Cobey Johnson
Jesse Miller
English 110
12 September 2018
Favorite Food
Thanksgiving of 2010, where it all started. The greatest creation my mother has ever made, excluding me, was born. For every holiday, in my family, each intermediate family will host the rest of the collective families at their respective homes. Since my intermediate family’s house is the biggest, we hold the Fourth of July parties and Thanksgiving dinners. My first cousins host Mother’s Day and Christmas, while my second cousins, they host Father’s Day and New Years. This Thanksgiving was special because everyone had shown up, even my cousins who are in the Marines. Once everyone arrived at our house and the food was ready, we bowed our heads and closed our eyes. My uncle Kevon is a pastor, so he always blesses the food and everyone in the room, thoroughly. As my uncle is going down the line of family members, I started to smell, what is now known as my mother’s famous baked macaroni & cheese. For some unknown reason that year, my mother decided to change up the ingredients in the baked macaroni & cheese and from the review we gave her day, she has never gone back. I remember finishing the prayer and watching as she opened up the oven, to see the golden layers of cheese sitting so perfectly on top of the macaroni. Everyone’s attention seemed to shift to the macaroni and before you knew it, there was a line formed in front of it. We sat down around the tables and everyone’s first bite was the macaroni. All that was heard was the, ‘hmms’ and ‘oh Dorothy, you really out did yourself with this one!’ from the rest of my family. The sweet sound of satisfaction: when I stuck my fork into the macaroni and the cream from the evaporated milk mixed with the melted five cheeses, slowly drips out from the sides of the rigatoni shells. Makes my mouth water every time. In retrospect, that night my mother’s baked macaroni & cheese had a glow to it, shining almost, like it was heaven sent. My mother’s famous macaroni and cheese has yet to miss any family gatherings since she has introduced the dish in late November of 2011.
After every family gathering, someone, whether it be an aunt or family friend, ask for the recipe or what she does for her process of making it and she never gives it away. Many family members have tried to duplicate her recipe, but none have even come close to scratching the surface. She has told me that every other year, she experiments with it and changes up the recipe a tad every time so no one can catch on. I stay in the kitchen whenever she’s making it to watch her in her element, lending a helping hand where I can, but one day I want to attempt at making my own. She has become pretty quick at making it now, it only takes about 45 minutes to an hour to make. After she’s done making it, she’ll turn on the crockpot and let it slow cook until we are all ready to eat. There doesn’t seem to be many ingredients, but the pasta shells are inexpensive to buy, but all the blocks of cheeses she picks up from the deli add up and the evaporated milk to make the creamy filling is fairly cheap as well. The baked macaroni & cheese is the glue that keeps my family connected. Sounds cliché, but whenever this dish is made, my family is all congregated which is a rare sighting. Everyone is so independent and busy with their own lives that I don’t see my family very often. We also aren’t a family who eats meals together, so conversations are something we have unless it’s a negative one. All in all, I believe that food, no matter the dish, can bring people together from all walks of life because everyone has something to bring to the table. There are always stories behind great dishes like my mother’s to be told, but more importantly food to be eaten.
