In 2003, food journalist Marian Burros’ cookbook, “Cooking for Comfort” (Simon & Schuster) landed on my desk in the OC Register’s newsroom. It was hard to meet my deadlines because it seemed that everyone who passed my desk examined the cover and stopped to chat about it.

The cover art, a generous bowl of macaroni and cheese, crunchy-crusted brown on top and oozing cheese below, made well-fed adults feel like hungry children.

More than two decades have passed, but I still have the book and I use Burros’ recipe for macaroni and cheese. Comfort food, more than ever, seems irresistible.

Macaroni and Cheese

Yield: 4 main-dish or 6 side-dish servings

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup diced yellow onion

2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups low-fat milk; see cook’s notes

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

12 ounces extra-sharp aged white cheddar cheese, grated, divided use

Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

8 ounces cavatappi or other corkscrew-style pasta, or macaroni

2 tablespoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Cook’s notes: I use 2 percent milk, which means the milkfat is 2 percent of the total weight of the milk. Whole milk or 1 percent milk works, too.

The finished casserole (through Step 4) can be covered and refrigerated before baking. To cook, let it sit at room temperature 30 minutes, then bake, uncovered, as directed.

DIRECTIONS

1. Place oven rack in bottom third of oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In large saucepan on low heat, melt butter. Add onion and cook until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in flour and cook, stirring, about 1 minute; do not brown. Remove from heat and whisk in milk until thoroughly blended. Return to medium heat and cook, stirring, until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and stir in mustard, 10 ounces grated cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and hot sauce.

3. Cook pasta according to package directions until cooked al dente (cooked until pasta offers slight resistance when bitten). Drain, but do not rinse. Immediately stir into prepared cheese sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

4. Spoon into 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Top with remaining 2 ounces grated cheddar cheese and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

5. Bake about 30 minutes or until mixture is hot, bubbling throughout and golden on top.

Source: “Cooking for Comfort” by Marian Burros

Award-winning food writer Cathy Thomas has written three cookbooks, including “50 Best Plants on the Planet.” Follow her at @CathyThomas Cooks.com.

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Diane’s Place, a new bistro from pastry chef extraordinaire Diane Moua, opened on April 6 in the Food Building in Northeast Minneapolis — and we got a sneak peek at the restaurant and attached event space.

Moua earned her reputation — and five James Beard Award nominations — for her excellent desserts at spots like Spoon and Stable and Bellecour Bakery, but the menu at Diane’s Place leans into savory dishes inspired by her Hmong background.

Diane’s Place will be open daily for breakfast and lunch, from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Moua plans to add dinner service eventually, too.

Diane’s Place, a new Hmong bistro, opened on April 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

As for the most important part — the food — well, it’s great.

Menu highlights include a Hmong sausage with sticky rice, a sweet pork bowl with a marinated egg and pickled mustard greens, pan-fried bean thread noodles and several dishes that utilize ingredients from other Food Building producers including Baker’s Field Flour and Bread, Alemar Cheese and Lowry Hill Provisions.

During a pre-opening preview, Moua showed off her eye for detail and carefully balanced flavors. Just take the sticky rice, which was pitch-perfect; seasoned with a little sweetness and a little acidity to bring out its natural nuttiness. The vegetable egg rolls, with mushrooms and mustard greens, were spot-on — not drippy, not dry — as were those bean thread noodles with a similar flavor profile.

Macarons made with pandan, an aromatic Southeast Asian plant, were served at a sneak preview of Diane’s Place, a new Hmong restaurant in Minneapolis, on April 4, 2024. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

The desserts are stellar, too, none too sweet nor heavy-handed. It’s unclear as of yet which desserts will be served regularly, but if the Thai tea cream puffs and pandan macarons at the preview were any indication, she does a brilliant job at showcasing Southeast Asian flavors via classical French pastry techniques.

And there’s a reason she’s known since the beginning of the planning process that she’d serve her chewy, ping-pong-ball-sized fried sesame balls, inspired by her mom’s recipe.

The space is transformed — simplified and brightened — from its previous life as Kieran’s Kitchen and Market (named after Irish whiskey maven Kieran Folliard, who created the Food Building). On the walls of Diane’s Place hang Hmong textiles and clothing from Moua’s childhood.

A Hmong textile hangs on the wall of Diane’s Place, a new restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis. The restaurant includes personal touches from chef Diane Moua’s background, the menu utilizes produce from Hmong farms including the one run by her parents in Wisconsin. (Jared Kaufman / Pioneer Press)

The restaurant is getting much-deserved attention: Bon Appetit named it one of the eight must-visit new restaurants around the country this winter, as did the Pioneer Press food team.

Diane’s Place accepts reservations and walk-ins, though as of now, weekend reservations are fully booked through the end of the month. So consider stopping by for a weekday meal!

Diane’s Place: 117 14th Ave. NE, Minneapolis; 612-489-8012; dianesplacemn.com

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By ERIC OLSON, AP Sports Writer

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the governing body for mostly small colleges, announced a policy Monday that all but bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.

The NAIA’s Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote. The NAIA, which oversees some 83,000 athletes at schools across the country, is believed to be the first college sports organization to take such a step.

According to the transgender participation policy, all athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth is female and have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed participate in women’s sports.

A student who has begun hormone therapy may participate in activities such as workouts, practices and team activities, but not in interscholastic competition.

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“With the exception of competitive cheer and competitive dance, the NAIA created separate categories for male and female participants,” the NAIA said. “Each NAIA sport includes some combination of strength, speed and stamina, providing competitive advantages for male student-athletes. As a result, the NAIA policy for transgender student-athletes applies to all sports except for competitive cheer and competitive dance, which are open to all students.”

There is no known number of transgender athletes at the high school and college levels, though it is believed to be small. The topic has nonetheless become a hot-button issue among conservative groups and others who believe transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete on girls’ and women’s sports teams.

At least 24 states have laws barring transgender women and girls from competing in certain women’s or girls sports competitions. Last month, more than a dozen current and former college athletes filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA, accusing the sports governing body for more than 500,000 athletes of violating their rights by allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.

The Biden administration originally planned to release a new federal Title IX rule — the law forbids discrimination based on sex in education — addressing both campus sexual assault and transgender athletes. But earlier this year, the department decided to split them into separate rules, and the athletics rule now remains in limbo even as the sexual assault policy moves forward.

Hours after the NAIA announcement, the NCAA released a statement: “College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America and the NCAA will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition for all student-athletes in all NCAA championships.”

The NCAA has had a policy for transgender athlete participation in place since 2010, which called for one year of testosterone suppression treatment and documented testosterone levels submitted before championship competitions. In 2022, the NCAA revised its policies on transgender athlete participation in an attempt to align with national sport governing bodies, following the lead of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

The three-phase implementation of the policy included a continuation of the 2010 policy, requiring transgender women to be on hormone replacement therapy for at least one year, plus the submission of a hormone-level test before the start of both the regular season and championship events.

The third phase adds national and international sport governing body standards to the NCAA’s policy and is scheduled to be implemented for the 2024-25 school year on Aug. 1.

There are some 15.3 million public high school students in the United States and a 2019 study by the CDC estimated 1.8% of them — about 275,000 — are transgender. The number of athletes within that group is much smaller; a 2017 survey by Human Rights Campaign suggested fewer than 15% of all transgender boys and transgender girls play sports.

The number of NAIA transgender athletes would be far smaller.