Color Me Fabulous!

As some of you know I went to college and studied art. I have a pretty good grasp of art history, color theory and all that other stuff, although I didn't graduate (because if illness, not grades) and I really spent more time at IIT becoming a wanna-be geek, but that is besides the point. I know color and I know my crayons! Specifically Crayola, the gold standard in the kids coloring world and in mine.

When I was a child it was pretty obvious that I loved drawing and coloring. The 8 pack of crayons were just so not gonna do. I skipped all the smaller sizes and went for the 64 box. Oh yeah baby. Then for my 7th birthday I got the crayola master set (or whatever it was called). It had over 100 crayons and water colors, brushes, and all that fantastic plastic joy. Anyways, even though I had this big choice of colors, I always seemed to go to my Crayola 64-box first.

Each color I can think of a memory, I will only list a few to not bore those here who are still reading.

All my friends thought that the white crayon was useless. I mean we mostly colored on white paper, and even if we used construction paper it was rare and we were prolly not using crayons. I however, loved the white crayon, not for coloring, per say, but as my little oops friend. I wasn't allowed to have white-out (really what 4-8 year is?) but I did have my handy dandy white crayon to save the day when I maybe, accidentally was playing with my baseball in the house, and it left a mark on the wall. Easy fix for me and mister white crayon. I just applied a hardy press and poof, the mark was hidden (as we had white walls in our house-my mom only ever painted the bedrooms and not the other living areas) Granted it didn't match the paint exactly, but my parents were never that observant anyways!

Thinking back, I can remember my friends and I comparing proper coloring techniques while coloring in a coloring book. Do you re-outline the image, then shade lightly within those lines, or do you go heavy handed with the wax?

Now Crayola has introduced colors for decades. I usually don't have issue with crayon names, but sometimes they just annoy me. Like when they introduced Purple Mountain's Majesty in 1993. I mean really, don't you think this is just a touch wordy for an audience using coloring books? Is Lavender just too simple, because that is what the color really is. The same goes for Wild Blue Yonder introduced in 2003. It is a dusty blue, which is none to wild in itself.

You have to admit, there is something comforting in seeing a new box of crayons just waiting to be used. That deep yellow box with the possibility for you to be 5 again. And yes, I love the way a new crayon smells! Now I want to go color too!

Cheese mmmm

What is Low-class cheese you ask? It is cheese that you would not serve on a fancy cheese board with a vintage wine(The fancy stuff being Brie, Gorganzola, Asiago ect...). Personally I love the lower-class cheeses. Not to knock fancy cheese, but sometimes you just need a fix of the artificially orange "cheese product"!

Cheez Wiz. Yes the beautiful gooey cheese in a jar. It is essential to the Philly cheese-steak for some people. A recipe published by Pat's King of Steaks says, with regard to cheese, "We recommend Cheez Whiz; American or Provolone works fine."The proprietor of Geno's, however, considers provolone or American cheese more authentic, but Pat's introduction of Cheese Whiz allowed it to quickly become a "topping of choice.
It is also a great topping to french fries.

Easy Cheese. Processed Cheese product distributed by Kraft Foods, also referred to aerosol cheese (no aerosol is used though) or spray cheese. It comes packaged in a spray can, much like canned whipped cream. One of my favorite "heart attach snacks" is taking easy cheese and spraying it inside a "Bugle" snacks, so that it forms a cheesy ice-cream cone looking thing.

Velveeta. Another processed cheese product. A great thing to do with Velveeta is melt it in the microwave with salsa and a slash of milk and you have a warm and cheese dip for nachos in just a minute. mmmmmm Velveeta also can be used in fudge. Yes Fudge. I would never have believed it, but it does exist and tastes good!

Nacho Cheese (from a can). I don't think I could go to a hockey game with out ordering stadium nachos with extra cheese. Oh that glorious melted, spicy cheese from a can. Besides nachos, it is also a tasty addition to fries, chili, baked potatoes, hotdogs and corn bread.

American Cheese. The most famous of the processed cheese. How can anyone not like this cheese. It is the corner stone of America (hence the name!) Everyone loves a grilled cheese sandwich, and the most used cheese for that sandwich is American Cheese. I think it should be unpatriotic to hate American Cheese.