Velveeta drizzled over broccoli, slathered over corn tortilla chips, melted inside a loaf of homemade bread with pimentos and mayo and peppers, an open-loaf dip. I don’t remember specific Velveeta recipes as a kid. But I remember liking Velveeta on open-faced toast. Comfort food. Like buttery mashed potatoes, real vanilla milk shakes, homemade pizzas, macaroni and cheese, baked beans. These are comfort foods. High calorie, low cost, always warm to the touch.
It’s the smearability of Velveeta that makes it a hit. The easy way you can take the blade of a stainless steel knife and spread the cheese over a slice of whole wheat without ripping or shredding the bread into little pieces that leave holes that drip down on to your lap or chin. Are you one of those people who prefers using a napkin bib? I know adults who do this at home, not in public. They are prone to drips and spatters; sometimes large-breasted women seem to catch food on their shelves. Privately we laugh about it. Publicly, that kind of clumsiness can lead to embarrassment.
I’ve been thinking about Nikki Giovanni, the way she is so comfortable in her own skin. She’s been to the school of hard knocks, does not care what others think of what she writes, or shares from the heart. Not overt scare tactics or stun-gun sentences that some writers use to wake their readers up. Instead, the honest rhetoric that shoots from the heart. That kind of honesty can shock people, leave them not knowing what to say. Or thinking, should she really have said that on public radio? It doesn’t matter. She is willing to bear the consequences of her honesty.
There’s a certain comfort level one needs to get to in order not to care what people think or how they will judge. There is a confidence in their writing, with their presence in the smaller pecking order of their personal families, and the larger pecking order, sometimes ruthless, that comprises the rest of the world. Is it okay to say you love Velveeta?
Childhood foods, guilty pleasures. Why have foods like that become the blunt of people’s jokes. Especially those who pride themselves on eating “healthy” or only “whole foods,” food snobs. People get to make choices about how they eat, just as they do about what they say or write. To judge others based on what they eat, I don’t think so. Keep the focus on my own bare cupboards.
I like Velveeta and cinnamon toast and Kool-Aid. I don’t really care who knows it. I made cinnamon toast just last week. It’s another comfort food. When I was a child there was a container filled with cinnamon, swirled in sugar, wound and stirred into a brown concoction ready to be shaken into the mouth of a melted butter gob on top of white Wonder bread. These days, I eat whole wheat because I like the taste better.
I become the most food conscious when I am trying to lose weight. It’s true, processed foods are high calorie, not good for the heart. And the fried foods that I love can be deadly. But you can eat anything if you watch the calories. Again, who am I to judge others? There is a woman at work that most know to be the town gossip. Anything you tell her will make the rounds. It’s common knowledge, something everyone accepts about her. I watch what I say. Yet I like her. She’s abrasive, direct, honest, loves Velveeta cheese and smokes a pack of cigarettes a day.
And whenever people want to know what’s going on in another part of the company, they always go to her to ferret out what she has heard. If you solicit information from the town gossip when it’s convenient for you, no need to judge her for the rest. All this, from a box of Velveeta cheese.
-related to Topic post: WRITING TOPIC — VELVEETA CHEESE
QM: I love the organic flow of this writing practice, from Velveeta, to Nikki Giovanni, to childhood foods, back to Velveeta, then, on to the company gossip … all in 15 minutes! WOW, good work!
Velveeta was the gooey middle of the grilled cheese sandwiches of my childhood, but I don’t really eat it anymore. Thanks for reminding me of my love for cinnamon toast. I haven’t made it for a long time, but I may just fix some for breakfast tomorrow!
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I’m totally up for the cinnamon toast . It’s the one thing I can make my husband that’s actually edible. But I gotta laugh at the Velveeta. In my Family, it has always been known as a stellar fish bait. I don’t think I knew until I was 15, that the silver wrapped, yellow log was people food…and by then…it was too late 😉
BTW The gossip woman…are you ever tempted to mess with her…just a little? I’m afraid there would be no limit to my imagination when “letting things slip out”…just to see how far they’d fly.
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I’m a big fan of Cinammon Toast. It’s one of the few things I can get my oldest to eat for breakfast before school. She usually doesn’t have much time, plus she’s just not terribly hungry. Something about the combination of bread, butter, cinnamon, and sugar—well, it works. And so I keep a small cup with sugar and cinnamon already mixed so that I can quickly make slices of toast.
H, you are such a bad girl. What exactly might you let slip out?? 8)
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Stellar fish bait…. 8) Yes, I have the same thoughts as yb, what would you say to her to mess with her or let slip out? lol I’d never thought of doing that and I don’t know if I have it in me, but it would be kind of fun and funny! Every work place has a town gossip. Heck, they show up in every kind of environment, don’t they?
breathepeace and yb, yes, cinnamon toast, I just love it. Hey, let me know if you have it for breakfast tomorrow, bp. Num.
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QM, cinnamon toast. Mmm! We keep a mixture in a small container & I just might make some tomorrow. It is also a childhood favorite of mine & J’s. D
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The first one that comes to mind would be something about having 3 nipples…
…but I kinda like the sound of “I have a plate in my head and can’t use the microwave”…
😉
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diddy, how was the cinnamon toast this morning? I’m actually eating a strawberry Pop-Tart. I don’t buy them often but once in a while I get a craving for Pop-Tarts. Pop-Tarts weren’t even invented until the mid-60’s and now over two billion Pop-Tarts are sold each year. Smart thinkin’.
heather, 3 nipples? I actually knew a woman once who had 3 nipples. I couldn’t believe it. I bet it’s more common than we think. I like your plate-in-the-head rumor for the town gossip. I wonder if she would go for that one. 8)
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I dated a guy who had a third nipple.
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I know, you really wanted to know that. 8)
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QM, I didn’t have it this morning. Instead, I wnt to Bob Evans with Mom & another couple for breakfast. Tomorrow is another day. I’ll have it then!
Hey, I actually used the metal plate in my head story. I used to tell it to all my nieces & nephews, & even Brant! If you know what you’re doing you can make a light weight fridge maget stick to your forehead! They were all amazed! I told them this because of running on sidewalks etc…
I could easily mess with a gossip, though. Just for the heck of it!
Pop Tarts? Stopped eating them when they discontinued the concord grape ones! D
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Holy smokes …
Let’s see, Velveeta, third nipples and Pop Tarts. I can honestly say I would have never been able to work all that into an article.
This is a funny place here in the ravine.
Of course now I am craving Velveeta AND Pop Tarts, something I am not going to find anytime soon here in China. I will pass on the third nipple. I think I would. I am pretty sure I would.
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OK, I might just take a peak …
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QM, I can attest that the boxed Velveeta mac and cheese is much more creamy than most boxed mac and cheeses. And if I’m recalling correctly, the cheese is squeezed out of a little foil package.
We don’t usually buy that kind—if we do mac and cheese in a box, we do Annie’s organic. But my mom every now and then gets us the Velveeta brand. And I really do like making mac and cheese from scratch now and again. Although I need a good recipe for homemade.
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Expatriate, lol, yes, I’d pass on the 3rd nipple, too. But, it’s true, you can’t help but take a look-see. We have some pretty lively conversations that get going in the comments on red Ravine. And quite fortunately for us, we have absolutely no control over what our readers might say. It keeps things hoppin’ in blogworld. You never know what track a post will go down once people begin commenting. I think that’s one of the great things about blogging, at least for me, is the craziness, depth, and wide range of conversations that we have, depending on the post.
I bet you do get cravings for things that aren’t available in China. I would have thought that you would be able to buy some of the big name brand things though. Is that not true, Expatriate? Are there other products from home that you miss?
BTW, I wanted to say that after following the comments on the Velveeta posts, Liz came home the other night with a big orange box of Velveeta mac and cheese. We haven’t tried it yet, but I can’t wait!
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Uh Oh, yb, I am known as the queen of homemade mac-n-cheese, though I have never followed a recipe. I was able to write the recipe down & I’ll send it to QM sometime soon. I never measure, but I kinda wrote as I made it the last time. This is always a big family request. So many people wanted my recipe that I finally wrote it down.
Funny about boxed mac-n-cheese. Brant had a fund raiser at school & they were selling pasta in all shapes. He begged me to get the pig ones! We’ll be making that next time he is here! Of course, it comes with a bag of cheese mixture. D
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diddy, yes, please do send your famous mac and cheese recipe! That would be wonderful. I still plan to post your pot roast recipe, too. It’s in the works. Do you have Brant this Friday night? He’ll love the pigs mac and cheese. And it’s SuperBowl weekend; I’m gearing up for the Terrible Towel!
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QM, we’ve had Brant the past two week-ends, so I kinda doubt it. Plus, the game doesn’t start until 6 pm, so on a school night, it would become to late. I’m a vit leary about the pig mac-n-cheese, but geesh, what we will do for our children & grandchildren!
Today, I am babysitting a teeny tiny baby girl for a friend who was in a bind. I had forgotten what it is like. I am having a wonderful time & grateful that she is such a good girl. Sleeping now, but soon time for a bottle. D
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ybonesy, your Entenmann’s Donuts post this morning reminded me that I wanted to come back to this thread and report back about the Velveeta Mac & Cheese Liz came home with a few weeks ago.
We did end up trying it and it was sooooo creamy. Also a lot salty. Though we liked it, we like the Annie’s organic with the creamy cheese foil pouch better. All in all, the box recipes with cheese pouches are better to me now than the dried powder cheese mac & cheese (although it’s a lot cheaper!)
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I agree. The powdery type is really hard to to get to the right consistency, and you have to do it when everything is still hot or else it will get clumpy.
BTW, Bo recently sent me a homemade Mac-n-Cheese recipe with fennel in it. Yum. Can’t wait to try it.
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Yum, fennel. Now that’s not something I would have thought to put into Mac & Cheese. Please do report back after you try it.
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