Agnes by Tony Cochran for July 14, 2021

The secret of the Universe. So simple. So good.

Check out pizza, Agnes.

Somebody just came out with Kraft macaroni & cheese flavored ice cream. I’m gonna pass.

Hope Agnes makes better mac and cheese than she does coffee.

A warehouse error brought in a case of Piggly Wiggly brand Mac and cheese, not our store brand

I bought a box for memories sake, my mom shopped at Piggly Wiggly when I was very young

Google is your friend.

The earliest known recorded mac’n’cheese recipe was scribbled down in 1769. The exact origin of macaroni and cheese is unknown, though it most likely hails from Northern Europe, with the earliest known recorded recipe being scribbled down in 1769.

It’s also National Grand Marnier Day, National Nude Day and National Tape Measure Day. Get naked and sip some yummy Grand Marnier.

Actually mac and cheese is easy… but it’s not all that easy to make it great.

So many of us grew up in that little box, which contains a packet of orange powder so powerfully cheese flavored, it’s hard to match with real cheese.

I don’t know how they did it… dried cheese is more concentrated than fresh, but that packet is still too small to hold enough of the real thing to taste that way…

and the label doesn’t list enough protein or other nutrients to make me think that’s purely what it is.

…

As adults, we appreciate the texture and taste of real, natural cheese… especially if you put a lot of it in the dish, grated into a good creamy white sauce.

But I’ve known a few children who rejected real, home made macaroni and cheese, holding out for the cheesy flavor of the stuff in that box.

…

One niece wanted to live on that stuff when she was preschool age… every night she’d ask for it but didn’t that often get it.

She’s now the mother of a teenage girl… I wonder whether they had that argument

Trout when you write the recipe for Agnes, make sure you mention to COOK the macaroni before you put the cheese on it.

When I was first out on my own, for awhile I survived on a Mac&Cheese mix with some tuna mixed in, or a mix of macaroni, mushroom soup, and tuna. Delicious… and cheap…

Elegant, versatile yet also simple. The best…..

Given their poverty you’d think Grandma would feed mac and cheese to Agnes 7 days a week!

Sorry to disappoint you, Trout, but in fact that is not the recipe.

And to Mr. Cochran: Today is also National Nude Day, so I thank you on behalf of all the fans of Agnes that you didn’t choose to show them celebrating that.

Kraft, macaroni and cheese

It’s the best, that’s what I think

At 29 cents leaves money to drink

Once more in the mornin’

Your wanderin’ round the street

You ain’t got no money

You got nothin’ to eat

Wonderin’ where you’ll get that box

Of the kindly Mac and Cheese

Head on off to the mountain

Just a bit to the west of town

You’re gonna find the pasta bushes

Growin’ from the ground

The kindest pasta that you have ever seen

All over the mountains

Growin’ everywhere for free

- Herman / Hart / Hunter

If I had a million dollars

We wouldn’t have to eat Kraft dinner

But we would eat Kraft dinner

Of course we would we’d just eat more

And buy really expensive ketchups with it

—Barenaked Ladies, “If I Had A Million Dollars”

Thomas Jefferson’s chef/slave James Hemning created macaroni and cheese, after Jefferson described having something similar, he had enjoyed in France. After being severed at the White House, it became popular.

Mac an Cheese and also Spam came out during the Great Depression years.

Once I started macaroni and cheese without first verifying that we had macaroni.   Egg noodles and cheese are wonderful!

Which is why I bought a bag of egg noodles at the farmers’ market a few weeks ago.   Now I need an excuse to make it.