Remember, Junior Birdmen, to turn your box tops in

I had elbow macaroni with cheese sauce from a jar. Not Cheez Whiz, mind you, this is a Ragu product. It's bright pale orange, the kind of color that shouts "I'm not Real!" The product tastes salty and vaguely of cheese. I grated a chunk of Grafton Village cheddar and added that, which worked out better than I expected. It helped in both taste and texture.

You know how adding real cheese to Kraft Macaroni and Cheese often turns the stuff into a gloppy mess, as opposed to a soupy mess, which is what you get if you make it as directed on the box. Right. Well, the liquid cheese sauce works out better for uniform melting of the cheese you added because you prefer the taste of cheese to the taste of powder--or liquid, as the case may be.

I mean, if you were wondering.

Did you know that you can now get a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with your picture on it? $14.99, plus proof of purchase. If you like to be scared by web sites that probably didn't intend to frighten anybody, I urge you to check out http://www.thecheesiest.com/

If nothing else, this should serve as a reminder that there's a whole other world out there. Me, I like to forget sometimes, but those damned minivans keep cutting me off in traffic.

before - after