leafed in contests

Contest time again. Christy is hosting a fun contest on her blog. t is meant to bring good clean fun into the last of the dreary winter season. Go on over and join in the fun.

Well I will tell a personal story, one that happened shortly after our marriage while we were still in that happy honey-moon period. I must first tell you that I am a great cook, no really I am you can ask anyone. (Is it alright to brag while I tell my story?) Not only do I do it well, I enjoy doing it. I started to learn to cook while I was living with my grandparents and my Aunt and her Family. The ladies in my family are really good cooks, maybe better then me! But you must know at this point in the house were 8 people, from junior high school age to senior citizens.

So learning to cook was a big thing, litterally! So when I got married It was very hard to limit my cooking to just 2 people. Needless to say we had alot of leftovers. This brings me to the season of my story. Christmas, our first Christmas a man and wife. Of course I wanted to impress this man with my culinary talent!

Now we were bth working at competing grocery stores, I as a much loved cashier and my sweet hubby as a frozen food grocery man. So I drew on all of my talents for this meal. Talked to people in the meat depatment and my family, I was going to show this man of mine that I was a better cook then his mom so that he wouldn't say my mom used to make this.....you should get the recipe! So I went to the grocery store and picked out my first turkey. It was a great turkey, plump, of course under my talent it would be the center of my Christmas table.

So a few days before christmas my hubby said, how are you going to thaw the turkey, thaw it? Well I wasn't sure, how long does one thaw a bird? I hadn't asked that question. As we were discussing this he lovingly told me how his parents did it. They would put the bird in the roaster and place it in the oven to thaw over night (yes, I would never do this now!) then cook it and volia!

So that is what I did. I planned on cooking the turkey christmas eve day and having it sliced ready for the table. So on christmas eve day I got up and there was a smell in our little apartment that I did not recongnise. I started to sniff everywhere, couldn't find where it was coming from.

Later in the afternon it was much worse and It was making me sick! and no I was not expexting that I knew of ( well yes I was but didn't know it, that is a whole other story!) I took the turkey out of the oven to bake somethinf and realized that the roaster smelled really gross! I lifted the cover and started to gag! Then I started to cry! Not just cry, but bawl! This was my first christmas and I had ruined it, correction, my husband had by suggesting I do things the was his parents did.

I called my husband at work in tears, I am sure he was starting to wonder if I was really his wife or some deranged woman making claimes to be his wife. When he finally got me calmed down enough to talk like a sane person I told him that he had ruined my turkey and he had to but me  a new one or he would not be getting any christmas supper!

He calmly asked where he was going to get a turkey on christmas eve, I said anywhere but at the store I worked because I wanted no questions as to what had happened to my other turkey. I waited patiently( I think) I our little apartment for that new turkey, going between crying and thinking he should have asked his mother to cook his meal for him.  The new turkey was not going to be the perfect center to my supper as I had planned! It was really a very horrible punny bird.

I cooked it and decorated our tree (still yet another story, I'll try to post a picture) So all that evening we tried determine what had gone wrong. As it turns out our first appartment had a propane stove, neither of us had much experince with them, we had always had electric. So the moral of the story is never thaw a frozen bird in a propane stove. There was just enough heat from the pilot light to rot our turkey.

Needless to say I learned a lesson on humility that first christmas. My hubby did too though. He had to borrow money to buy me my only present because he forgot his wallet at home. He bought me a pair of deck shoes, because it was something I needed. (he is always practical) They were to small.

We have both gotten better over the years (marriage will do that). God has been gracious to us both and I can say God has truly blessed me with a great man. And I have really learned to cook.