Came Out Especially Well

Much of my recreation, or at least satisfaction, has moved to the kitchen.  I have developed a few go to preparations:  Lasagna in the manner of Artscroll, Macaroni & Cheese in the manner of Horny Hardart, Fish Market Apple Walnut Pie, and shabbos dinner.  Except for shabbos dinner, which is usually one of multiple variants of chicken, with occasional beef cholent or dairy instead, the others all have recipes.  Yet even fixed recipes have their variations.  For lasagna, the sauce and cheese will vary depending on what's on sale.  Recipe calls for mozzarella, which I almost never use.  Sometimes I will buy it pre-shredded, more often of late I run the cheese through my minichopper.  The pie gets half butter, half Crisco for the crust.  Usually I moisten with water, sometimes apple juice.  The kind and number of apples varies with sale prices and availability.  Sometimes I grind the walnuts for the topping, more recently chopping them coarsely in a baggie and mixing with the other ingredients.  Usually I spice with cinnamon, sometimes with Pumpkin Pie Spice.  Macaroni offers me a chance to experiment more.  Tubular macaroni comes in a variety of forms.  I think the Automat used Penne Rigati but I like to change it.  Pretty much abandoned elbow macaroni.  Cheese tends to be some type of cheddar.  I vary the portions of bechamel sauce ingredients and the thickness to which I let it heat before melting the cheese.  The tomatoes come from a small can with chilies, sometimes mild, sometimes original.  Salt is kept a little less than the recipe requires.  Sugar gets added to the tomato mixture, a little more than the two tablespoons the recipe indicates improves it.  It calls for white pepper and cayenne, which I've learned to substitute with black pepper and a dash or two of hot sauce.

All elements came together especially well yesterday.  Shredded rather than ground cheese.  Used Penne. Monterey Jack on sale so I used that 2/3 with cheddar 1/3.  I was a little more patient in letting the bechamel thicken before adding the cheese, which melted more evenly than it usually does.  Made it a little sweeter than usual.  Mixing pasta and white sauce was done in stages to make distribution  better.  It poured evenly into the lasagna pan and baked just right for 45 minutes.

Ideal texture, ideal taste.  Just right.