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Read It and Eat It: Eating My Feelings and Smoky Bacon Mac and Cheese

Delicious comfort food is a must when reading the heartwarming and hilarious new book by Mark Rosenberg.

New from the author of Blackouts and Breakdowns–and in the tradition of Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Chelsea Handler–Eating My Feelings is a collection of funny essays skewering the author’s struggles with weight and body image, both as a kid in the 1980s and as a gay man in the 2000s.

Read It and Eat It

Smoky Bacon Mac & Cheese
Recipe from The Mac & Cheese Cookbook by Allison Arevalo and Erin Wade
Serves 4

1/2 pound dried elbow pasta
1 pound sliced bacon
2 cups Mac Sauce (below)
1 cup grated smoked  Cheddar cheese
1 cup grated Jack cheese

Beer Pairing: Red Ale
Wine Pairing: Cabernet Sauvignon

1. Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until a little less than al dente. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain the pasta again.

2. Cook the bacon in a frying pan over high heat until crispy, about 8 minutes. Remove extra grease by patting the strips with a paper towel, and then cut into bite-size pieces.

3. Add the sauce and both cheeses to a large, heavy-bottomed pot and cook over medium heat. Stir until the cheese is barely melted, about 3 minutes. Add the bacon and stir to combine. Slowly add the cooked pasta, stir, and continue cooking while stirring continuously until the dish is nice and hot, another 5 minutes.
Spoon into bowls and serve hot.

MAC SAUCE
Makes 3 cups

3 cups whole milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt or  1 teaspoon table salt

1. Heat the milk in a pot over medium heat until it just starts to bubble, but is not boiling, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat.

2. Heat the butter over medium heat in a separate, heavy-bottomed pot. When the butter has just melted, add the flour and whisk constantly until the mixture turns light brown, about 3 minutes.

3. Remove from the heat.

4. Slowly pour the warm milk, about 1 cup at a time, into the butter-flour mixture, whisking constantly. It will get very thick when you first add the milk, and thinner as you slowly pour in the entire 3 cups. This is normal.

5. Once all the milk has been added, set the pot back over medium-high heat, and continue to whisk constantly. In the next 2 to 3 minutes the sauce should come together and become silky and thick.

6. Use the spoon test to make sure it’s ready (see picture, opposite). To do this, dip a metal spoon into the sauce—if the sauce coats the spoon and doesn’t slide off like milk, you’ll know it’s ready. You should be able to run your finger along the spoon and have the impression remain. Add the salt.

7. The Mac Sauce is ready to use immediately and does not need to cool. Store it in the fridge for a day or two if you want to make it ahead of time—it will get a lot thicker when put in the fridge, so it may need a little milk to thin it out a bit when it comes time to melt in the cheese. Try melting the cheese into the sauce first, and if it is too thick then add milk as needed.