Jordan and Rachel were here for 2 yrs when Rachel served as the high school teacher. They left us in June and are now back as Nazarene Missionaries with Jordan working in our maintenance department and Rachel helping out with teaching and a variety of other things. They were definitely missed when they were gone, and it is great to have them back.
Per our Kudjip tradition, they dinner invites the first few nights they were back, so I hosted them for dinner one night. Jordan, like me when I first got here, doesn’t like many vegetables, so for dinner I went with a meat and potatoes dish. The problem is I don’t know how to make potatoes. I know this is a shock to most people who don’t know me, but I have never liked potatoes my whole life until I got here. I didn’t eat French fries, mashed or baked potatoes growing up. When I got here, I started eating them because I was served them at others house’s and so to be polite, I would eat the potatoes, but I had never made them myself before. Despite this, I decided I would make meatloaf and mashed potatoes for Jordan and Rachel for dinner.Since I didn’t know how to make mashed potatoes, I wrote to my sister, who just recently started eating them too and asked her how she made them (she her recent blog about this). She said just add some butter, milk and salt to the potatoes after they are soft and beat them really well so there are no lumps. This may seem quite clear to those of you who have made mashed potatoes before, but not to me. Since it was late at night when I got my sister’s email, I emailed Marsha and asked her how she makes them. Unfortunately, her response was the same – which was not helpful to me at all, so I wrote back for more clarification.
Thankfully, Marsha realized this wasn’t an email something and stopped me as I was heading to work to explain more. She was telling me about checking the potatoes to know they are done and says something about cutting them up. I said to her, “Oh, so I need to cut them up first?” She started laughing (not just a little chuckle, but really laughing hard) thinking this was an obvious something that everyone should know, but I had no clue, my plan was just to boil the potatoes whole. I admited to her later that it was only a little before this that I even thought that I should peel the potatoes (I have since learned that you don't need to peel potatoes for mashed potatoes, but most do). There are obviously somethings about cooking that I just have never been taught or learned or have seen done before.
Thankfully, for the Thompson’s, my response about needing to cut the potatoes made Marsha very aware that I had very little knowledge of what I was doing with the potatoes. So although I cooked them, Marsha provided lots of instruction and served as my taste tester. My calls became so frequent, that she just started coming over as soon as the phone rang. I was thankful for all her help, as they turned out quite well and we had a very nice dinner.
Rachel and Jordan - welcome home. Marsha - thanks for all that you do for me.
