Sunburst Macaroni Salad

One of my wife's favorite comfort foods is good ol' mac and cheese. Over the years we have tried several made from scratch recipes from Alton Brown to Better Homes and Gardens. So far, however, her favorite remains the classic Kraft blue box. Then we came across this recipe. The name conjures images of bright summer days with delicious, fresh, light and tasty picnic dishes. Maybe even some citrus in there, right? Uh, yeah. If you ever need to induce vomiting for poison control or something just read this recipe and it will do the trick. Try and make it all the way to end of the instructions because that last little gem is my favorite by far.

1 pkg. Kraft macaroni shells and cheese
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped sweet pickle
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup cooked and crumbled bacon

Prepare mac and cheese according to the directions on the package. Mix in all remaining ingredeients. Place in refrigerator and chill at least 4 hours, or overnight. If desired, additional mayonnaise may be added prior to serving.

First of all (I'm not even going to bother with the "macaroni shells") do you know how much 1 cup of diced celery is?! Nobody's going to taste anything else...on second thought, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Oh, but I forgot about the 1/2 cup of sweet pickle. Why not just call it a celery and sweet pickle salad? I'm assuming the green pepper is just for a little color since you're not going to be tasting it. At this point, though, it's just too sweet and creamy so we need a little zing and bite to liven it up. I know - let's throw in 1/4 cup of raw onion! Do you think that's enough? Maybe...nah, that'll do it, I guess. Okay, okay, this is good, but I still feel like there's something missing. We've got dairy and grains and lots of vegetables. Aha! Meat. I forgot the meat. We'll save the fruit for our fresh fruit salad. And, of course, there's that final suggestion. It's not enough that we've blocked everybody's arteries. Let's finish the job and just embalm them with a little more mayonnaise. Make this at your own risk!