Josh Ruins Easter

I tried to throw Josh a surprise birthday party last year, mere weeks before we moved. I had clandestinely prepared a few things on Friday, and hid them in the back of the fridge. Saturday, the day of the party, I told him I wanted to get a jump on dinner because I didn't want to eat really late, so I prepared a couple other things before we went to a baby birthday party in the early afternoon. Everything was fine, then about two hours before people were going to show up, Josh says he feels ill. Like he is going to barf, ill. Are you sure? I ask him over and over, for 30 minutes. So I tell him about the party - is he still sure? Yes. So we called it off.

Flash forward almost one year to Easter 2010. There are to be eight adults and two kids for Easter dinner. I have been running errands and prepping and cleaning. All week. It's Saturday afternoon and Josh is trying to put up some pictures because we still have nothing on our walls. Suddenly, he's in the bathroom. For a long time. Because. He. Feels. Ill. Like going to barf, ill. What? I waited 20 minutes to confirm, then called off dinner.

Josh: Even though this is no one's fault, I still feel bad.

Me: No one's fault? Hm. Interesting.

I'm kidding! Of course I didn't blame the poor guy for getting sick. Even though he more than insinuated that I tried to poison him. I felt bad for him. And yet. Despite myself, I felt a bit miffed. I mean, I was working all week. I love preparing menus and then executing. Afterwards, I go over my menu, the timeline, and the dishes to see what went well and what I need to work on. It's a whole physical and psychological preparation, execution, and evaluation. I believe I can feel sympathy and ever-so-slight irritation (that I aim at the universe, not my husband) simultaneously.

Oh yeah, I also thought a lot about Jesus. Because it was Easter.

So this week I will be showing you dishes that were supposed to, in one form or another, grace our Easter table.

Today, unfortunately, I cannot show you anything other than something quite old because my stupid iPhoto cannot seem to upload anything new and I would love to waterboard it. So this old dish was the soup that we salvaged from the disgusting stew - remember the Dave Lieberman one where the potatoes, green beans, et. al., fell apart and tasted like refuse? Yeah, that one. This soup did not taste like garbage, though, because we added a bunch of pepper, caramelized onions, and bacon! Saved!