Radicchio Crostini... and Smoky Mac

I am home now... for a brief snippet of time before heading back out on the road. My latest trip was a good time but left me sounding a bit more like Debbie Harry than as myself... too much rock and roll. As such, I have been exhausted yet happy to be home and have the option of cooking, even if I find myself too lazy to oblige. So, I needed to take it a bit easy and had two friends over for a 'let's cook together' gathering. Today's lesson was to be the Smoky Mac and Cheese.

While Erin was learning and navigating the land of Mac and Cheese, we snacked on Radicchio Crostini. My caveat here... I find radicchio to be something that I have to be in the mood for. It is really sharp in its flavour and if I'm not in the right state of mind, I will have nothing to do with this bit of veg. However, when I do get in the mood, it is a nice little snack. The sharpness takes the edge off any hunger pangs, so you can make it through the cooking process rather than reaching for the phone and calling for delivery.

Smoky Mac and Cheese

All I could think about when I woke up to several inches of snow this morning was that I needed some sort of warm, oozily fantastic comfort food... and what better to scratch that itch than to make mac and cheese.

Mac and cheese is the best way to use up whatever cheese remnants you have migrating around your fridge. I never seem to have much of any one kind of cheese, so aside from the roux, each batch of mac and cheese seems to be a completely new invention.

After reading a few different mac and cheese recipes on Epicurious and scouting out the contents of my fridge, I decided today's mac and cheese was to be "smoky." I had about half a round of Applewood Smoked Cheddar, a few pieces of Applewood Smoked Bacon (leftover from sandwiches earlier this week) and some chipotle peppers left from my last batch of Chipotle Caramel Corn. Hence... smoky.