Pas Bon

Okay, this is turning out to be a three post day.  I had to write about this evening's cooking experience.

So I decided to make chili and cornbread for my family- I thought it was "American" and it seemed accomplishable.  I got the recipe for the chili from my mom and found a cornbread recipe online.  Finding the right ingredients at the grocery store was tricky, but even trickier was trying to figure out conversions and estimate amounts without teaspoons or cups... The best part was when Jess told me she was surprised I cooked because usually people are too intimidated to cook for Jean Claude.  I was surprised she said that because she was the one who interpreted my "maybe I'll cook for you someday" as "I'll cook for you this weekend" and prodded me to do it.

The chili actually tasted as spicy as what my mom makes; it was just enough to clear the sinuses a little bit but not so much that one's tongue was on fire.  Apparently this was a bit too much for them... whooops.  Usually my dad adds Tobasco sauce to my mom's chili, so perhaps my judgement of spice is a bit skewed.  Oh and I also confused salt for sugar and put in double the salt.  

Anyway, I gave everyone way too much and then I felt horrible because they were struggling with it.  They didn't even try to give it to Sofia and I felt bad for not thinking of an alternative, non-spicy dish.  I told them I wouldn't be offended if they ate something else, but they insisted that they liked it minus the spice.  They mixed it with the "corn cake" and I suppose that helped.  Sofia tried my corn bread and she said it was "pas bon" meaning "not good."  She said that about oranges this morning, so I'm not too hurt.

The "corn cake" was a pretty accurate description... I think the recipe I found was a bit sweeter than normal in the first place.  I asked them if they had any baking powder and they said they did- when I asked them for it they handed me these little packets with pictures of bread on it and things written in German.  I ended up using 2 packets of the brown powder and I'm still not sure what it was or if it was the right amount.  Whatever the case, my cornbread hardly rose at all and ended up being this really flat, sweet corn cake.  They actually liked it and want to eat it for breakfast tomorrow morning.

As for the chili, I'm thinking I'll just take it for my lunch these next few days and save them the trouble of finding a way to consume it.  Hey... now I wont have to spend a bazillion francs on lunch!