D’Angelo, my son, loves macaroni and cheese, especially when it’s creamy and wrapped up in the warmth of  a velvety sauce. If it was up to him, he wouldn’t want his mac and cheese baked at all, and often ask that I scoop out a little before it goes into the oven. I enjoy it either way. Sometimes I prefer to eat it like a macaroni pie and other times I enjoy it with a creamy sauce. I also like my pasta dishes highly seasoned with fresh herbs and spices.  This is probably the one millionth time that I say this, and I don’t mean to sound repetitive but: I am “big on flavors. I really am.

I am now in learning about pastries in culinary school, which is extremely different from the culinary sessions. Usually in culinary, we get to eat all of the food that the chef demos, before we begin our practical. Sometimes we may have three or four demos which is more than filling for all of us. Pastry is a total different ball game. I has much respect for those pastry kings and queens. I take my hat off to those bread bakers.  I mean…the kneading….. and rising ….and proofing….and fermenting is torture! We NEVER get to eat like we do in Culinary, and is usually starving before it’s lunch time.  After the first day in pastry, I decided that I wasn’t about to go to school and wait for the end of the day for the breads to rise and bake, and starve myself. I was proactive and prepared my own food, so that I would have something in my stomach to carry me over, until we had buffet….or until it was time for me to go home….and this is where this wonderful pasta and cheese dish was born.  I also prepared some stewed chicken to go with this mezze penne and cheese….I just have to find that photo . I’ll drop it in as soon as I do.  I shared some of my pasta and chicken with one of my colleagues in school and she really liked it. She was like, “girl you just don’t know how much you saved my life this morning.” I knew exactly what she meant, and that was the main reason why I not only cooked my own food from home, but brought it in to school as well.

An infusion of herbs and spices makes all food taste better. Eating bland food is worse than the most severe punishment one can ever imagine, so I gotta spruce things up quite a lot. As much as my child loves the creamy pasta dishes, I was a little confused when he ate just about all of mezze penne with cheese. He says macaroni and cheese is his favorite. In his world, all of my dishes are his favorite.

I alternate between different cheeses when I make pasta. It’s whatever I’m in the mood for, and sometimes it ‘s whatever I have on hand at the moment. I damn sure ain’t running out to the supermarket to buy cheese,  simply because I have mild cheddar, but really wants extra sharp instead. No, it’s not that serious….unless I’m pregnant….or my hormones are running wild, but I make do with what I have. I’m very resourceful and always have some kinda cheese on hand. I added monterrey jack, mild cheddar and parmesan cheese to this awesomeness and it was absolutely d’luscious.

Speaking of d’luscious, I can’t wait to start baking some cakes in our pastry sessions. Now that’s a whole lot easier and will definitely be an extravaganza….well ….at least for me it will.