Good Friends are the BEST!

Day #2:

Today I noticed a few things. I can be one of those annoying "Glass Half Full" people, because I surround myself with "Glass Half Full" people. Chef is the most optomistic person I've ever met in my entire life. Hands down. Last night, I got the bright idea to cook for him. He bought me a book entitled The Vegetarian Bible for my birthday. This is a very educational book/cookbook. Bless his heart. He tries so hard to get me to be a healthy eater and someone capable of cooking a delicious meal... so far that's not working out so well. However, I told him I'd make something out of the book and bring it for lunch today. Everytime I cook, it's an adventure. Normally I have to call him from Wal Mart to find my ingredients but it just so happened I left my phone at home, so I had no life line. I thought all was good until I went looking for Swiss Chard. I thought that was cheese. Obviously I was wrong. Did you know it's a green vegetable?! Who knew! So I stood in the cheese aisle FOREVER searching for Swiss Chard Cheese. I finally gave up and decided Swiss Cheese would work. I almost didn't find it and was going to substitute Italian Blends. Swiss... Italian... it made sense at the time. Luckily, I found the Swiss. So I came home, made this Chickpea Soup which really turned out to be tomato hummus because it wasn't soupy at all. It was more of a paste. I told him it's because I forgot to put on my "I Heart Iceland" apron. It's like my superhero cape that is supposed to help me cook better. Anyway, it was a hilarious experience. He called me on his way in this morning and that was the first question out of his mouth...

Actual Conversation Follows:

Chef: "How'd the cooking go? Did you make something delicious?"

Me: HA! Did you know Swiss Chard and Swiss Cheese are two completely different things?

Chef: (silence and then hysterical laughing) What did you do?

So I relay all the mishaps of the cooking adventure. Too many to list here.

Chef: That's good! See you're learning.

Me: No. It's AWFUL! I tried to think of a worse soup I've had in my life and I can't really think of one. This is it.

We are both cracking up at this point.

Chef: Well, did you bring it?

Me: Of course! Oh, you'll be trying it. No worries. There's a big bowl with your name on it. This is all your fault. You inspired this.

Chef: Oh boy. You're going to master cooking before we are finished here.

Me: That could take YEARS!

We did inventory all morning and then landed back in the office around 1pm. Josh Quick, my 4-Diamond chef from 360 Grille shortly joined us. I instructed them not to move as I went to heat up the soup. I returned and Josh looked somewhat scared. Chef will try just about anything that's not moving, so he dug right in. Unfortunately I got a phone call and didn't get to see his face when he took the first bite. I wanted so badly to get a picture of that. He did however say it was good. Now I know good and well it wasn't GOOD, but you would've thought it. "A little more salt (that's always his suggestion) and a little more liquid," he said. "Remember with soup, you want it to actually be a liquid consistency, not paste." Hil-arious. What I thought was an epic failure, he found so many good things to say about it. I think it's true that we are our own biggest critics. I'm glad I didn't throw it out in the front yard. I'm even more glad that I have the most patient teacher in the world. Good Day! :0)