Say cheese

I've had a hard time convincing our camera-shy kitchen crew to stop working long enough to take their picture, but managed this week.  I neglected to tell them to "say cheese" but they smiled anyway - they're a pretty jolly bunch.   Had I thought of it I would have told them "say mac and cheese" because that's what they were preparing for the night's meal.  On the table you can see about a dozen platters of macaroni and Grace is holding a big bowl of grated cheese to be added.  Ahhh, mac and cheese: I couldn't imagine a more comforting meal on a wet, chilly spring day, except perhaps the ham dinner the week before, or Rose's fabled meat loaf the week before that or ... well, I think all the Community Meals are comforting.

By the way, I was curious about the origin of the "say cheese" expression and what words people might use in other languages to encourage smiles, so looked online  and wikipedia (sometimes a reliable source) lists the following:

Bulgaria: "say cabbage"
China: "say eggplant"
Denmark: "say orange"
Iran: "say apple"
Spain: "say potato"
Sweden: "say omelette"

Interesting that these are all foods.  Maybe that explains why the kitchen crew is always smiling.