Nikki’s Macaroni and Cheese with Ham and Tomatoess The Palace Hotel in Creekside, Arizona expereinces the best of every season. Flowers in bloom covering trees in Spring bring love to the town. A lite dust of snow calls for cozy nights by the fire with family in Winter. During the chilly times of year, Nikki warms the hearts of her community with comfort food. For ages she has served a twist of Macaroni and Cheese. Her recipes is NOT from a box. Instead she shreds the cheese and adds flavor with ham and juicy tomatoes.
Ingredients
2 Tb. Butter
Cooked Ham cut into small cubes
12 dry pasta
¼ cu of white wine
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
¼ cup frozen peas (optional)
3 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese (not pre-packaged grated)
1 additional Tb of butter
Water
Salt & pepper
Directions
Drain liquid from tomatoes into 1 cup measure – set tomatoes aside
Add wine and water to measuring cup to make 1 cup
Melt butter in large skillet
Add liquid, pasta, ham, peas and tomatoes to skillet
Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, 9 to 15 minutes, until pasta is cooked
Add salt and pepper and last butter, stir
Remove from heat and stir in cheese until it melts
The scuff of slippers on bare floor woke me to an otherwise silent night. Backlit by the motion light, my partner’s shadow appeared on the threshold of the hallway. I slipped from beneath the sheet, triggering the light beside my bed, and joined him in the hall.
“Are you okay?” A meaningless question since he’d still be tucked in bed if he was okay.
Anxiety pours from him in waves and he turns toward my voice.
“Something’s leaking. I have to check.” He brushes past me and I follow him to the hall closet, flipping the hall light on as we pass. Yellow flashlight in hand he shuffles through the kitchen to the back door. I watch him unlock the dead bolt and wonder, “Should I add the alarms to the doors now? What if I’d been soundly sleeping and missed the scuffle of his slippers?”
In the quiet night we pass through the pool gate. He shines the trusty flashlight around, focusing on the various meters and the hose bib.
“Do you hear it?” he asks with genuine concern in his voice.
The neighbor’s air conditioning clicks on interrupting our search.
“I hear the a/c, what do you hear?”
He turns toward me, the light illuminating his face. “It sounds like the ocean, like waves. Something must be leaking.” His beautiful blue eyes are wide with intent.
“The bricks are dry and there is no odor of natural gas. If something’s leaking it’s not here.” I answer.
From experience I have no idea what he understands or doesn’t when caught up in his midnight world. To me, the seconds feel like hours. I slow my breaths to calm my heart, determined not to add my own anxiety to his as he stares into my eyes.
Not satisfied, he shuffles back through the gate and into the kitchen. My barefoot steps are silent as I follow him through the quiet house to the front door. He unlatches the dead bolts on the door and security door. I follow him, closing the doors behind us. Again, the thought of door chimes runs through my mind, but he’s moved to the end of the driveway and is staring up at the sky. The warmth of concrete on my bare feet reminds me it’s still high summer in the dessert and door chimes will wait another day.
“You don’t hear the noise.” This time a statement, not a question. He places both hands on his face perhaps to hide from his own confusion. The pose breaks my heart a bit more. His hands drop to his sides. “It must be me.”
I take his hand and tug gently, guiding him back toward the house. I’m purposeful in taking his hand but aware he may cringe from my touch. I never know what the right thing to do in these dementia moments. Does he need touching or hands off?
“Let’s go to bed.” I suggest. He agrees. Willing to give up the search.
There’s so much information about his disease on the internet, but I’ve found nothing about best practices for dealing with a hallucination.
He doesn’t shuffle back inside, he strolls and I’m briefly reminded of the confident, athletic man I married. The drugs he takes for mobility help, his arms swing naturally as he strides down the hall. So many drugs on his agenda now. We spend time one evening each week sorting them into little boxes marked by time of day and day of week. It’s even colored coded to help us both keep them straight.
When he’s snuggled in and drifted off to sleep, I return to my room and go back under the covers. I stare at the glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling. We put them up to comfort our daughter when she was young, now they comfort me. Two years ago, my partner was diagnosed with parkinsonism and Lewy body dementia. The midnight adventure was not his first hallucination. They arrive without warning and so far, all are associated with him going to sleep at night. The common theme of his hallucinations is protecting our home, our family from a threat, a role he’s acted out in truth for the last thirty-five years. He laid each and every brick of our house. The castle he built for us from the ground up.
Morning arrives and I find him seated at the breakfast bar, newspaper spread before him. He’s searching for sports on TV, classic movies, and any news that might impact us. We have our routine conversation about what’s on TV and interesting articles in the paper. When I’ve filled the coffee pot with water and pressed the brew button, he asks,
“What happened last night? I know something did but I don’t know what.”
I explain our midnight adventure. I remind him lately our old house has broken down several times in the last few months so a leak wasn’t impossible. We didn’t find one.
He seems satisfied with the explanation and says, “I heard a noise but you didn’t. I must have been dreaming.”
A dream of a midnight adventure we shared he can’t quite remember.
The Literary Titan Book Awards are awarded to books that have astounded and amazed Literary Titan with unique writing styles, vivid worlds, complex characters, and original ideas. These books deserve extraordinary praise and we are proud to acknowledge the hard work, dedication, and imagination of these talented authors.
I am THRILLED to achieve this award of excellence from a forefront of the literary world for my debut novel, “Sweet Dreams at The Palace Hotel”. I appreciate everyone who helped me on my author journey including my family, editor Melanie and Wild Rose Press.
Check out the full list of award winning books for your next week. June 2021 Winners
Nikki Benton, from Sweet Dreams at The Palace Hotel is always looking for fun ways to put together dinner for her growing family while running her business. One meal her family loves is spare ribs from the slow cooker and potato salad. Add a basic green salad and dinner is on the table without turning on the oven or standing over the stove. What makes this Potato Salad unique is the minimal amount of mayo. Having the reduction of the creamy white condiment changes not only the color, but lifts the focus of the dish to be the potato. Yum!
Ingredients 5 white or gold potatoes – washed 3 eggs – hard cooked and peeled 3 stalks of celery – cut into thin slices or small chunks 3 green onions – sliced including green tops ¼ cup mayonnaise 2 tsp. yellow mustard ¼ tsp pepper ¼ tsp celery salt Pinch of celery seed (optional) 6 baby sweet pickles, cut into small pieces
Directions 1. Cover potatoes with water in saucepan, sprinkle with salt. Bring to boil and cook until fork tender, skins may begin to split. (about 20 minutes, depends upon size of potatoes) 2. Drain potatoes. 3. While potatoes cool slightly, combine onion, celery, and pickles in large bowl. Peel and chop eggs and lightly toss with celery mixture. 4. Blend pepper, celery salt, mayonnaise and mustard in a small bowl. 5. When potatoes are cool enough to touch, peel and chop into chunks. Gently stir into celery mixture. 6. Add Mayo/mustard mixture to bowl and stir to just coat. 7. Sprinkle with celery seed.
OPTION: Store covered in refrigerator. May be served immediately slightly warm or later thoroughly cooled. Nikki usually makes the potato salad the night before, pops the spare ribs in the slow cooker in the morning and her teenagers manage assembling a green salad and getting dinner on the table. Dinner is family time for Nikki, a chance to relax around the table and catch up on the day. Like Nikki, potato salad always sparks my memories of summer and the time I spent in the kitchen with mom and grandma putting together potato salad and slicing fresh tomatoes. What food(s) trigger your summer memories?
