Three hours for three ingredients

Alex showed up at 2pm with a notebook and the most serious expression I’ve ever seen him wear for anything non-work related. “I want to learn this properly,” he announced, like we were about to perform surgery instead of making salsa verde. I had written up that simple guide like I promised, thinking we’d knock out the basics in an hour.

Three hours for three ingredients

Turns out Alex approaches cooking the same way he approaches everything at the gym - with complete dedication and zero shortcuts. He spent twenty minutes getting the tomatillo pieces exactly the same size, asked me to explain why we char them three different ways, and took actual notes on salt ratios. I kept trying to tell him it’s supposed to be intuitive, but he wanted measurements for everything.

Victory tastes like perfectly balanced tomatillos

When we finally tasted the finished product, his face went from skeptical to genuinely impressed. “This is way better than anything I’ve bought,” he said, immediately asking if we could tackle mole next weekend. I laughed and told him we’re definitely starting with something that doesn’t require seventeen ingredients. Baby steps, even for overachievers.