Birthday Mac n' Cheese

Today is my birthday, but M gave me my birthday present early - two days ago.

It was a box of Macaroni and Cheese. Two boxes, actually. And I couldn't have been happier.

He brought them all the way from America, where he'd taken them out of their packaging and hidden them in ziplock bags where I wouldn't find them during the packing and re-packing stages. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to find them in Pakistan, although we've since seen some in a store here.

Thursday night was a difficult one here, with lots going on including the baby's two cousins being hospitalized for travel sickness (the baby is doing just fine so far, thank God.) So I'd spent a lot of the day in limbo and most of the evening home alone (well, with my BIL and FIL - but not M, whose side I like to stay firmly planted next to.)

I'd put the baby to bed around 10 and fell asleep next to him without having any dinner. At 1:30 in the morning, M came in and woke me up, holding a steaming plate of mac n' cheese. He'd brought it for my birthday present but the day had been so difficult he wanted to give it to me early. He'd figured that by my birthday, I'd be pretty tired of eating nothing but Pakistani food and would really enjoy a little taste of home. He was right.

Apparently he'd messed up the first box, cooking the macaroni in milk for more than an hour. Then he looked up the directions online and found you're supposed to boil the macaroni in water, of course. He said the milk was so thick here, there was no need for the butter called for in the recipe (and again he was right!) By the time he brought it to me, the macaroni may have been a little (read: a alot) overcooked, but to me, it was delicious!

Who knew that one day I would think a one dollar box of macaroni and cheese is the sweetest birthday present ever?