Remembering Keisha Lance Bottoms' mac and cheese
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The 2018 tweet that started it all. Photo: Twitter/Keisha Lance Bottoms
The holiday season is upon us, and with it come remembrances about when former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' version of baked macaroni and cheese sparked fury — and tips on how to properly make this classic dish.
Yes, but: What if everything we knew about what happened … was wrong?
Catch up quick: On Christmas Day in 2018, the internet reported a murder: Bottoms showed the world her Christmas feast spread.
Zoom in: Her followers zeroed in on a platter of what appeared to be mac and cheese that looked drier than Death Valley.
- What followed was a good ol' fashioned social media dragging, which Bottoms took in stride.
What she's saying: Bottoms, who previously served as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, told Axios there's no recipe and that the final result was one part make-it-work, one part stealth healthy cooking.
- After running out of cheddar cheese, she reached for a four-cheese Mexican blend.
- The cauliflower rice settled at the bottom of the dish was an effort to "trick" her kids into eating a vegetable.
Oops: She forgot to stir the dish — part of her plot to hide the cauliflower rice from her kids — before taking the photo.
State of play: The annual attention to the makeshift mac and cheese — and her family's amusement about the episode — gives her a good laugh, she said.
- "After all these years, I now consider myself an official urban legend.😂"
Of note: Bottoms, who in July was appointed to President Biden's Export Council, recently launched a YouTube show featuring interviews, motivational talks and, of course, cooking demos.
What we're watching: Bottoms tweeted last night that she's going to revisit mac and cheese on her YouTube show. Until then, we challenge you to make her mac and cheese, and to send us photos of the result!