Christi's Problem

My sweetheart is an exceptional cook! She often whips up familiar recipes but isn't afraid to try new things. She has an occasional miss, but this is very rare. But she does have a problem. She almost always serves her meals with some kind of derogatory comment with regard to what we are about to eat. "This doesn't look very good, does it?" or "I'm sure it will need some salt." or "If you don't like it you only have to have a little." I believe part of this stems from her unique method of making sure the food she cooks tastes good...she looks at it.

That's right. My snookums never tastes her cooking before she serves it! Not a bite. Not a smidgeon. Not a snitch. Nothin! She will NOT sample her cooking before she puts it on the table. Not even to salt or season it. She just "looks at it". If she is really unsure of how it will taste, she requires my services. Problem is, I am a food moron. I may be able to tell her if it's not quite right. But my only idea to fix anything consists of, "Well, uh, maybe it could use some salt?"

The other night, she decided to try a new dinner. Homemade enchiladas and Mexican rice from rice-a-roni. The enchiladas were fantastic. Loved by all. The rice-a-roni? Even I should be able to do rice-a-roni, right? Not so fast! She gets done cooking the meal, again using her "look at it" method to make sure it will taste good. She spoons up some of the triple batch of rice-a-roni ("serves 4" just doesn't do us much good anymore). She let's it glop from the spoon back down to the pan. She looks at me and offers up a typical pre-meal comment, "This looks horrible!" I tell you, the woman absolutely inspires confidence:) But in this case, I have to agree with her. It looks more like Mexican rice stew than Mexican rice. We all sit down to eat. With another pessimistic remark, she prepares the kids for the worst. I get a lot of skeptical looks as I dish everyone up a small spoonful. As we start to eat, nobody says much. Finally, I make a comment: "Well, it's pretty bland. But at least it's crunchy." Like I say, her misses are few and far between, but this was definitely one of them.

The next morning I was cleaning up the kitchen after making seven lunches. I noticed 3 unused oatmeal packets sitting on the counter. Not an unusual occurance after breakfast in our house. I picked them up, but noticed that they had no labeling on them and must not be oatmeal. I looked at them for a moment, confused. I took them in to Christi and asked, "Honey, do you know what these are?" She looked at them for a second, got a goofy grin on her face, and replied, "I guess now we know why the rice-a-roni was so bland..."

-Jer

PS. Either Christi and I have a fantastic relationship or I am going to have my blogging privileges suspended for a long time. Perhaps I should ask her before I publish a post that knocks her culinary skills. Naw...I've "looked at it" and it seems fine to me:)