What is the point of this smirkathon? That it's bad for a person of the organic persuasion to make money? That Annie isn't the crunchy gal she pretends to be?

It's articles like this that make me suspect that Salon is publishing aspiring writers williing to write for free in exchange for publication.

"With a daintily moistened forefinger, Annie tested the direction of popular culture and felt the gentle wind of organics blowing."

"The goods would be wrapped in an eye-assaulting purple box adorned by one nauseatingly cute rabbit..."

The bad girl of American food writing? No. This author is the bad writer of American food writing.

We're now going to get cooking recipes from Salon?

Well that's exciting news.

If only we could add a dash of poetry as a flourish during preparation time.

Home made mac and cheese? I'd suggest e.e. cummings, mostly for the kids benefit rather than yours.

If they have left the room, some charles bukowski will capture the tone that the author of this piece has created.

hey those recipes...

yuck!

Not to give it all away but

to make a macaroni appropriate creamy cheese sauce

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp flour

whisk, very important, until smooth

add

2 Cups milk, 1 Cup heavy cream (or another of the milk, whatever!)

bring to boil, reduce heat, whisk and simmer until creamy

add

12 oz cheese, it can even be Velveeta if so desired

Blend until melted

Then presto! Creamy Cheese sauce

takes about 20 minutes

During that time one can make whatever appropriate noodle, combine the two and dinner is served. Ok it takes ten minutes longer....

One can bake this too, with bread crumbs on top, yeah i know this takes even longer...

For someone who gives the pretense of cooking knowledge

one should probably not provide two erroneous and mistaken recipes, that even when combined taste bad.

This recipe is paraphrased from a 40 year old copy of The Joy of Cooking!

But then again I always knew it about Annie's, plus her sauce packet does not taste any better than Kraft's, to my tongue it tastes worse. Id rather buy some not so "household" name brand instead and add my own materials laying around the kitchen.

cheers,

preset

I don't mean to take out my cultural angst on a single writer because she's not alone in this transgression -- but how many more compounded, hyphenated adjectives must we endure in the name of satire? It seems to be the writer's equivalent of melisma: clever in skilled hands, annoying (at best) as embellishment. There's something to be said for making a point succinctly. I'm still not sure what this article is about. My mind got sucked into the black hole of the organo-hipster-white-bread-high-fat-high-salt-not-Coca-Cola-a-

Waddle.

Greetings

Great article with a fun snarky tone.

I just read the jottings of self absorbed organo yuppie puppies explain that they weren't screwed to the wall by a scam in a purple box!

Got to admit most sturm and drang that did not involve King bitching about BCS...

Catch a clue kiddies, you are being scammed by this and a hundred other products that play with your heads and your wallets

Mac and cheese...

Say it with me: There is no such thing as healthy mac and cheese!

Enjoy the journey

WarLord

Just had to share because we're all out of M&C. We have cheese and flour and milk... but no butter. I tried with olive oil and Holy Moly! A thousand thanks to you and your lovely and patient daughter for showing me the light. Thank you, thank you. The cheese melts right in and doesn't get mealy. I'll post back to see if my children eat it. This stuff is fantastic.

Like the very funny piece last year about Veggie Booty, this piece allows parents of younger children a chance to laugh at our hapless dedication to brands that offer us that all-American opportunity to purchase something "better."

And Annies does offer something better, as another letter writer stated. They have an organic, whole wheat pasta offering. Healthy? Not really, but it doesn't have genetically modified ingredients, chemicals or antibiotic ridden milk in the cheese material or pesticide residue on the whole wheat.

As for the writer and her style, what are you guys? A watchdog group for responsible journalism? I thought it was funny and lighthearted. As far as I can tell, you're a bunch of people whipped up into a frenzy over an article about macaroni and cheese. And yes, Smartfood really did embody the Reagan era zeitgeist.

Can we all direct our rage toward the Bush administration now?

This seems more like a blog entry than a story. Then entire first page and a good bit of the second are no more newsworthy than the Washinton Post front pager on John Edwards.

Person involved in business success gets involved in business success! Promotes products as good for you when they are simply not bad for you! Made money on the deal! Holy capitalism, Batman!

The news about the mac and cheese itself is interesting and I was glad to read it. But you really didn't need to flesh it out this much with no news or interesting information for your readers.

I never had any huge illusions that it was amazingly healthier than the opposition, I mean it's salt and starch with some fat. It's easier to adjust the add-ons to meet our tastes, both my daughter and my husband love it and it's a local company (Wakefield, MA), so I'll keep buying it with abandon.

The only thing more ridiculous than an Annie's expose ("let's blow the lid right off that purple box!!") is four pages of reader comments springing to the defense of a box of sub-par pasta and salty white powder. One might also surmise that the right to eat processed food was guaranteed in the Constitution.

Seriously, everyone needs a ten-minute meal. But too many Americans are convinced that such a thing can only come out of a box (or a drive-thru window). Score one for marketing! Annie's is pasta, people, and pasta takes a bit of time to cook. In the meantime you can make a simple sauce. Or if washing another pan will kill you, just butter it up and grate some freaking cheese over the top. Pasta, butter, salt, and cheese. If you want the taste of Smartfood, just buy a bag - fewer calories, half the sodium, and the same amount of fat as a serving of Annie's made with butter and milk.

Oh, and that crack at Ayelet made me laugh out loud.