When it comes to cooking, my skillset is next to nothing. Of course, in the early days of our marriage, I got pretty good at preparing Mac & Cheese. If I remember correctly, it came in a blue box with a packet of powered cheese and all you needed was water to make it happen.
As a disclaimer, we outgrew our taste for the blue box of Mac & Cheese about 50 plus years ago. Of course, Mac & Cheese has made a resurgence in today's world, but it doesn't come packaged in a blue box. Personally, it is not something I have ever ordered in a restaurant, but I often see it on a menu.
I also vaguely remember frying chicken. I knew how to do that. I was also pretty good at fried okra and fried squash. Frying anything has become a lost art in today's world. It isn't considered healthy. All four of my grandparents lived until their nineties, and they didn't get the message about not cooking with grease. It was a staple for them.
When the General turned 40, I opted to throw her a surprise birthday party and invited about 40 people. I don't remember exactly how I got her out of the house, but she accompanied someone on a shopping spree somewhere and they were gone all day. When they returned around 6:00 p.m., we had a houseful of company.
"Sauté" is a word that comes to mind in describing that meal. The ingredients for a regular size serving included beginning with 10 slices of bacon in a very large pan. The bacon grease served as the foundation for sautéing a large quantity of bell pepper and onion before I added the shrimp. Eventually a large quantity of cooked rice got added along with a lot of spices including cayenne pepper. Added all together it becomes the catalyst to hear: "C'est vraiment/très bon."
I opted to use the same recipe the first time Andrea brought Kevin to dinner.
We had not previously met. I knew from what Andrea had told me that Kevin mostly grew-up in New Orleans. How could I go wrong with a recipe that would orchestrate the response of "C'est vraiment/très bon?"
When the General and I had an opportunity to move back to the hill country from West Texas in 2001, we initially rented a house in South Austin while we had a home built. We had already purchased the land.
For two and a half years prior to then, I had lived in Dallas. Actually, that wasn't really true. I had an office in Dallas and an apartment in Dallas, but I was seldom in Dallas. The agency I worked for had locations in twenty-five different places across Texas. Consequently, I was always in the field.
The General was still in Midland. When I took the transfer to Dallas, her dad was very ill and she opted to stay in Midland. With the travel my job required, I was seldom going to be home. Consequently, she felt moving to Dallas wasn't the best plan. In the course of the next couple of years, we met in Austin/Henly every weekend.
That seems like such a long time ago. Initially, finding a place to live while we had a home built was very difficult. There was only one place near Dripping Springs that we found that was for rent, and it was less than habitable. As I recall, that was 23 years ago. The rent was $1,700 a month and there was absolutely nothing about the house that was acceptable. It wouldn't work!
As our quest to find housing continued, the listing agent showed us five or six more homes and we were discouraged. The last place we looked at obviously had much more to offer. It was a relatively new home in a picturesque neighborhood in South Austin. The home had great curb appeal, and both the front and back yard were picturesque.
There was only one change to the house I wanted to make. I asked permission to change the color of the burnt orange living area to a more neutral color. Even though Andrea was a student at UT, the orange didn't work with our furnishings.
I moved into the house in time to begin work on July 1, 2001 at Texas Baptist Children's Home and Family Services in Round Rock. The General and our houseful of possessions followed two months later. Of course, the General was in Austin every weekend.
Years later, I asked Kevin if he had been anxious about meeting me? He smiled and said: "The invitation to meet a Baptist preacher was worthy of a little anxiety." Somehow, I was surprised by that confession. Of course, I think of myself as laid back and easy going. How could anyone have anxiety about sharing time with me?
Apparently, fear of the unknown is greater than fear of the known.
All My Best!
Don
No comments:
Post a Comment