On Our Own - Chapter 2

This is turning out to be easier than I expected…

Just about the time I was throwing away the metal plate for the electric grill after lunch on Sunday, (amazing what some common kitchen utensils will do to the “never great anyway” Teflon coating), the phone rang. It was “Guitar” John wanting to know if The Emmer and I were going to dinner at Too Timing, Too Tall’s and Karen’s place?

“Didn’t know she was puttin on the dog and that we were invited?”, I said.

Turns out Karen’s a fan of the Pioneer Woman’s blog and she wanted to try out a lasagna recipe she saw on Pioneer’s blog the other day. I told Guitar that it was lucky he caught me because I was just starting preparations for a real exotic dinner I had planned for Emmer and I and that once I got into the intricacies of this creation I wouldn’t be able to just stop. (After all, once the can opener breaks the seal you can’t undo it. It’s not like you can put it back in the freezer or anything.) Since he did catch me in time, however, I’d be glad to lend my expert opinion to the matter of lasagna.

Guitar and his better half, Pic-E, picked up Emmer and I about 5 pm and we proceeded to Karen and Two Timing, Too Tall's place. It was a delightful spring afternoon and while Guitar and Two Timing, Too Tall, were out on the deck discussing the relative merits of electronic lockers on their Jeep Rubicons, I delighted the ladies with talk of Julienne, basting, reductions and such. They were frankly amazed at my grasp of culinary niceties. I actually held myself back some as I didn't want to overwhelm them with this unseen side of me.

After a while we proceeded to the table and sampled Lasagna ala Pioneer Woman. I must admit it was terrific. All the while I was enjoying the eats I was thinking, that's 2 dinners down only 5 more to go! I made sure I complimented Karen on her faithful rendition of a new classic and told her that I couldn't have done better myself! Normally a statement like that is guaranteed to bring an offer of "There's plenty left, you MUST take some home with you."....which would have been dinner #3 by my calculation, but for whatever reason Karen didn't rise to the bait.

As we were driving home I realized that I have a business trip for Tuesday and will be in New Orleans Tuesday night and back late Wednesday night! That's two more nights that require no magic on my part....I'll even get to go to a really nice restaurant Tuesday night.....I'll show Emmer a thing or two about WE.

I do have to work some magic tonight so I'd better get going. I think the microwave is clean enough so I won't start a fire if I use it tonight and I got all the big pieces off the sides of the oven so that's good to go too.............Stay tuned.

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