I made the apple pie mac and cheese for lunch.
It looks so...normal. You know, relatively speaking. It's not even the weird off-orange that the noodles on the box are.
A lot of people responded to my post -- and this was actually my initial response too -- that putting cheddar cheese on a slice of apple pie was a very common thing in the midwest. Actually my response was "Cheddar on apple pie isn't that unusual. That's how they got Ed Gein to confess," which is an extremely normal thing to say.
In an esoteric way, this reminds me of the Figgy Pudding Spam from a while back, because before you even get a taste you are treated to A Lot Of Smell. In this case it wasn't unpleasant per se, just a very, very strong Apple smell, when I had honestly expected to be overwhelmed by cinnamon (a little cinnamon goes a LONG way with me). But it was all apple, all the way.
So I tried it, and it's not good, but it's not good in such a specific way that I don't feel like I can call it bad, either. Maybe it's just because I've eaten apple pie with cheddar on top and I know how it tastes and how good it legitimately can be.
The problem is that despite the pungency while cooking, it's bland, and I'm a supertaster so if I think it's bland then it's a miracle anyone else can taste anything. But it's deceptively bland. You're desperately searching not only for apple or spices but even just for cheese. I know Kraft Dinner isn't known for being a delicate delight for the tastebuds but normally you do at least get some pretty strong cheesy notes.
But this doesn't seem to offer anything, so you get about three bites in before you realize it has An Aftertaste, which is like...salty apples. It's pretty weak, so it's not upsetting, it's just an unpleasant surprise. And as with sandwiches, what I do not want from my cheesy pasta is surprise.
I feel like this could be good. I feel like I could make an apple pie mac and cheese that would taste good. Lots of people put nutmeg in their homemade mac; if you made a sauce that was a little heavier than normal on the cheddar and used apple pie spice for seasoning, you're most of the way there. And adding the apple might be as simple as sauteeing diced apple and stirring it in, the way some people do for stuffing.
God dammit I'm going to have to do a grocery run soon.
