Week of Menus LIFT Event, Dallas: Practice Makes It Better

 

There are many things that I assume Children know how to do.  I learned that I should not take such things for granted as it can lead to surprises for which I am unprepared.  On my recent trip to Dallas, I decided that buying a pack of gum would be a secret weapon which would afford me some peace and quiet on the flight.  I justified the purchase with the thoughts that the gum would help Son and Daughter's ears to pop and overall just make their trip (and as a result mine) more pleasant.  I promised them a piece of gum during take off that they could chew and that brought about peals of laughter and excitement as it would be their first time ever getting to chew gum.

After boarding the airplane, I carefully planned my strategy.  As I am not much of a gum chewer myself, so Children had never seen me really chew gum and I wanted to make sure they understood the concept.  I was somewhat worried about Son, as he is only 3 years old, so took some time to explain to all of them that they were not to swallow the gum, but rather keep it in their mouth and when they wanted to stop chewing it, they would need to spit it out.  When they all nodded their agreement and understanding of what was required, I carefully and ceremoniously peeled a piece of gum for each child and stuck it in their mouths.  They all grinned and then 30 seconds later, I heard Son pipe up, "I want more."

"You have one in your mouth," I gently reminded him.

"All gone.  I want more mommy," he replied.

"Did you swallow it?" I asked

He obediently opened his mouth and said, "All gone," and then proceeded to point to the back of his mouth to show where the gum piece had disappeared.

While mulling over the wisdom of giving him a second gum piece, Daughter #2 started wailing as she exclaimed that while chewing the gum it fell out of her mouth.  "Find the gum!" I told her sternly.  I had images of it being stuck to a chair, or in some hair or on some clothes and it didn't make me happy.

"I can't find it mommy!  It's gone!!!"  I desperately tried to search for it myself, but Son on the side kept on insisting on the next piece of gum.  To silence him while I looked for the wayward  gum escapee, I stuck another piece in his mouth.  

30 seconds later, I heard the little voice again. "I want more mommy."

I turned to look at him and said, "No more.  Because you keep swallowing it."  I had this image of a huge wad of gum eventually blocking Son's internal organs and blowing bubbles deep within the recesses of his large intestine, and the thought did not soothe.  My response won me loud wails from Son as he had a fit about how he wanted the gum.

Still unable to find the half chewed gum that was missing, Daughter #2 began her cry for more gum and suddenly I realized that learning how to chew gum really required some practice to make it better.  As I tried to pacify Daughter #2 and Son, Daughter #1 turned to me to ask a question while chewing her gum, and that particular piece decided to fly out of her mouth and land in my lap.  I cut off all the gum off after that and handed out gummy bears instead.  The plane began its takeoff, and I began my own private torture of three kids who had been promised gum but had it taken away from them.

After arriving in Dallas, and enjoying good times with best friend CJR, I began, in earnest, becoming very nervous for the Sunday Week of Menu's event with Global Harvest Church's LIFT group.  I was invited (mostly by virtue of being CJR's friend I think) to sort of do some sort of presentation about food and over the past few weeks had been mulling over how best to present food, cooking, and my blog to a group of women, some who were already followers and readers and some who had never heard of me. It was somewhat daunting as I don't love meeting new people, but also a new and interesting challenge for my brain to think about how I would get a bunch of women involved in some food.

I decided that rather than have a bunch of women watch ME cook, I'd much prefer to have a bunch of women cooking themselves while I come and help them and offer them assistance. I thought it would invite the maximum participation and people would leave, at least knowing how to cook one dish, and if they had practiced it once, they'd be more likely to cook it again.  I came up with five different types of foods (cupcake, cookie, Korean, chicken wing, and pasta) and committed to the idea that there would be different teams making different dishes.  I threw in the option of doing pecan rolo pretzels as well so that people would have a party favor to take home.  

The actual event itself was hysterically fun and I laughed a lot.  I had an amazing experience watching other people cook my food and it was incredibly gratifying to see 25 women hunched over various stations, working on various tasks to cook some food that came from something I had created.  It was in some sense, a great justification for the work that I have put into the blog and to see it before my eyes was amazing.  There were tons of funny moments, including one where a very tall graceful woman came up to me and announced confidentally, "I ruined the cupcakes.  I put in baking soda instead of baking powder."  I started giggling and she responded, "Hey - I've never baked before.  I didn't know there was a difference."  I walked over to the oven (where the cupcakes were already baking) and could tell from their baking texture that they were not right.  Valiantly that group agreed to go another round at making the cupcakes, this time using the appropriate leavening.  I was really blessed by that group for their willingness to do it again and also their positive take charge attitude.  (No one in the group had ever made cupcakes before.) In their defense, many preferred the baking soda version.  (it came out rather spongy.)

The best executed dish in my opinion were the chicken wings.  They tasted just like mine (hee hee) and looked like mine too!   One of the women on the team was very worried as the chicken wings were baking for so long and asked if we weren't making a super dry chicken wing.  I happily reassured her that it was going to make a juicy succulent wing, and thankfully the wings cooperated.  

At the end of all the cooking, the table was spread, and my friend suggested I start the line of people tasting the food.  I grabbed my plate and walked along the line of food and there was applause.  Although my back was to everyone my face flushed bright red as I was so embarrassed. Later best friend confessed to me that she almost started crying when she saw it and I was further embarrassed by her reaction.  I hadn't cooked the food and more than anything I just watched and offered minor suggestions, and I probably learned more than the women there did.

I'm not sure if I would ever do something like this again, as it was incredibly stressful and made me somewhat uncomfortable.  I do know that much like learning how to chew a piece of gum, if I practice this sort of format, I will be better at it and it will be less awkward. There may be a point in the near future, where I do feel comfortable enough to take this on again and willingly do so.  We'll see when that day is. :)

LIFT event list of food 

Things that the women cooked

Sweet and Sour Glazed Chicken Wings

Korean Stir Fried Rice Cake (Ddukbokki 떡볶이)

Asian Bowtie Pasta Salad (made with macaroni, because that is all we had) 

Chewy Crispy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Vanilla Bean Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

Pecan Rolo Pretzels

Things I made for the women to enjoy

Hot Artichoke Dip (crazy huge hit.  Gone in a heartbeat)

Corn and Bean Relish (they call it Texas Caviar down in Dallas)