On Saturday the 29th was the big engagement/house warming party for Elizabeth and me. We got up early and quickly got cleaned up and made a last-minute pickup around the house to make the place look nice. Everything was going okay, the table was getting set with the snacky stuff, I was about to fire up old Betsy (my big man grill) and I was going to cook my butt off for everyone.
But then, it happened. The strawberries that we got for chocolate fondue later in the day were bad. So I had to run to the store to get them replaced. Just as I was leaving I saw our first guest arrive. It was Henry from church. I rolled my window down and told him I had to go to the store and that I would be back soon. As I went to the store I got a text from Elizabeth that people had started to show up and that I needed to hurry back. I was thinking maybe one or two people had shown up.
But when I got back to the house we had a good crowd of five to six people were there. Chris Koppenhofer and his family were some of the ones there, and I got a smile on my face when Chris showed me what he brought. It was a chocolate habanero. Chris has a love for the hot stuff greater than mine and whenever he goes down the the path of heat and pain, I must follow like a good apprentice.
But first, I had to get to work before my date with the fire. I fired up the grill and got to cooking. Once the grill was ready, I cooked up a huge plate of hot dogs and hamburgers. I love cooking on a grill. I think it really is a true guy thing to cook using open flame. I guess it just wakes up the caveman part of a guy to sear meat with fire. Fire good... cook meat.
During all of this we had the house blessed by a friend of ours named Macie. She did a wonderful job of doing the houseblessing. I was happy to go through the house room by room and get our home blessed. Then came the food for everyone to eat. I felt so good to see everyone enjoy the food that Elizabeth and I had made for them.
Then... Chris pulled me aside and asked me if I was ready to try the habanero. Ohhhh...yeah! You better believe it. He cut up the pepper on a paper plate and smiled at me. I was about to eat my first habanero! He put some on a hot dog and I put some on a burger. My God! The heat! The pain! The flavor! I loved it. Every single second of it I loved it. He said his mouth had gone numb from the pepper and I was right there with him.
Elizabeth asked us what we were doing and I told her the truth. She looked at Chris and called him the devil on my shoulder. Hmm... yeah. She got that right. We then went and put hot sauce and habanero on burgers and went for a second round. Mmmmm... the pain was good.
After the battle of heat and flavor I did my best to talk to everyone and be a good host. Elizabeth had made a slide show and burned it to a DVD for everyone to watch. It was pictures of her and me and the kids from the last two years, telling the story of our time together. The show finished up with our trip to Florida and the big day at Disney when I went down on one knee and proposed to her. Every time I saw that part I had to keep my feelings in check and try not to get misty-eyed.
Later in the day, I fired up the grill again and cooked pork steaks for everyone. The guests kept coming and I kept making the food. I didn't mind it at all. I will have to say that I had a wonderful time seeing everyone and cooking for them.
Elizabeth's friend Katie stopped by with her son and joined in on the fun. When she watched the slide show, Elizabeth pointed to the picture of me on one knee and said I tripped. I said that I did trip; I tripped on my heart for her. That got me a slight kick from Katie, who always says that I make her teeth hurt from my mush. Ehh...it was worth it. Anything for love and Elizabeth.
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