a recipe....

A simple recipe.  The ingredients and directions are all laid out for you.  It should be simple...right?

Well...a very lovely friend asked ME  for a recipe today...for my mac-n-cheese (yes, me...wow...cool...someone really likes my food, enough to make it themselves for others).  Of course I said of course, no problem...I'll email it to ya.  So I sat down to write an email for a simple recipe that I've made countless times and then I realized...crap...I don't really have a recipe for my mac-n-cheese.  I mean, I did at one time.  But that recipe just gave me the basics and since then I usually just wing it.  A dash of this, a pound of this kind of cheese,  but it never is really the same.  One time I'll use 3 different cheddar cheeses, and the next time I'll use 3 completely different cheeses.  I never measure anything.  I never add the exact same ingredients that I've used the time before. It just always looks similar to this:

{recipe courtesy of taste of home...mmm}

The recipe from the photo above is similar to my recipe but after searching and searching (and I could only search so much due to the fact that I started craving some good ol' mac-n-cheese and its getting late so that would not be healthy) I still couldn't find the one that I originally used.  

I didn't use Martha's recipe, 

{nope...mine wasn't baked like this one}

And it wasn't Paula's,

{nope...mine didn't have all those ingredients}

It wasn't even Rachel's

{nope...my recipe was more simple than this one}

And while they all look and sound delicious...I realized...I don't really love or make an effort to follow recipes.  I like to get the basics and make my own recipe but then I don't keep record of my own creation.  Woops...I guess that's bad news for anyone that would like my recipe for something.  

I think this lends to my simple philosophy in that I like to combine simple ingredients but I also keep it simple by only remembering the basics and use recipes as a guideline.  I guess it helps that I do have a bit of sense in the kitchen because while I may understand the simplicities in cooking, and not over-think a recipe or over analyze a cooking process, it can be difficult for some to just boil water.  But, my simplicities are my own.  Others have their own simplicities.  I think it all may just be relative.  And this just applies to cooking stuff...not baking...that's a whole other chemistry set.

hm..I hope my lovely friend's version turns out ok!

Cook Simply,

Carrie