Taking photos of my dinner is a new experience....

I think my husband has a new favorite meal.

I moved to America from England to be with him. I started making extended trips when I was eighteen—three months was as long as I was allowed—and moved permanently when I was twenty and we got married. I’ve never been into the bright yellow instant-style macaroni and cheese. Just like neon pink strawberry yoghurts and bright orange ice lollies, the American taste for coloring food brightly tends to turn me off (to my sensibilities an orange ice lolly should be the color of orange juice, not orange skin!). I didn’t like the homogenous texture of slippery pasta and slippery sauce.

Then baked mac and cheese hit my radar. Now here was something I was interested in. Made from scratch, with real ingredients and a crunchy top? That sounded fantastic. I had the opportunity to try a few varieties and I enjoyed them.

I decided to try my hand at it myself. I’ve been making basic white sauce (a roux with milk) since I was a child for my family’s lasagna, and a version with cheese in it, and a little mustard powder and a splash of Worcestershire sauce—that would just be getting back to some of the first things I ever learned to cook. I like to mix in bacon or lardons of blanched salt pork for a bit of a salty, tasty bite. I prefer the salt pork, really, because it’s unsmoked. The blanching is important, though. I learned that when I tried a chunk fresh from the frying pan and… the salt level was unpleasant, to say the least.

I’ve made this twice now, and both times I’ve turned around from covering the top with grated cheese and panko breadcrumbs only to find Ben scraping out every last bit of sauce from the sides and bottom of the pan and eating it. It seems he’s a fan.

I also enjoyed a treat for myself after he went to bed. I was craving chocolate cake, and I happened to have everything on hand for this awesome five-minute cake in a mug recipe.

 It’s incredible how well it works, and how easy it is. I had mine topped with caramel sauce and powdered sugar with ice cream on the side. It’s a good thing the mug has a lid, though, because this is definitely not a single-serving recipe. I managed about a third of it before I surrendered. I think in future I might try cutting the recipe in half and doing it in a regular-sized mug.

But, in any case, yum.