Eating inspired by kids' tastes

As Kimberly mentioned in the last post, we had Anna over a couple of weeks ago, and she and Joy had lots of fun playing together. Anna brought something for dinner that Joy had never tried before - macaroni and cheese. Joy was very interested in this new dish: between feeding Anna bites of mac-and-cheese, she'd try to sneak in bites for herself.

Seeing this brought back memories of my youth when my mom would make a home-made version of mac-and-cheese called pioneer macaroni and cheese: it's prepared in a large pan and cooks in the oven. All of the kids liked it, but my sister Laura, who is a huge cheese lover, would eat it by the plateful. Of course, all of these memories then made me want some pioneer mac-and-cheese for dinner, so soon after Anna's visit, I called my mom and got the recipe. Kimberly was kind enough to prepare it a couple of nights later, and, together with a traditional green salad, I ended up eating a meal that I hadn't eaten in several years. The leftovers were enough to last several days, too, so for the better part of a week, I enjoyed cheesy goodness. Thanks Mom for the recipe & thanks Kimberly for making it!