the love of a lifetime

Sometimes I stumble across a recipe and think, "I have to make that.  Now."  I am inspired and totally captivated by its food profile, its picture and it's utter yummy-ness.  I start salivating and get tunnel vision until I cook.  This picture did me in just like that. 

This is Chicken Tikka Masala by Pastor Ryan from Pioneer Woman (picture and recipe).  It looks absolutely divine!  It doesn't help that I heart heart heart Indian food.  I LOVE IT!.  Did I mention I love it?!  Cause I love it!  Okay, you get the picture.  So when I saw this recipe, I was like, "YES!"  Indian food, finally.  And a recipe, with step by step pictures, Indian food is finally accessible.  So I ran around like mad for a couple of days trying to gather all the ingredients.  Indian food btw, has a LOT of ingredients.  A week rather, I was still missing the most important ingredient, the key component to all this, Garam Masala, a spice blend.  I was absolutely miserable.  So close to making one my favorite foods in the world and I am one ingredient away from finding it.  As a cook, you're suppose to be able to 'make due' and substitute but that just wouldn't work in this situation.

Friday rolls around and Louis and I usually do something fun to commemorate making it through another week of school/work.  We go out to dinner or rent a movie, ya know, relax!  So I'm all pout-y and upset about my recipe and he asks me what I wanna do that night.

Like the mature lady that I am, I sob "Find Garam Masala!"  I've lost it at this point I'm so upset over the whole thing.  He lets me cry on his shoulder and sighs.

"Alright baby.  We'll go find your spice."

"NO! That's no way to spend our Friday night.  Besides, you HATE Indian food."

But my dear dear husband in his selfless love, explained to me how this was obviously important to me and how he wanted to do what I wanted to do.  So I conceded.  We scourged Houston for the next 2 hours looking for this stupid spice.  We went to Fiesta (his idea, I don't know why he thought it would be there), several Walmarts, a few specialty shops and Target.  We did everything except go into Southwest Houston where they were sure to have some there!  (At a real Indian store and all).  We finally gave up after Target where I found a bottle of Tikka Marsala already made up, I just had to pour it over chicken.  Not quite the same, but I've given up at this point.

So I didn't really make the recipe from scratch like I wanted.  And the bottled sauce wasn't all that great either.  But I ate it nonetheless and my appetite for Indian food was satiated.  But most of all, my favorite person in the whole world showed me once again that I am more important to him than himself.  And that, is the love of a lifetime.  For the many ways that you show love to me, I love you back.