The Great Taste Challenge (Revisited)

   It's been several months since I had entered the contest for the best food pairing with the Santa Margherita Wines. I had entered my Marghermeata Pizza to pair with their Chianti that racked up nearly 100 votes. The pizza is still an awesome pizza, no doubt, had they tasted it I would've won a few more votes even from the staff, I think. I believe the person who won collected some 5 or 6 thousand votes. So to put it in perspective, had this been a Presidential race it would have been close so long as Al Gore wasn't involved. I haven't thought about it much except to answer people's questions as to whether I had won or not.
   Today the UPS truck rumbled up in front of the house with a package. The doorbell rang, the relay doorbell rang too and Presley barked and I got up to see what had arrived. Thinking it had been some calcium pills that Sheri had ordered for me I felt the soft packaging and decided this must not be the calcium pills. I saw the return address and still didn't make the connection to the contest.

  Last summer I had done a mural painting on masonite boards for a woman who wanted a scene above her stove of her sister's winery down in Santa Barbara and immediately I thought it had something to do with her or her sister's winery. Upon opening it, it had a nice card that read: "Thank you so much for your submission to the Santa Margherita Great Taste Challenge Contest." The card went on to say my video didn't make it to the semi-finalist round etc. but here's a token of our appreciation. In a fine mesh wine gift bag that sparkled was an apron displaying their logo and the Great Taste Challenge 2010! Wow! I thought I had been used, abused and put out to snooze. A little gesture like this is worth mentioning I think, especially after watching numerous episodes of Gordon Ramsay's Master Chef who make the losers turn in their aprons before disappearing into obscurity. I will wear mine proudly and when people ask how I did in the competition I will say, "I lost by fewer votes than the last Presidential race." I wonder if Al Gore got an apron when he lost his race?