Your House or Ours

Mike and Heidi are great friends and neighbors.  They invited us to dinner at their home, the week of February 4, 2017, to try a meal from Mike's new Peruvian cookbook.  It featured spicy beef over mashed plantains, garnished with sliced red onions and cilantro.  All was delicious except the mashed plantains, which didn't taste right because Mike and I were squeamish about mixing in the full allotment of bacon grease called for in the recipe.  Heidi, who grew up on a farm and knows how good lard can be, was incredulous.  "It's what makes pie crusts flaky and taste so good," she reminded us.  We have a lot to learn.

Mike and Heidi then joined us at our house for the Super Bowl, on Sunday, February 5, 2017.  We watched the New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons in overtime.  Dave and Mike rooted for the Falcons, but we were very aware that, out in Holladay, young Jono was delighted that the Patriots won.   He gained great loyalty to the Red Sox and Patriots while living in Boston.

The real fun of the Super Bowl, for me, is the food--fat and creamy and spicy.  Baked chicken wings dipped in hot sauce are the ultimate Super Bowl specialty, but I agree with Heidi that, "There's so little meat on them that it's hardly worth the trouble."  We substituted nachos with guacamole and salsa, chili with cheese and sour cream, and ribs dripping in barbecue sauce, washed down with root beer floats.  I wasn't up for the cheese ball decorated with pepperoni rounds to look like a football. Maybe next year....

While the Super Bowl thundered on, Heidi taught me to make fondant for chocolate-covered cherries. There is as much art to fondant as there is to pie crust, another of Heidi's specialties.  In the past, my fondant has always turned to sugar.  My first try with Heidi, it didn't turn to sugar, but it was rock hard.  Heidi patiently re-boiled the fondant, tested its doneness by dropping spoonfuls into bowls of cold water, stirred it for 20 minutes, and we were ready to dip our 90 cherries.