Crisis Plus Time Equals Humor

Another night at the center....it is 1:00 as I write and I am certain that we will be here for while yet.  There are 13 YSAs still here.  CRUD has been played several times and now everyone is relaxing on the couches.  I think everyone out there is talking....I hear all these voices speaking rapidly in Danish and peals of laughter...sometimes roars.

It was the YSA temple night....some did baptisms and some did sealings and we had a few do a session, which was packed.  I guess that is predictable since it will be closed now for 2 weeks.  We all like to make sure we get there before it becomes unavailable for a time.

We fixed a meal tonight, which seemed to be a slow-motion disaster.  We were told to expect about 15 at dinner.  I prepared to serve a simple tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, topping out the menu with chocolate waffles with hot chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Since everyone went to the temple, the meal was to be ready around 8:30.  About 4:30 we discovered that one of the young women whose family owns a catering business had leftovers from work and offered to bring it to the temple at 5 for anyone who wanted to have a pre-temple picnic.  We knew that it would be a small feast, so we began to wonder if anyone would want dinner here.

We tried to make phone calls to find out what to expect, and finally decided to go ahead and make a small batch of tomato soup.....meaning four times the recipe, which should have been enough for 15 or so.

I chopped up the onions, did the requisite crying, and began to saute them.  SK chopped the garlic.  A little more time in the frying pan and then we combined them with the tomatoes and mixed them up as best we could without a blender.  I added the other ingredients and took a sip.  It was pretty awful!

My heart pretty much hit the floor!  So I thought, well....most have probably eaten anyway, so I will just make a bunch of grilled cheese sandwiches.

About that time, Mads came in.  He is tall, muscular and movie-star handsome....and very personable.  He is also a good cook.  I greeted him and said, "Well, we have had a disaster."

He looked a little shocked and said, "What?"

I quickly reassured him that it was the soup.  Like any true hero, he jumped into action.  He went into the kitchen and tasted it.  He grabbed a cutting board and began to chop more garlic and onions, which he added to the offending pot.  He tasted it....he added more salt, more pepper, some sugar, and a variety of spices he found in the cupboard.  He added a little more water, and continued to chop and add.

About this time, people began to filter in.  Daniel asked what was going on, and Mads explained.  Daniel tasted it and pronounced that it was "interesting."  He added that on his mission, the most diplomatic comment about food was that it was "special."

Helene tried it....pondered for a moment and then decided that it tasted like dishwashing detergent.

Victoria came in and tasted it and began to add things from the cupboard.  Mattius thought it tasted like Robitussen.  

The kitchen was an absolute beehive of activity with everyone getting in on the rescue.  It got kind of loud in that little kitchen.  In the meantime nearly everyone had arrived and I hadn't begun the sandwiches....mostly because I couldn't get near the stove!  Once I had reclaimed the stove, I put two large frying pans on and trying as best as I could to work around the rescue party, set to work.

I sent the first batch of sandwiches out in less than 10 minutes and kept them going for quite awhile.  In the meantime, Victoria unloaded all of the extra food she had brought from the family business and it was beautiful and probably delicious.  The so-called rescued soup and my humble little grilled cheese sandwiches looked kind of sad....if you can picture it.  There was no time to take a picture, and I am not sure that I would have even wanted one anyway!

Well....we ended up with 25 or so people here.....most of them hungry.  They ate nearly all the soup, with only one preferring to pour it out than eat it.  And the sandwiches were quite popular.  I think I could have made quite a few more that would have been eaten, but SK came into the kitchen and said that it was enough.. Only later did I learn that some wanted more.  

The chocolate waffles were well-received, although relatively few ate them with the hot fudge sauce.  Ah well.

In retrospect, I have learned:

I should try out new recipes at home first before cooking them for the center.

I should not try to make things that have to be cooked individually and at the last minute like grilled cheese sandwiches, and probably quesadillas, unless and until I am able to find a large electric griddle - which does not appear to exist in England and Denmark.

I should not use seasonings from the center cupboard that have been here longer than I have.

I should not use ingredients that I am unfamiliar with, like coconut milk, especially if the label is in Danish.

Everyone survived and had enough to eat....and had a great time....which had nothing to do with the food.

All that said, if the soup had turned out, I would have missed the hilarious melee in the kitchen tonight.  It was even funny while it was happening.  Mads - bless his heart, couldn't have been more charming or more heroic or more funny.  And all the others who loudly stepped in to help or offer an opinion were an absolute riot.

And .... at some point in the future, I will appreciate this night for what it was.....a great and funny evening.