Annie's Noodles

I visit my cousins in Massachusetts a lot; they are like older sisters to me, as I am an only child. I remember specifically the days that I would stay up there, our parents would be out doing something, and we would sit at home and play with the dogs in the backyard, or go in the basement and play ping-pong, or sit in the living room, watching movies for hours. We would always be responsible for feeding ourselves, and I was very little, so they would always make Annie’s mac-and-cheese shell. That was my favorite food for many years. I think i liked it not so much because it tasted good, but more because of how i felt when i ate it; i was unaffected by work or stress, i could spend the entire day watching movies with friends or playing outside in their backyard. it was the life i wished i had, completely opposite from my life at home. they had a three story house, with three bathrooms, and more bedrooms than i can count on one hand, whereas i lived in a four floor walkup where the kitchen table was just our tin bathtub with a plank of wood over it. i slept in what used to be a closet. they had a backyard, something i had dreamed of, not having to share a playground with other kids. this life was erased when i went to their house, and ate my annie's mac-n-cheese. it wasn't until i was seven that i had the chance to make them for myself; the parents had left, and both of my cousins were older than me. the eldest was now a teenager, so she was lazy, as most teenagers are, and the other just wasn't hungry, so i came up with my own special recipe, which i will not share, even today. It was the first, and best tasting, meal i had ever cooked.