Today, I made a tikka masala paste for the first time. Planning on making chicken tikka masala with it for dinner tomorrow. Possibly some onion bhajis and naan. I remember the first time I made Indian food. LOL!!! That was a joke! I was almost tempted to never try again. But I knew that Jesus had called us to the nation, and thus I must conquer my inadequacies. My chicken was too hot, my kheer was undercooked (despite cooking for about 2 hours), and the rice and veggies were just plain unacceptable. For many times after that, my family groaned in fear of my attempts. But, as with all practice, I got better. I actually have some requested family favorites now. It helps to have a few good recipes too! I tried to make naan almost 10 times before I got it right, with the right recipe of course. Tandoori has always been pretty easy, but I have pretty much perfected my own recipe. I've also learned how to cut down some of the cooking time, by prepping everything first. It's hard to go from using basic salt/pepper/garlic salt, to using a whole host of other spices that I really had never heard of. But, I've become pretty well-versed in spices, pulses and various terms that are used in Indian cooking. I'm so thankful God helped my family to have grace on me during my early days. I think it was just a small tangible taste of His grace on my life.