No, not to eat! Well, not to cook for myself. I mean, if someone served up some roasted guinea pig I’d munch the little rodent. No, what I mean is that it’s nice to have someone to cook for.
My friend came up for the holiday weekend. She’s just left on her long trek home. After her similar journey on the way up, I served her Shaved Roast Beef Salad. She liked it enough to ask me for the recipe. Friday morning I made a classic American fry-up – Bacon, cooked and chopped, diced potatoes and onions fried in some of the grease, the bacon added back in, and eggs ‘poached’ on top. Saturday I made strawberry crêpes. I’ve made crêpes before, but never with filling. I just sliced a bunch of strawberries, added some sugar, and let them sit in the fridge overnight. I made her two, and also made another crêpe folded into quarters and drizzled with lemon juice. Powdered sugar was sprinkled over them with a sieve, and the strawberry ones got whipped cream.
I didn’t cook dinner Friday night. Instead we went to CJ’s Beach House for ‘8 ounce’ prime rib. Those slabs of meat had to have been at least 12 ounces. Maybe a full pound. I didn’t complain. Leftovers are good. (Hm… I think I know what I’m having for breakfast.) Saturday we ate dinner in Seattle (excellent oysters on the half-shell, and some mediocre fish’n’chips). Sunday we only nibbled for breakfast. I made myself a gravlax smörgas, and she had a banana and milk. For dinner I fired up the charcoal grill (Thanks, needscoffee!) and made rib eye steaks, corn on the cob, and BBQ beans. I’d have liked to make her a French omelette this morning, but she didn’t want anything heavy before her trip. Next time!
For drinkage she had Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve, and I had Longboard Lager. I did introduce her to Mack & Jack and Manny’s ales, which she liked. She said I could spoil her on those. I also had 750 ml of Johnnie Walker Red that’s been sitting unopened for at least a year, and we picked up a bottle of Black & White since I’d been wanting to see why Mr. Eckland liked it so much. We should have finished off that bottle of Laphroaig, but we didn’t get to it.
Since I’ll eat anything I make, I’m not a good judge. But the beef salad and the crêpes and the fried breakfast were hits. (So were the rib eyes, but they don’t count. They were just steaks.) So thanks to my guinea pig for eating what I made – and liking it! 