Head Gaskets and Macaroni

Somedays I hate adulting and somedays when I suck it up and adult things work out. Today was one of those days.

My #3 son inherited my old Chevy Aveo. Before I gave it to him, I replaced a weird thermostat housing thing, the radiator, the tires and the battery. He started leaking coolant. Badly. He took it in to a repair shop and got an estimate for $4300. The car is not worth that much. But looking more closely at the estimate and showing it to some other mechanics, the first shop didn’t seem to know what the problem was and was just replacing parts hoping it would all go away, to include the catalytic convertor.

Fortunately, I got a recommendation from a friend. Today, he came out and look at the car. Blown head gasket. He recommended replacing the whole motor because it’s hard to tell if the pistons have burn damage or not. Will include a timing belt (which Aveos chew up and spit out) and a water pump. Whole thing less than $2K. We are thrilled.

Car repairs stress me out because I’m not competent to do them myself. It is so tough to find someone you trust. The relief is immense!

My own car (a Mazda 3) needs brakes so I will have to take care of that soon. And it needs a battery. I can take care of that on my own which makes me feel insanely skilled. I know. It’s sad. But I take my happy where I can find it!

With feelings of inadequacy running amok, and a fairly chilly day, I decided to make homemade mac and cheese for 3 hungry boys and myself. Here’s the recipe:

Sauce:

This is a recipe of proportions. I use 6/6/3 for a 13×9 pan, but you can use 4/4/2, 5/5/2.5 or whatever fills the size of pan you like to use.

6 tablespoons butter (NOT margarine)

6 tablespoons flour

3 cups of milk (I typically use 1% or 2%)

In a 2 quart saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and then add the milk 1 cup at a time.

Continue whisking over medium heat until sauce thickens. Then add 3-4 cups of grated cheese (typically cheddar, or mix varieties to taste)

Whisk until cheese is melted.

In the meantime, boil water and cook your macaroni noodles until they are al dente. Drain. Put noodles into a greased 9×13 casserole dish. Cover with cheese sauce and mix thoroughly. Add chunks of cheddar throughout for extra added cheesy goodness. Bake at 350 for 15-2o minutes or until bubbling.

 

I did get more words down on my ‘chick lit’ novel. Hoping to get that queried out by the end of summer. Hey… working two jobs I’m not guaranteeing any time frame, but today was a good day. #amwriting #create