It’s the same in our household. For my husband, it’s usually when all I’ve got going so far are garlic and onions in the pan.
everything else is just a vehicle for the garlic and onions, amirite?
The one that gets her really… demanding… is the mac and cheese. It’s just a cheddar mornay - white roux, milk until about heavy cream consistency cheddar cubes or shredded, let it get thicker than you’d like… Then cook the pasta not-quite-done, drain off most the liquid and finish cooking with the sauce. chives and fine-chopped bacon if you’re a weirdo with left over bacon… fresh cracked black pepper
Its one of my go-to comfort foods. or comfort sides. you can get surprisingly fancy with it, too. lots of variation is possible.
left over bacon
???
Lol
Honestly the only bacon-y leftover thing we ever have is bacon fat, and it’s great for sprucing up all kinds of things, as I’m sure you know. My favorite lately is to saute sandwich meats in it before assembling my sandwich, then I pan-sear both sides of the sandwich before eating.
I just saw a Mac and cheese tip I want to try. Cook the macaroni in equivalent amount of water (one cup to one cup) to al dente, do not drain whatever is left over. Shouldn’t be much left over but it’ll be starchy goodness
I usually go with a large amount of water because you don’t really need that much starch to act as an emulsifier, and generally for pasta, if you use relatively small amounts of water, the pasta will drop the temperature of the water and simmer awkwardly for a bit.
though I came across an interesting idea for pasta “Risotto style”… last night. using vege or chicken stock. apparently it’ll thicken stocks into good sauces (not sure it’ll work for mac and cheese, though. they say already thickened sauces like mornays are not so helpful.)
