Cooking Williams-Sonoma Style

I can honestly say that last night was the first time in a year and a half of marriage that Erin made a meal that was inedible. That's pretty good, wouldn't you agree? Here's what happened last night:

Erin saw a recipe in the new Williams-Sonoma magazine for chili-garlic prawns with Chinese noodles... sounds pretty good, huh? So we went shopping for the necessary ingredients, which included a bottle of chili garlic wok sauce. Well, we found a bottle of chili sauce with garlic and thought, "Hmm... sounds like this is the right stuff."

Boy, were we wrong.

I came home from putting gas in the car last night to find Erin with a distressed look on her face. The first thing out of her mouth was, "I think I made a mistake - I can't feel my tongue and my lips are burning." I did what every loving husband would do and said, "Oh, I'm sure it's fine - let's eat!" After a few bites my mouth was on fire, sweat was breaking out on my forehead, and I was starting to agree with Erin that this meal may not be edible (especially since I needed to be able to talk that night to lead our church home group!). So, after cooling down our mouths with some cereal (I distinctly remember a twinge of jealousy as Erin plastered her lips to the SIDE of the milk jug in a desperate quest for relief) we looked at the recipe again and discovered that - of course! - the bottle of chili garlic wok sauce was for sale exclusively by Williams-Sonoma for a mere $12. We obviously chose the wrong sauce - but you can bet that we'll try a bunch of other options before we pay $12 for a bottle of sauce!!

I love my wife - I love that she enjoys discovering new recipes and trying them out. I really am looking forward to our next new dish... although I must say that if there is any mention of "chili" in the name of it I'll be double-checking the ingredients and keeping the cereal nearby...

Jeremy