Reverb 10 - Prompt #26

December 26 – Soul Food. What did you eat this year that you will never forget? What went into your mouth & touched your soul? (Author: Elise Marie Collins)

Holy Blogging Hiatus, Batman!  Now that the holidays are over and done with and 2011 has officially started, it's time to finish my Reverb 10 prompt responses. 

I know this might sound absolutely insane, but the one thing that I ate this year that I will never forget was a chicken salad sandwich.


Hungry yet?

{Insert long awkward silence, sarcastic eye rolls, and choir of crickets chirping here.}

Let me set the scene and this may make more sense.  Comanche (the boyfriend) had invited me to go on a top secret date at the very beginning of our relationship.  All I knew was that he was going to pick me up and take me wherever we were going and that I needed to be ready and wearing athletic, comfy clothes.

This was challenge enough for me because everyone knows that when you first start dating, you want to look gorgeous ALL THE TIME.  Flaws?  I know I don't have any.  (Okay, that's me just trying to pump myself up, but you know how it is - you want to be your best all the time while things are still new and you are still nervous.)

I did accomplish the athletic clothes and tennis shoes (farewell, high-heeled peep toes) much to my dismay.  Then, Comanche got to my house and picked me up and away we went.  We drove for more than half an hour and kept getting closer and closer to the mountains, so I was able to deduce that a hike was going to occur.  I was excited about that, though!

We got to the trail parking lot and got settled and Comanche told me to leave my things in the car.  He, meanwhile, grabbed a backpack.  We started on our way up the mountain, and it truly was gorgeous.  It was pretty warm and balmy, but not to the point where you were intensely uncomfortable.  We took turns taking the lead and went up the winding trail and weathered staircases.  We stopped at certain points to check out the waterfalls and views.

After we made it a quarter-mile up, Comanche started to look around, and he saw a wooden overlook point.  He walked up to it and looked around as though he was assessing the scene and then proceeded to climb down around the overlook onto a large rock located directly beside the waterfall.  He helped me down and then proceeded to unpack a picnic lunch.

It was amazing how thoughtful it was - he thought of everything!  We had a candlelit picnic on a mountain beside a waterfall - I mean, really people?!?!?  Yep, that's my unicorn! 

Because he wasn't sure if I'd like the way he'd made the main course chicken salad sandwiches (he'd picked up on my selectiveness regarding food), he had prepared a second sandwich for me (a peanut butter and jelly sandwich fixed just the way I do it) as a backup.  Yeah, I've got a pretty good situation going, if I do say so myself, and I wish you could have seen my face when he mentioned the second sandwich.

So, while it sounds crazy that I would credit a chicken salad sandwich with being my soul food, that's exactly what it was. My soul learned in the moments while eating that sandwich that there are people who will take time on you.  Those people will put in effort to make you happy.  Those people will go an extra mile (or extra PB&J sandwich) to ensure that you will want for nothing. Those people will pay attention when you speak and then use that information to help you later.

I'm curious - have any of you had any "soul food" that you'd like to share?  Feel free to toss out the recipe if you have it!  :)

Until next time,