Mac and cheese gets a nutritional boost
Sweet potatoes, greens included in this dish. Mac continued on D7
Have you ever cooked on a blind date?
A woman I knew only casually through work decided that she wanted to host a lunch earlier this month with a few other acquaintances, all women doing awesome work in Austin. The host is relatively new to town and was hoping to expand her friend circle, and she had the idea of making lunch together to better get to know one another.
As soon as I walked into her house and saw her quilting room, I knew we’d make the transition into friendship pretty easily. But cooking together turned out to be an excellent way to test out the friendship waters and make a delicious meal in the process.
“Boss Ladies Who Make Boss Lunch” ended up being the theme of the day. Five of us — mostly strangers, or at least not already established in the friend zone — gathered around her kitchen island, sharing stories about our work, our personal lives and the cheesy, veg-heavy mac and cheese casserole we were working on.
As the parts of the casserole were coming along — the homemade cheese sauce, the greens and pasta that our host boiled together — I realized that by cooking, we were engaging in our own little act of rebellion. It was a refreshing change of pace to be invited into someone’s home and be asked to lend a hand in the kitchen, rather than the usual gathering for drinks or for lunch at a restaurant.