Photo: Courtesy of The Perfect Pantry

When it comes to food, I can be a bit childish.

My dorm room fridge is stuffed with tons of tiny packages of chocolate milk. I drink apple juice everyday with lunch. And, to this day, I still avoid the crust on every sandwich I eat. What is perhaps the most immature aspect of my palate, however, is my undeniable and overwhelming love of macaroni and cheese.

It’s not that I don’t know there’s more out there, or that my palate has not been expanded. I do, and it has been. I love and can appreciate all kinds of foods. Yet, still, not much else can make my mouth water more than a big plate of noodles covered in a perfectly delicious and creamy cheese sauce. I mean, what could be better?

(To celebrate my birthday a few years ago, a friend of mine took me out to a nice restaurant in my hometown and generously offered that I order “anything I wanted.” So I did. When the waiter dropped by to take our order, I asked for the baked mac and cheese with crab — immediately eliciting a gut reaction from my friend, who turned to me quickly and asked, “Wait, really?”)

I sometimes feel that my love of this dish is a bit like a tragic romance — a Romeo & Juliet of sorts, a love that cannot be. But, maybe it can. It is because of this constant embarrassment and unfailing craving that I was so excited to find The Perfect Pantry’s recipe for whole-wheat macaroni and cheese with mushrooms and thyme.

This dish did not come out of a box! It does not contain a packet of cheese-flavored powder, nor does it instruct anything along the lines of “just add water.” There are vegetables, seasonings and real cheese! It’s actually a respectable adult dish!

Basically, it’s perfect.