Mac Your Day, one way or another

Most would think it's sacreligious to eat a box of macaroni and cheese that isn't Kraft. Add attempting the feat in Italy, and you might even be breaking a Commandment. Seeing that I've never sported a WWJD bracelet, you can imagine that I wasn't afraid to try.

The marketers did a nice job of replicating the blue and yellow box. It looks just like home sweet home. One side lists the ingredients, instructions for preparation and nutritional value in 10 languages. The other three sides say the same thing: MAC YOUR DAY, Preparation for Mac & Cheese, and Macaroni & Cheese. Much to my surprise 'Mac Your Day' isn't a catchphrase, it's the brand. I'd like to think I'm one of the few that knows it was also a McDonald's slogan in Australia in 2003.

Treasures like this not only have a long shelf life in terms of usable, fit for consumption or saleable, but also a long life in my pantry waiting for an undeniably depressing day deserving of such a treat. Some things outlast their 'best by' dates. I decided that expired Heath bars were better than no Heath bars at all, as I waited for news of my next American visitors.  

Looking back I can't remember why the day to make the mac had finally come. Just opening the box had it's pomp and circumstance. I stuck my thumb in the perforated half moon and peeled off the top. Then I squeezed my hand in to retrieve the metallic pack of cheese sauce mix (those words are untranslateable in Italian). I searched carefully trying to keep the tiny smiles of macaroni from overflowing. In a 7.25oz box (carefully delineated for foreign consumers as 178gr+28gr=206gr) it shouldn't have taken so much searching to discover that the 28 grams were missing. I wondered if the powdered cheese sauce mix had been taped to the side or rolled up on the bottom, so I poured out the macaroni. Unable to obey Kraft's orders to 'smmmmile because it was the cheesiest', I frowned because it was cheeseless. It was worse than a 5-year old discovering his Cracker Jack's had no prize.

Instead of crying over spilled milk (the quarter cup I'd prepared to make the cheese), I took the lemons (macaroni) and made lemonade (a macaroni necklace). If anyone needed a break that day it was me. So I put on my new necklace and went to Mac My Day at McDonald's.