Bobby and I were invited to attend a wedding this past Saturday afternoon and were asked to bring a covered dish. The invitation more specifically requested that, in accordance with an Irish tradition, we bring a dish that is special to our family and provide the recipe as well, but I just assumed Bobby had seen that part. I asked him to handle getting our dish together by Saturday morning; between my work and training schedule, he has a bit more free time, and I have also taken care of every dish we’ve every brought anywhere in the past. It seemed fair that he take responsibility for this event, so after a brief discussion on Thursday night outlining where he could get recipe ideas and what needed to be done (find recipe, shop for ingredients, prepare dish), I thought we were all set.
I came home from work on Friday night and was greeted by these two boxes on the kitchen counter:
There are hardly words. I had envisioned a seasonal salad, macaroni and cheese made from scratch, a lasagne; ANYTHING that would be an appealing dish resembling something we might eat at home. Or even something with instructions beyond “Add beef and milk.” Bobby later tried to argue that the cheesy mac is really made with all-natural cheese that was just dried and powdered, but there was not a single argument he could have made that would have convinced me to show up with a bowl of slop from a box.
After lengthy negotiations, Bobby settled on preparing a colorful spinach salad that he called the “Summer Spinach Salad Splendor” on the included recipe card. It was a hit – I ate almost all of it.
Cheesy Mac would've been a HIT! Regardless of what you say, people would been very happy to indulge in the amazingness that would have been my dish. Instead, people, wait, YOU got to eat a salad of fruits and spinach that PALED in comparison. You're just jealous you didn't think of Cheesy Mac yourself.
And, it wasn't even a name brand!