese - from an oven, not a pot - but I have recently seen the light.
The first time I experienced "real" macaroni and cheese was with my partner Noah at his mother Toni's house. His mother and stepfather have been veggie-converts for many years and as such have had time to perfect what has become a staple in their home. This version is a hodgepodge of what I gleaned from watching Toni work her magic and a recent recipe from Gourmet magazine. It couldn't be simpler and there are SO many ways to vary this recipe to go from weeknight sassy to dinner party classy.
