Changes....

I've been away from blogging for quite a while and I know that's quite a sin in the blogging community but and I'm going to try a little bit different approach. The Fireman and I are now empty-nesters and we are embracing this with double fists. We've been trying to get away on as many little vacations as we possibly can for the last six months and there are many changes in our family, many!

First, The Torured Teenager is in her fifth and final year at college and preparing to go to law school this is a huge accomplishment because one day I may need her as a lawyer because I jaywalk a lot. The Baseball Player is now graduated from Boot Camp and at AIT at Fort Sill and awaiting orders to go to his base in Hawaii..lucky little bastard. Although deployment is looming around the corner and something that I'm going to have to face once again as we did with our oldest boy but we'll get through it just like we did before.

You will notice I rarely write about our older two children and it's because they are grown and I chose to protect their privacy although we are very proud of them and all their accomplishments. Our oldest daughter is finishing up her psych major which she's already using on her younger siblings. After raising four kids I will be her first patient. Our oldest boy just finished playing tight end for Uncle Sam. You might see them sneak into some of my travel blog posts in the future.


Being an empty Nester I have to admit I don't do as much cooking as I used to so we're going to move onto the "shenanigans" part of my blog and it'll have to do more with traveling, they'll be lots of food involved because we still eat but I hope you enjoy.

A.

My Mom's Macaroni and Cheese

My mom is not much of a cook. This she will admit to any of you. But the woman can boil pasta an melt velveeta like nobody's business. Growing up, macaroni and cheese was make homemade only for special occasions. Any other time it came out of a box. Macaroni and cheese in general is something that one bite and I am transported into time. Funny that my son will not eat it this way. He finds it too cheesy. I do not know where this child came from.

My Mom's Macaroni and Cheese
2 TB butter
2 TB flour
1 cup whole milk warmed up (micro works perfect 1 minute)
2 cups elbow macaroni cooked but not all the way
1/2 box veleveeta cubed
1 tsp dry mustard
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

in a sauce pan melt the butter

while the butter is melting put the milk in the micro for a minute to take the chill off

 and cube up the cheese

add the flour and mix with a whisk and cook for about a minute

it should look like this

add the milk and keep whisking

and add the mustard

when the milk is thick enough that you can coat the back of a spoon and draw with you finger, add the cheese and stir with a wooden spoon until melted.

add some black pepper, or dont... but resist the urge to grab some jalapenos and tortilla chips

butter a baking dish

add your noodles and resist the urge to dump into a bowl, the noodles arent cooked all the way (well mine might be lol

Dump into a baking dish and pop into a 350 degree preheated oven for 20 minutes

oh my...pure heaven