"Cheesy" Update

It's been a while again. When we talked about what we should put in our next blog post, Keri suggested cheese. She may have been joking, but I (C.J.) thought that this would be a good chance to learn a bit about "The Creamiest": Velveeta cheese. Velveeta is a cottage tradition, so this is at least somewhat applicable to our experiences of the last week or so. Note that there is some "normal" blog content at the end of this post, so you can skip there if you're anti-learning :)

As you can see above, Velveeta has been "Pleasing families since 1928"--almost 80 years! All seems well and good until a closer examination of the advertisement above is executed. You can barely make it out (is this intentional?), but Velveeta is actually not cheese at all! It's a "Delicious Cheese Food". Now I realize I am no longer carrying out my wife's wishes of writing about cheese, sarcastic or not, but I will press on with some highlights of it's illustrious history.

According to their website (where I'm getting most of my information), Velveeta was introduced to the market after several years of research. I don't know what about cheese would require so much research time, but the end result was a cheese food with unique "creamy texture, meltability (definitely my favorite attribute), and nutritional value." Two years later (I assume spent on more "research"), Velveeta introduced its second variety. I would have loved to see a nice Gouda or provolone, but they decided to go with Pimento. During my failed attempt to find a good "Pimento Velveeta" picture to add, I discovered that old boxes of this variety of Velveeta are collectable. Click here before August 15 and you can be the proud owner of a vintage Pimento Velveeta box.

In 1937, Velveeta was introduced in Germany as Velveta (maybe it was cheaper without the 3rd "e"?). This may have been a bleak time in German history, but the people loved Velveta so much that the Lindenberg plant could hardly keep up with demand.

Not much besides some packaging changes happened between 1937 and the 1980's. Some would ask how you can improve on perfection... Then, in 1982, Velveeta decided to capitalize on American laziness by introducing pre-sliced Velveeta...perfection improved? Velveeta "improved" again with the introduction of "Mexican" flavor varieties of Velveeta in 1984, and in 1985, after three LONG years in the making, extra thick Velveeta slices were put on the market...FINALLY.

Velveeta again appealed to our laziness in 1987. Shredded versions of three of its popular cheese food varieties were introduced, and Velveeta addicts were given a healthy break with a "Light" version in 1990. The last 10 years have seen the introduction of three more varieties of Velveeta (mild cheddar, pepper jack, and 2% milk), as well as a variety of other Velveeta products such as cheesy potatoes and the ever-popular Shells & Cheese.

I hope that you've enjoyed this brief history of Velveeta and that you are more successful than I am at getting the Shells & Cheese jingle out of your head.

"Normal" Blog Content:

Keri and I really did have a pretty good last week or so. We've had quite a few chances to see friends and family during the week, and we had another beautiful weekend at the cottage. Lake Michigan was warm again and even had some small waves. The surfer in the picture below was out for quite a while, but it really didn't look like it was worth the effort for his scant 1-2 second rides. Keri also got to stock up on her beloved blueberries before the season is over. She (with her aunt, uncle, and cousin) picked almost 25 pounds of blueberries. For our plumbing's sake, I hope they last for a while!

Looking south from the top of the dune

The persistent surfer

The fruits of about 3 hours of labor (Hooray Puns!)

On a more serious note, we do have some prayer requests that we would love prayer for. Please continue to pray for patience in this time of transition and busyness for Keri. We've also started to check out our housing options in Nova Scotia. There is a CRC church in Halifax, so we're hoping that we may be able to find something through connections there and maybe even find a place for me to work/serve through the church while we're in Canada. Again, thanks for reading our blog. We love you all and appreciate your comments!