"cheese" and crackers

Not for today, but Linda has chicken and spaghetti on the calendar. Thinking of it makes the mouth water and the mind wander, because it’s a dish my mother used to make that we loved when we were growing up. Sometimes when I was home from college, or home on Navy leave, mama would bake chicken and spaghetti because she knew it was a favorite.

We were looking at the dish, maybe Linda came across it on Pinterest, I don’t know, but the picture looked delicious, so she looked up online recipes. One offered a choice of cheeses, Cheddar, or Swiss, or Velveeta or American. Thinking about it, I don’t remember Swiss cheese ever being in our house for cooking, nor cheddar. I can’t visualize mama cooking with cheddar anyway; so I suggested Velveeta, which melts nicely. When I was a child I thought as a child, spoke as a child, reasoned as a child, liked Velveeta. But since becoming a man I’ve thought of Velveeta as a cheese-like food-type product, like American “cheese.” Not too long ago, Tass put a slice of Velveeta or American cheese in Caroline’s lunch, and when she arrived home, Caroline asked, “What was that plastic thing in my sandwich?” But it melts well when cooked with noodles, and I remember a block of Velveeta in the icebox when I was a boy. Mama probably made her macaroni and cheese Velveeta too. So we chose Velveeta for the chicken and spaghetti, and Linda bought a block of it.

It still comes in the long, heavy box, these days in several flavors.

At least they have the grace to call the first flavor “original” and not “classic.”

Last evening, I had Velveeta on four tiny crackers with a glass of Australian shiraz at four o’clock (it was five o’clock in Tallahassee, where I bought the box wine) last evening. The wine is still good if maybe more like an ordinary table wine than a deep ruby Australian shiraz or syrah that the label hints, but okay. And even though they’ve flavored our box “sharp cheddar” (!!!) the Velveeta is still a fairly decent cheese-type food-like processed product. I wonder if it had its origins during the war, with Spam. Anyway, it will melt nicely baking in the chicken and spaghetti dish.

I’m looking forward to it.