Simply Sampson: The Best Thing I Ever Ate ...

I love the Food Network. The shows make me feel like I can cook. I mean really cook. They always have these little commercials that ask the food network stars "What is the best thing you have ever eaten?" I've thought about that question a lot. And I can't seem to ever fill it in. I've eaten some pretty darn good things in my life, like Citrus Crusted Halibut...YUM...or Chocolate Lava Cake...Double YUM... But nothing has ever fallen into the category of "The BEST..Ever. Until Wednesday...

A new friend, Pauley, came over Wednesday night to cook us dinner. I had been told that Pauley had been a chef, but I wasn't sure how good he actually was. Sometimes people get over-sensationalized..you know. Pauley is now a finish carpenter on the house Cody is working on in Aspen. Anyway back to the story. Apparently, Pauley was a chef for over 20 years. A real chef too. He brought all the food he would need and he cooked up a storm. I just watched. In fact, he banned me from the kitchen. I tried to sneak in once and got in trouble. He was chopping and slicing and mixing and breading like a mad man. I couldn't even keep up on what was going on he was so fast. The house smelled just like a fine restaurant. Even the kids were excited. We all watched. Drooling the whole time. Oh by the way, Cody was allowed in the kitchen as the dish washer. Hee Hee, I love it. When he was finished we had a fantastic French Cuisine meal of herb crusted chicken with a mushroom sauce that was to die for, dirty mashed potatoes with garlic and goat cheese, and fresh steeped asparagus. I don't even know what steeped means, it was so fancy.

This meal by far is the best thing I have ever eaten! Cody completely agrees. The kids do too. We all ate it and loved it. Even the asparagus, which they would have never eaten if I had given it to them. We were all so full by the end of dinner that we were starting to get the sweats. You know what I'm talking about. The "I ate way too much food" sweats. SO GOOD.

Pauley was amazing. I guess he gave up the life of a professional chef because of the 80 hour work week. You're the first one there and the last one to leave when you're the chef. And since he found the love of his life, (his lovely wife Paula) he didn't want to be gone all the time. Sadly though he went into construction and landed this job which he has been on for 2 1/2 years of his 4 year marriage to Paula and she lives in Denver (4 hours away) so they don't see each other as often as he would like.

Paul has agreed to come over every few weeks and cook with me. Give me some pointers. Teach me some stuff. So cool. It's like having food network, live in my kitchen. WooHoo. I'll let you know how it goes. He says I have to cook him a meal first. Uh, ya...what do you cook a chef? Mac & Cheese? I don't think so.