National Mac And Cheese Day Is A Thing—And It’s Today
National Mac and Cheese Day is part of this weekend’s food-themed hat trick. One day after National Fry Day caused French fry lovers to overload on fried freebies, National Mac and Cheese Day is here, sandwiched between Sunday’s National Ice Cream Day in a trifecta of national food holidays.
USA Today posted several deals for National Mac and Cheese Day, a July 14 holiday which pays tribute to the cheese-laden noodle casserole that is a go-to comfort food for many Americans.
According to USA Today, bagel chain Einstein Bros. Bagels will feature a free limited edition Mac & Cheese bagel with any purchase for rewards members. The Noodles & Company chain will also offer Noodles REWARDS members a free bowl of Wisconsin Mac & Cheese with the purchase of a regular entrée on Saturday, July 14.
Cicis Pizza restaurants will feature is classic Mac & Cheese pizza on the buffet on National Mac and Cheese day. The unique pizza is described on the Cicis website as “traditional garlic butter crust topped with 100% real cheese and Cicis signature macaroni & cheese.” In addition, the restaurant chain Bob Evans has launched a Facebook contest for the chance to win free Bob Evans macaroni and cheese for an entire year.
We hope your #NationalMacandCheeseDay is just grate! pic.twitter.com/2d8ILMLVyk
— TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@HodaAndJenna) July 14, 2018
Mac and cheese is a favorite food of some big-name stars. Singer Patti LaBelle is known for her “Over the Rainbow Mac and Cheese,” a concoction so sky high in calorie content that it would be the perfect splurge recipe for a once-a-year national holiday. LaBelle’s signature dish is made with five kinds of cheese (Muenster, mild cheddar, sharp cheddar, Monterey jack, and, yes, Velveeta) and a whopping 2 cups of half-and-half, and it is a favorite of Oprah Winfrey, who once featured the recipe on her talk show.
Speaking of Oprah, mac and cheese is definitely her thing. The media mogul has long revealed that mac and cheese is one of her guiltiest pleasures. In an interview with Vogue, the media mogul even revealed that she turned to her favorite comfort food when her film adaption of Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved flopped at the box office in 1998. Winfrey revealed that she got the bad news about her movie project one morning when she was told her film was beaten out by a Child’s Play sequel.
“I got a call from someone at the studio, and they said, ‘It’s over. You got beat by ‘Chucky,'” Oprah told Vogue. “And I said, ‘Who’s ‘Chucky?’ What do you mean it’s over? It’s just Saturday morning! I knew nothing about box-office projections or weekend openings. It was ten o’clock in the morning, and I said to [my chef] Art, ‘I would like macaroni and cheese for breakfast.'”
In an interview on Piers Morgan’s CNN show, Winfrey admitted that the Beloved flop sent her “into a massive, depressive, macaroni-and-cheese-eating tailspin” in which she ate about 30 pounds of the casserole.
In happier times, Oprah doled out packages of her favorite frozen mac and cheese brand on her final Favorite Things episode. The winner? Beecher’s “World’s Best” Mac and Cheese.
