Mac & Cheese for Grownups

Rigatoni!
Mushrooms!
Asparagus!
and the star of the show....CHEESE!

I found a recipe in Cooking Light: Way to Cook Vegetarian called Creamy Rigatoni with Gruyere and Brie. It didn't take much convincing to make it - you saw the part about cheese right? But I'm always worried it's going to yield 2 servings but say it'll yield 6 (fat kid beer goggles, you know?). Good news with this one though: it said 6 servings and that's totally possible if you serve 6 with a small salad as well.

Here's the recipe:

6quarts water
12oz rigatoni
3Tbs all-purpose flour
2 cups 2% reduced-fat milk, divided
1Tbs butter
5oz. shredded Gruyere
3oz. soft-ripened Brie, rind removed
mushrooms
asparagus

add salt and pepper later - they tried to tell me to use a ton earlier in the recipe and I politely declined

steps:
1. bring the water to a boil and cook that rigatoni according to the package

2. place flour and 1/2c milk in a saucepan and whisk it til smooth

3. add another 1/2c milk and stir stir stir

4. add the last 1/2c milk stir stir stir and bring to a boil

5. cook 2 more minutes past boil point

6. stir in butter

7. remove from heat and let it hang out for a minute, then add mushrooms and asparagus and whatever amount of salt n peppa that you desire

it looks like this when it's all cooked:

(wipe that drool off your chin, child)

Blame it on the rain

We often get starry-eyed taking about rain. It was raining a lot when we started dating and we lived in a place that doesn't get much rain so it feels romantic. Yes, we are those kind of people. We are indoor kids who like to curl inside. Sometimes its with a book, sometimes its crafts, sometimes its as many seasons of a treasured tv show as can be consumed.

This craft is admittedly a copy cat situation. I saw it, I think on Etsy?, and it made my heart flutter a little bit. Here, I found it! Let's talk about the cute little girl in the picture for a second?? ......OK.

The craft I copied used fancy Marta Stewart puffs which cost a million dollars and make me a little angry. And they used two colors of plain blue paper, which didn't blow my hair back. I had leftover puffs from the Valentine's that I'd purchased at the magical world of Daiso and lots of patterned blue paper calling my name. It kinda became a project that helped me get some use out of stuff I'd been havin' for a long time. Use-up catch-up project? I forget what these things are called. There's probably a real, universally-acceptable craft term for this...Kam would know. Kam?

BACK TO BUSINESS:
Step-by-step for you:
1. Puff up your puffs
2. Stick them to a cardboard backing or some other backing with some substance to it
3. Cut out your raindrops. I had a little system going with cutting 2-3 inch strips and then cutting those into fourths and free-handing the crap outta those raindrops.
4. Took some baker's twine (that shit is everywhere these days, isn't it?) and hitched the raindrops to the twine at intervals that pleased me

[This is when I realize that explaining creativity on a blog is really tedious and gain a really funny out-of-body experience.......]

5. Twine is now glued to board
6. Cloud is lovingly hung on wall
7. Raindrops were then spaced at intervals again...man, those raindrops just call out for intervals, don't they?!
Here is a pic of the reinforcement I made for the drops; yes, that is just tape.

And then, magic on the wall.

This would work for baby showers and sad parties too. Me? I leave it up all the time.