Good things take time

For a chicken rice casserole, Chinese cheddar cheese will do. It's cheap and relatively easy to find around here.

But, for homemade macaroni and cheese*, I buy New Zealand's Mainland brand cheddar cheese, which is way overpriced at our international market but well worth it, when our life affords so few other "comforts of home."

Besides it's creamy texture, pure milky color, and superior taste...it has a great logo: Good things take time.

Gosh, they sure do, Mainland. They sure do.

In fact yesterday, while making said mac and cheese, I tried to come up with something good that doesn't take time. I failed to think of even one. For my husband and I, it was love at first sight, but what we have now has been 13 years in the making. I believed the gospel message in an instant, but it wasn't until a decade later that I took it to heart. Friendships that take off right away don't usually last, rookie sensations usually fizzle. Liquor gets you drunk in a hurry, but then being drunk only feels like a good thing. In actually, few things in life are worse.

And then there is that thing for which husbands are ready instantaneously, but into which wives must wade slowly. Since I am a wife, and this is my blog not my husband's, we'll count that one as a good thing which takes time.

A-hem.

All that to say, if I ever find myself with a brand new adopted toddler again, for whom I feel absolutely nothing at first, I will try to remember the wise words of Mainland cheese. When the pain of a loss lingers, or the loneliness after a move is bringing me down; when the book is taking forever to write, or when my language learning process seems to be c-r-a-w-l-i-n-g, I will try to remember the cheesy motto. When my hair foil takes the better part of the afternoon, or when it seems like CHR1ST will never return for us, I will try to remember that good things take time.

*

Macaroni and Cheese

(smooth and creamy, with no processed cheese food...hurray!)

• 3 1/3 cups dry macaroni noodles
• 4 T. cornstarch
• 2 t. salt
• 1 t. dry mustard
• 1/2 t. black pepper
• 2 cans evaporated milk
• 2 cups water
• 4 T. butter
• 4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

• 1
  Boil macaroni noodles.
• 2
  Preheat oven to 375°. Grease a 9x13 casserole dish.
• 3
  Combine cornstarch, salt, mustard, and pepper in a medium saucepan. Stir in evaporated milk, water, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until boiling. Boil and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in 2 cups cheese until melted. Add macaroni and mix well. Pour into casserole dish. Will be runny. Top with remaining cheese. Bake 20-25 minutes.