The picture you see above is not your standard mac and cheese. It is Harvest Moon Macaroni a la Rachael Ray. It contains squash, parmasean cheese, cheddar cheese, butter, milk, vegetable stock, nutmeg, garlic, parsley, paprika, and onions. And hot sauce!
It was supposed to be a 30 minute meal, but it took me over an hour to make. Just grating all that cheese took a while. It is pretty though, isn't it? It was fun to cook using a recipe. It made me feel like I was truly making something, as opposed to throwing stuff together haphazardly and hoping it comes out alright. There were steps, a tried and true formula, tools, and the certainty that at the end I would have something great to share with others. And share I did. It was a big casserole.
I wanted to write about something Halloween-y on the blog today and this macaroni seemed to be a good topic. It contains squash, which is a relative of the pumpkin --- arguably, the most venerated symbol of all Halloween iconography. So there.
Eat the macaroni while listening to something scary like Alexisonfire or Underoath.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
