Three Days in The Making

So. I've never been invited to a meal that takes three days to make. Never. In fact, I'd never even met anyone who had ever spent more than 24 hours on a meal (noneless invited me over to partake-- after only meeting once in a video store).

This was before I met Mary.

And I think I'm in love. You are too. I know it. Go on, scroll down.

I am hiding her from Tim, for fear she is raising the wife standard. Everything on my plate was more than delicious. It was gourmet. Mary says her son hates to eat out because nothing tops his mom's Indian cuisine (but she is from Malaysia, and claims some island off the coast of Africa her stomping grounds growing up).

I love eating authentic cuisine while living abroad. I never knew how Americanized our restaurants were back home (FYI, the Chinese don't know what a fortune cookie is, and they thought crab-creamcheese wontons were neat, but had never heard of those either).

Just when I was already feeling amazed...

Tami (my friend and fellow allrecipes.com cook, who was there for moral support when I knew I was going to a meal that took three days to make) and I found out Margret (front black shirt) cooks the exact same way. So I turned to Nikki, from England (black and white shirt below). Of course she could relate to us Americans, and our quick cooking, right?

Nope. Nikki has a college degree as a gourmet Chef.

Tami and I were out-numbered by Gourmet Chefs.

So, then I try to throw in some of my own-- you know that great eclair recipe (where you use a box of jello vanilla pudding) that makes you seem gourmet. Well it was all I could share to keep conversation.

Margret, being more kind than she should've, acted interested. Lying (I'm sure), she said she never had made eclairs, and asked me how. Don't you love it when people try to boost your ego and make you feel up to their level?! So I go into how to make the shell:

Me: "flour, salt, eggs, that's it!"

Margret: "is it really that easy? Wow!" (now you're in love with her too, 'cause she's so nice)

Me: "Yup"

Nikki softly pipes in--

Nikki: "And no water?"

Me: "Nope"

Nikki: "you sure?"

Me: (downloading, and gradually starting to feel really dumb)

Nikki: (while smirking) "No water?"

I was realizing the recipe did in fact use water (duh), but was I really debating with a licensed chef?!

Nikki's Chef Major at School... Pastries. Um Yah.