So, yeah. It was #3, the two different types of pasta that made him gag, but I was really surprised by that! He used to be a huge gagger (TWSS) but he's gotten so much better in the past few years that it rarely happens at all anymore; only from old food that's been left out for a while and from the smell of parmesan cheese, because, come on.... parmesan cheese smells like barf, of course that's going to make you gag. Unless you're like me and eat that stuff by the handful, because DAMN I love cheese.
But I digress..... So, Mac & Cheese, in our house, requires a lot of discussion beforehand. There are 4 different types: Short, which for some reason is what we call the classic macaroni noodle, and Regular, which for some reason is what we call the shells, and then there's orange and white. So, if I ever want to make it, I have to get preapproval for the type and color, because there can't be any surprises. Last night was "short orange" night. The problem, though, is that a long time ago I bought this huge box of regular orange at Costco and for the life of me I can't get this fucking stuff to move no matter how much I try. I'm constantly pushing the regular orange but they both constantly turn it down. I even try to sneak it into things, but I always get caught. I really need to do something with my 736 boxes of regular orange mac & cheese.
So, last night I thought I had 2 boxes left of short orange but it turned out I only had one and of course the 736 boxes of the hated kind, so when I opened what I thought would be 2 of the same kind and poured them into the boiling water without looking, I was quite surprised to find out that they were, in fact, different.
Well, shit. I'm making it anyway. It's too late at this point and I'll be damned if I'm going to throw it all out and then re-negotiate another dinner. He'll probably be pissed but he'll still at least accept it, and that was true. I mean, the look on his face was that of utter and complete bewilderment and disgust, but he did take it (and he wasn't forced to eat it in the kitchen, btw, they both had it on the couch in front of the TV. Because I'm a good mom) but he gagged on it while he was carrying it away, and I was surprised by that. It wasn't from the smell, it wasn't from the texture, it was from the clashing pasta types. I guess it's good that I can still be surprised by things at this point?
Anyway, he took it and he did (kind of) eat it, and I didn't actually take a picture of the bowl when he returned it, although I should have, but I was able to find one online to show you these relatively accurate before and after pics:
BEFORE:
AFTER:
That's pretty much how it looked, and of course my dinner for the night last night was a lovely bowl of regular orange shells that had been pawed through and then discarded. I couldn't let it go to waste.
Child 2, on the other hand, was delighted to have 2 different kinds of pasta to eat. It was like an eating adventure, he said!
I'm hungry now.