Post hoc ergo propter hoc, or "after this therefore because of this"
We clearly spent way too much of our lives watching West Wing.
One must be mindful of not falling into this fallacious logic trap. But sometimes, sometimes - one can be fairly sure that event "b" is indeed caused by event "a" based purely on the order in which these events happened.
Like, for instance, when you are at the beach and there is a snack stand. And you order the bestest, most obvious of options - fries covered in some sort of spicy fake cheese sauce. And you consume them. And then a half hour later your stomach hurts.
Not that this happened to us or anything.
We all know that the cheese fries led to the stomach pains.
Yet after eating noodles slathered in a creamy, cheesy sauce, I feel so happy. Joyful, really. And I know it is precisely because of eating cheesy noodles that I am full of overwhelming joy. In fact, I even contemplate the possibility of a benevolent supreme being who reveals a divine grace just by the mere existence of noodles and a sweeping array of cheeses. It is precisely because of eating this most perfect of combinations of food that endorphins flood my entire being. I am sure that is not a logical fallacy.
Ingredients
1 pound whole wheat shells
3 cups half and half
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon hot sauce (like Frank's Red Hot Sauce)
1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
2 cups grated good quality cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons Taleggio cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
Cook pasta in a large pot of salted water according to package directions. Drain. If, like me, you want to save on dishes, keep the cooked pasta in the colander and use the pot to make the sauce. Melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the half and half, cheeses, Dijon mustard, and hot sauce. Stir, once the cheeses have melted and the mixture is nice and warm, pour the cooked pasta into the sauce and mix together. Adjust salt and pepper levels to taste. Let the noodles mingle with the sauce over low heat until the sauce has thickened.
