The Almost Throwdown with Bobby Flay

My Mom met Bobby Flay this weekend in Charleston! He signed some cookbooks for my Mom (and for me!) and they chatted a bit. It could have ended there, without Flay ever knowing that he had been in the company of a Pressure Cooker Goddess. But anyone who has tried her Spaghetti with pressure cooked Italian sausage, meatballs, and tomato sauce knows this is a dish worthy of a throwdown victory. My Mom planned to jokingly challenge Flay to a pressure cooker throwdown.

I'm not exactly sure what happened because my Mom FROZE. As in, deer in the headlights, face bright red, etc. She was apparently able to make a Throwdown challenge but it all came out wrong. Italian sausage (the most important part!) was never mentioned. My Mom remembers saying something about spaghetti and meatballs and Bobby Flay said "you cook spaghetti in a pressure cooker??" This only made her frozen state worse, so she couldn't even clarify that only the meat and sauce is pressure cooked. She ended up mumbling something about meatballs and then moved along.

I haven't stopped laughing since she first told me the story. I know that makes me a terrible daughter, but I can't help it. It's classic Eileen. And it's pretty much exactly what happened to her during another brush with fame years ago. Mom, please forgive me...

My Mom was was on the Price is Right years ago (when I was in high school) and it is still an unpleasant subject. She was kind of duped into going and was told it was unlikely she would actually get called down. Of course, she was called to "come on down!" and immediately went numb, remembering very little about what happened next. We have the whole thing on VHS tape and like to remind her every now and then. She didn't make it past the neon bidding podiums and still blames this on the trickery of a tennis racket display and unnecessary intimidation by Bob Barker himself.

Both of these stories are hilarious to me because my Mom just isn't the type of person who would ever freeze up in real life. But somehow Bobby Flay and Bob Barker made her unable to think or speak clearly.

So, I played around with Photoshop to see if this picture would be her worst nightmare. I had to do it Mom, it was too easy! Do I still get my cookbook????