Forks Up For National Macaroni and Cheese Day

We all have a comfort food. Something that makes us feel loved and reassured—most likely something from your childhood that, still as an adult, you make when you are feeling the need for a hug. Mine is Kraft original macaroni and cheese. Not the homemade kind, not Velveeta, not Thick and Creamy, or the White Cheese kind. The straight up out of the blue box kind.

My clearest memory of this being my favorite kind of mac and cheese was because someone fed me the wrong kind when I was five, and it kinda scarred me for life. My mom had to work one day when I was feeling sick and couldn't go to school, so my after-school sitter said she would watch me for the day. I was sitting on the couch watching The Price is Right (I could do a whole other piece on that) and she offered to tempt my palate with mac and cheese. Oh, that sounded so good! A few minutes later—in kid time—a bowl arrived with… not mac and cheese. I mean, it had cheese, and the noodles were the right shape, but it did not taste like my favorite food in the world. I don’t think I even finished the bowl.

Fast forward to being pregnant and getting to make whatever I wanted as an adult. Macaroni and cheese, baby! I actually realized back then that I couldn’t eat a whole package, and it is never as good leftover. So, I figured out how to halve the box and the cheese packet to make myself the perfect portion size—so creative, I know. ;) I told everyone afterward that I was surprised my son didn’t come out as a noodle for all of the mac and cheese I ate!

As my children grew, an easy go-to dinner was: macaroni and cheese. Being the thoughtful mother I was, I knew they needed a meat and a vegetable or fruit with dinner. And here is where you reach back into your childhood memories and think, “What did my mom serve this to me with?” Because, by then, I was usually just eating a straight bowl of the cheesy goodness. Ah! A hot dog and applesauce! Hey, don’t judge! The hot dog is a kid staple and the applesauce was always on hand—and it goes so well with the cheese. Don’t knock it until you try it!

The traditions continued, changed sometimes to adding in hamburger and taco seasoning etc, until one day, something caught my eye. The blue Kraft Mac and Cheese box that had pulled me and my family through so many quick dinners and easy lunches HAD CHANGED! What had they done??

I turned the box over, and the best marketing strategy in the universe spoke to me. Literally, on the back of the box, it said: Relax. The box is different, but inside is still the cheesy, homestyle feel that you have eaten since childhood… and so on. I couldn’t believe it. How did the marketing people know exactly how I would be feeling, and say all the right things? I saved that box for quite some time and felt that all was right in the world. 

However, sad to say, Kraft did indeed change their recipe at some point. I still make it, and I still want to love it—but it just doesn’t taste the same. My daughters feed their children—or will feed them—mac and cheese with hot dogs and applesauce too, and the tradition will live on. It is like a lot of things in life: the memories are sometimes better than reality.

Forks up for National Macaroni and Cheese Day, however it is that it feeds your soul!