The Watched Pots That Never Boiled --My Cooking Show Adventure

My turn onstage.

On Saturday, I was one of the presenters for The Really Big Cooking Show at Thanksgiving Point. It was sponsored by Covenant Communications, the publisher of my book, "Soup's On!"  There was a good turnout -- maybe 400-500 people. 

I cooked two soups during my presentation -- Turkey Pot Pie Soup and Loaded Potato Soup. Or, at least I tried to cook them. We had a two-burner electric hotplate to use for cooking.  We turned it on beforehand and it seemed to be OK. But when I turned both burners to "high," I think it caused them to short out, or lose power.  So, I was stirring away, waiting for my ingredients to start cooking and the broth to start bubbling.  The adage, "A watched pot never boils" was pretty true for me.

Karen Petersen of "365 Days of Slow Cooking"

I filled a few of those minutes by telling the audience about meeting Emeril and how excited I was that he called me by name -- until I looked down and saw that he was just reading my name tag.  And how Martha Stewart took photos of the audience on her show during the Pillsbury Bake-Off. I finally did an SOS shout-out to Kelly Smurthwaite Schumaker (the publicist who organized the event).  She came out with another hot plate to use. But I had used up my allotted time, so I said, "Sorry, folks, I can't finish cooking my soup!" and that was it.

Liz Edmunds, aka "The Food Nanny" 

Ironic that my recipes are so quick and easy to make, yet I wasn't able to finish them for the audience.
My son, Eric, was there, and he told me I did OK in talking with the audience and keeping them entertained. He's a theater/film major, and all the directors and coaches have told him over the years that you should never apologize if something doesn't go right, even if it's your fault. Interestingly enough, Julia Child wrote the same thing about food in her book, "My Life In France."  She said if you keep apologizing for your cooking, it will seem worse than it really is by calling attention to it.  But I can't help but feel a little sorry for how the event turned out.