In an effort to use up my dry, crumbling Keen’s cheddar, I made a small dish of baked pasta last night. I more or less followed the Ruth Reichl recipe, and I used her butter-panko crust. But I added bacon and sage, and I used penne instead of elbows.

I have to say that mom and Dave were right the Microplane is indispensible. I tried grating the Keen’s with my tower grater, and of course it began to fall apart before any shreds of cheese fell from it. Then I grabbed my Microplane, and it was just like mom said, “I was flabbergasted at the ease with which this grater transformed a hard, elderly chunk of parmesan into a fluffy cloud of freshly grated cheese, virtually effortlessly, cheese I was ready to throw away….” Well, it works for cheddar too! I ended up with a small mountain of fluffy grated cheese, easily incorporated into my sauce.