Spring break

This week is spring break for both the university where I work and the public schools in our town (as well as a lot of the other schools & colleges thoughout the state). Of course, because it's the upper Midwest, our spring weather is not what people in other parts of the country might think of as spring - yesterday it was in the 40s, but so windy that it was uncomfortable to walk, with a few snow flakes flying around - last night we got a little dusting of snow, and today even though it is colder it is sunny, and on my way to work there were lots of shiny, frozen buds and branches, kind of like this:





My older son is home, and had to have his wisdom teeth out yesterday morning, and his Dad visisted, and his birthday is next Saturday, and the younger one doesn't have to go to school, either. This has all had an effect on cooking & eating at our house - we are the house of leftovers again, we have pizza that they brought back from a place in Milwaukee when they went to see the Bucks Saturday, and some vegetable stir fry & rice, cauliflower gratin, and baked beans with kosher dogs. Not to mention the juices & ice cream & yogurts I stocked up on for teeth-yanked-kid. But regardless, tonight I have promised home made mac & cheese, since it is all the kids' favorite, and it's of kind of mid-way easy to chew for the wisdom teeth invalid. I use a recipe based on Cooking Light's, where instead of making a roux, you just whisk warm (skim) milk into the flour, cook until it thickens, take it off the heat and add grated cheese - I use Widmer's 2- or 4-year cheddar - the 6-year is too good to put in cheese sauce, better to eat plain!