Mac and Cheese

Macaroni and cheese has to be the undisputed queen of the comfort food kingdom.

Today has been a pretty cold day, and when I got home from school, I was craving a great big bowl of gooey, cheesy macaroni.

I checked out a couple of Rachael Ray cookbooks from our library (I really try to hate her, but I get really good, quick dinner ideas from her books and magazine) and there are about a billion different variations on mac and cheese in both books.

I chose one that combined broccoli with mac and cheese. Of course, I didn't have any broccoli, so mine was actually pea, mushroom and corn mac and cheese.

The recipe was pretty standard- boil the pasta, make a white sauce, add humungus amounts of shredded cheese of your choice and stir everything together with the veggies. If you want to see the recipe, check out "Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats." But really- you can wing it and get the same results.

I will say that the resulting mac and cheese was really tasty- I think it's the addition of dijon mustard and a bit of cayenne to the finished cheese sauce that gives it that push into delicious.

I will make it again, although next time I will add some sort of protein to beef up the nutritional value.

I also think a Spanish version with chorizo and maybe some green chili would also be really good.