I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I will take any excuse to celebrate. Your boss was nice to you at work today? Let’s get some champagne!! You had a good hair day? Let’s make a cake!! So, I think it goes without saying that I definitely enjoy celebrating holidays. Even made up ones like Valentine’s Day.

This also happens to be our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple. So I’ll give you the warning now that this post will be pro-Valentine’s Day (if you aren’t a fan, just skip to the recipe. Macaroni and cheese knows no relationship status).

This Valentine’s Day we’re sticking with one of my favorite gift-giving traditions. It’s a fun one that takes away a lot of pressure and saves us a lot of money. It started because Mr. P is amazing at writing inscriptions in cards. In each card he manages to write a short, eloquent, heartfelt paragraph that pretty much always reduces me to tears. Now, don’t get me wrong, I obviously love those cards. But since they’re so nice I never want to throw them away. And by the 4th year of our relationship I was running out of room in my keepsake box for all of those little nuggets of sentiment.

So we started a new tradition for Valentine’s Day and anniversaries. Instead of buying a card and an expensive gift, we each spend just $5 for a gift at the same place we would have bought the card (grocery store, pharmacy, convenience store, hallmark store, etc). One of the reasons I love this tradition is you always get something that you would pretty much never get otherwise. Another reason is that it almost always results in junk food. And you’d be surprised the kinds of things a drugstore carries. Last year I got peanut butter cups and a book of Mad Libs and Alex got a green tea and a flame disk for the charcoal grill.

This year we are staying in for Valentine’s Day. The plan is to exchange our $5 findings, and attempt to make our own sushi while pounding sake bombs, the most romantic of drinks.

So, tonight I made a batch of macaroni and cheese for a few reasons:

1) Today the HIGH temperature where we live was 0 degrees fahrenheit. It’s officially comfort food time.

2) Although I’m optimistic about our sushi-making skills, I think having some mac and cheese leftovers on hand isn’t necessarily a bad idea.

My favorite macaroni and cheese recipe is from the Fannie Farmer cookbook (found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/fannie-farmers-classic-baked-macaroni-cheese-135350?photo=349647) with just a few variations. I like my mac and cheese extra creamy and cheesy, instead of the dry varieties you can cut into bricks.

Good Ol’ Fashioned Macaroni and Cheese

8 oz dry cavatappi pasta (big corkscrew shaped pasta with ridges)

4 T butter

4 T flour

1/2 t salt

Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Dashes of nutmeg, garlic powder, and smoked paprika

1 c milk

1 c half n half

2 c shredded cheddar cheese (I use extra sharp!)

Topping

1/2 c Ritz cracker crumbs (about 12 crackers)

2 T grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 c shredded Cheddar Cheese

Dashes of nutmeg, garlic powder, and smoked paprika

Makes 4 servings.

Preheat oven to 400°F and butter a baking dish.

Cook and drain pasta according to directions. Make sure not to overcook the pasta since it will cook in the oven a bit more.

Mix flour with salt, pepper, nutmeg, garlic powder, and paprika. Measure out the milk and half n half.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large saucepan.

Whisk in flour mixture. Stir until flour cooks slightly, about 1 minute. Pour in milk and half and half, whisking constantly to avoid clumping. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for one minute and then slowly stir in cheese until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth. Continue cooking for about 2 minutes.

Now, mix together all of the topping ingredients.

Now you’re ready to assemble!

Combine the pasta and cheese sauce. Pour into the prepared dish.

Cover with the breadcrumb mixture.

Bake 20 minutes until the top is golden brown and the cheese bubbles.

We usually eat our mac and cheese with stewed tomatoes. Growing up, that was my mom’s habit that I always thought was weird, but now I can’t eat mac and cheese without it. And I converted Mr. P over to my ways pretty quickly. If you haven’t tried it, you should!

Cheers!