[thenightwriterblog] The Night Writer: The best meal I ever had

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Posted by The Night Writer:
The best meal I ever had
http://thenightwriterblog.powerblogs.com/posts/1171466820.shtml


   Buffy at [1]Plain Simple English is wondering what special dinner to
   make for her guy for Valentine's Day. It sounds as if he doesn't use
   the V-Day gifts she's given him in the past (and they're nice ones),
   so I guess the thinking is that if she cooks he's at least got to eat
   it. She's asking the ladies for tips on great meals they've put
   together.
   I'm not one of the ladies, which is probably just as well because my
   most memorable meal isn't that high on "fancy" or "special." Here's
   how it went, though.
   We were living on the East Side of St. Paul, back when the Mall Diva
   was just the Diva and Tiger Lilly was little more than "'Ger". I was
   taking the bus to and from work, with a three block walk to the bus
   stop from our house (no, it wasn't uphill both ways). It was an
   especially cold and windy day in the middle of a Minnesota winter and
   the walk home that evening was directly into the pointy teeth of the
   wind. My office hadn't gone to "corporate casual" yet so I had on a
   suit, my professional wool overcoat, a snappy suede fedora and a scarf
   around my neck and under the lapels of my coat. This is theoretically
   sufficient for your urban commuter, but hardly what you'd take along
   for an arctic expedition, which was what my walk felt like it was
   turning into. The pain only abated a little when my cheeks went numb
   about a block from the house.
   I made it to the back door, lunging directly into the kitchen as if
   bursting through a snow drift ... and was enveloped in the warm cloud
   of dinner coming off of the stove. Mmmmm, breaded pork cutlets, right
   out of the skillet with mash potatoes, gravy and (ambrosia!)
   sauerkraut to spread over the top of the cutlets. The cutlets
   themselves were perfectly crisped on the outside and succulent on the
   inside; the mashed potatoes had just the right, satisfying degree of
   lumpiness, and the bright, shiny faces of my young family around the
   table were the perfect complement to my own chapped cheeks.
   When I think about "good eating", that's what I remember.

References

   1. http://www.buffyholt.com/blog/2007/02/14/v-day/