An Affair to Surrender Blog
Posted on October 22, 2015 by Jackie DeKnock No comments
GOURMET LOVE
“Spreading love, one recipe at a time!”
The back-story that inspired the menu that inspired the recipes! Foodie and Love stories combining love, romance, and adventure (remember this is all fiction my friends)! Let me take my paintbrush, paint the scene and the mood to take you there…
Inspired Quote to love by: “The truth doesn’t cost you anything, but a lie could cost you everything.” ~ Unknown
LOVE DATELINE: MEET PRINCE HANS OF ‘FROZEN-FAME’
Where: A Kingdom
When: A long time ago
Mood: Heartbroken & yet courageous Princess
Emotion: Sadness, Sorrow
The Inspiration Behind the Menu
This story…nothing more to be said…
Take 2.
It’s a tale as old and as frozen as time itself: girl (Princess) meets boy (Prince) of her dreams; boy sweeps her off her feet and they become romantically involved (again…another story).He’s noble, he’s brave, he’s charming, he’s dashing and he’s honest. Sounds perfect…they live happily ever after in their kingdom…the end! That’s how one would think a fairy tale would end, but alas read on…
Princess Squared.
Yes, the Princess knew that Prince Hans had not one, but two Princesses in two kingdoms separated by an ocean. But he was so convincing when he told her that she was his one, his only true love and she believed him. He was going to ride his big white steed across the ocean to be with her, leave his other kingdom behind and ask her hand in marriage. What Princess wouldn’t want to believe her Prince I ask? She was ready to toss him the keys to her kingdom…
Truth.
Sadly sometimes the truth hurts… The Prince turned out to be a coward (so much for brave & noble) who was willing to let his ‘true love’ Princess fall on her sword so that he could inherit the other kingdom and immeasurable wealth. ‘Lured in’ by the Prince’s charm, words and wily ways for so long, the Princess was heartbroken. She realized that there was a chink in his armour and that their entire affair was nothing but smoke & mirrors, a complete illusion of lies and deceit. The Prince was living in a fantasy world, he was a Milquetoast Coward (yes, spelt with a CAPITAL MC). In her eyes he had become much like Casper Milquetoast – the comic strip character – he didn’t have a brave bone in his body. She wondered to herself “How could he be a Prince when he was so weak, was the Prince ‘screening’ and ‘testing’ process sub-standard?” “O woe is me.” she thought. She cried into her dainty handkerchief, surrendered and bowed out gracefully. She felt like retreating to her castle, climbing the tower and screaming “Liar, liar, pants on fire.” at the top of her lungs, to the entire kingdom. But…that wouldn’t have been very Princess-like would it? It wouldn’t change anything. She realized that he simply couldn’t find the courage to round up his big white steed and ride across the ocean. What’s so frustrating about Prince Charming is that he did such a thoroughly convincing job of being charming, romantic and noble that the Princess was swept away. She believed him, that he was noble, a man of his word and that he was her Prince. And yet, many in the kingdom were skeptical as to his true intentions from day one…hmmm…foreshadowing perhaps? They saw through the smoke and the mirrors…if only the Princess had listened. Anyone who’s fallen head over heels for someone only to discover they’re not who they appear to be can relate to the feeling of deceit. It hurts, it feels as though the tapestry has been pulled out from under your glass slippers. This is likely why Anna and Hans’ relationship in the movie Frozen has gained such strong reaction from fans – it’s international – cowards such as Princes Hans are everywhere in the world. Pay attention modern Princesses and watch for chinks in his armour.
Here is a great link to Signs of the Modern Cowards for today’s day and age. If only the Internet had been around back when the Princess was going through all of this, she would have recognized all of the tell-tale signs of her coward and run away (I mean walked away gracefully, head held high). http://alden-tan.com/16-signs-modern-coward/
Fare-Thee-Well.
The Princess hoped that one day he might find courage to be honest, but that was never meant to be, the sad truth of life. The Princesses’ last words face-to-face to Prince Charming were “I love you, but I love me more!” In the famous words of Coco Chanel ~ “Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself.” The Princess lives happily ever after being true to herself and (of course) not believing everything she hears from other would-be Princes. She once trusted the Prince, but now his words meant NOTHING to her, because his actions spoke the truth. She learnt her lesson, not to believe everything that was written with the mighty feather quill pen. The what-could-have-been fairy tale was indeed not a fairy tale at all. The end.
PS Prince Hans, if you feel like listening, here’s a song for you that speaks the truth: ‘Somebody That I Used to Know.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY
Frozen – The Movie (and why this character fits Prince Hans to a ‘t’)
Hans initially appears as a handsome, dashing character. In the movie, the crew wanted the audience to fall in love with him and the relationship he could have had with Anna. Then they turned him around towards the climax when the story line veered off to create a big shock for everyone. Hans is a chameleon who adapts to any environment to make the other characters comfortable. One of the biggest challenges in designing Hans, was to make sure that they covered all aspects of his personality without fully tipping their hand to the audience. They succeeded, no one knew what the outcome would be. It’s the old story of unrequited love, as old as time itself. This description is roughly adapted from the film review and its fits.
The Recovery Remedy Recipe.
Turkey – just go ‘cold turkey’ which translates into ‘do not contact’ (DNC). Do not pick up your feather quill pen to write (other than to draft your final good-bye letter if you want to…it’s actually great therapy). DNC. Do not send smoke signals. DNC. Do not even glance in his direction across the ocean. DNC. Dine on the cold turkey from this delicious menu for days and days and stay the course. You’ll be glad you did, the cold turkey is delicious! You’re worth it after he walks or rides out the door. Do a complete cleansing of heart, mind and environment of all triggers – from pictures, to hand-written love letters, to post cards, to gifts, to anything and everything that might remind you of him. Will it be easy? No. Will it be worth it? Yes. And last, but not least, remember – holding resentment is like drinking poison from the goblet – don’t drink it. Don’t have an axe to grind, let it go. The Princess found forgiveness in heart. Life is to short not to forgive, we are all mere mortals (and even Princes are not perfect). Eat turkey instead and go to the gym! You’ll feel better for it. Bonne chance to you.
Head over to the Heartbreak Detox Menu and ‘advice column’ Blog – I promise you, it will help! https://gourmetsafari.com/website/index.php/2015/10/12/heartbreak-detox/
Keep the faith, don’t despair. You will find your Prince, don’t harden your heart, be love. Not all Princes are cut from the same Prince Charming cloak. Find true love, forgiveness and follow your heart.
XO
PS Love your food, what comes from the heart touches the heart! Craving isn’t a ‘Bad Word,’ food IS sexy!
PSS I came up with this handy wallet-sized ‘Manly Ranking Scale’ – pull it out when you need it! It’s similar to the Richter Magnitude Scale that measures earthquakes (the idea came to me as I survived a major earthquake in Vegas years ago). I’ll grade each man of my life at the time of my Love Dateline story! Feel free to grade the man of your life, If he’s a +10 (and I hope he is), I’d say go for it!:
Prince Hans was very convincing initially, but the time came to cut bait and run far, far away to another kingdom. One day the Princess will forgive Prince Hans, hopefully it won’t take a lifetime.
Check out the complete “An Affair to Surrender” menu
Foodie DATELINE: Ahhh Comfort
Where: Mount Pleasant Cooking Class
When: Thanksgiving 2011
Mood: Festive Harvest
Emotion: Grateful
Talking Turkey
Ahhh…the comfort of harvest season. The foodie story that comes to mind from this menu is based upon turkey! As your Gourmet Coach, I’ll share my turkey lesson learnt. Never miscalculate the cooking time of your turkey. The thing is that you can’t eat your turkey only partially cooked, it has to be thoroughly cooked through, no if’s, and’s or but’s (of course we all know that). Food poisoning is never a good thing (I know…no, not from my cooking classes, from my travels…never fun…another story). There’s always a fine-line between overcooking (drying out) and undercooking your turkey (potentially salmonella). During this particular cooking class, the turkey took what seemed to be forever and ever to reach the minimum internal temperature of 165 F. So…of course we had to wait until it was cooked – thank goodness it was only 45 minutes longer, but that delayed the entire dining experience (oops). Fortunately we had gallons of the delicious Creamy Corn, Squash and Sweet Potato soup. We sipped on that for longer than we should have…oh well…it was delicious, so not all was lost! The moral of the story is to make sure that you accurately calculate turkey-cooking time (although I had done that, it took the class a bit longer than planned to get it prepped and into the hot oven)! No pointing of fingers or turkey wishbones…c’est la vie in a teaching culinary studio (you roll with it). Oh well, what can you do, better to be safe than sorry. In the end, the dinner was a delicious comfort-food feast that was slightly behind schedule. All was good in the end, soup and white wine always helps with that! Love your turkey, it will nourish your soul.
Wish you were here!
XO