Dinner

This came up today so preparation was nil. Joe's sister passed. I learned she lived here. Joe flew in, his family flew in, others drove in, they were busy together all day, I put together a dinner. Funeral tomorrow.

No pictures, sorry, I was busy, and it would be too rude.

* Dinner rolls merely flavored with the levain that is still bubbling away. Presently, pet-wise the levain is about Dalmatian size. The dough was fast and elastic, great oven rise, guests approved.

* Mixed green salad. You know, I'm not sure what to believe when people say so, then I guess I should let the empty plates say, the dressing is as good as I think it is and the vegetable combination is excellent. I have altogether what must be a couple of pounds of honey around here and that's a great twist on a vinaigrette but other variations are things similar to honey like raspberry preserves. I was out of everything except orange marmalade so I used that. The lettuce was iceberg and bib, the kind with the roots still on that you keep going by adding water to the cup.

* Pork chops generously seasoned salt and pepper, then baked. These turned out very good. They were like t-bones and people used knife and fork then picked them up and gnawed away digging at the bones. That was good to see. A lot of those are left over.

* A guest asked for horseradish for the pork chop. I don't have any. But that mustard mixed from powder has a very strong horseradish component to it, and I have a lot of that powder, so I go, "Watch this." Then we made the mustard together. The guest wanted to tap out a teaspoon or so and I go, "No, all of it." The whole can. Then a tablespoon of plain white vinegar not measured just estimated. Clearly not enough liquid. Filtered water to form a paste. Again with the mustard, the guests went nuts. Nuts. Nuts over this simple mustard. Its various unexpected aspects are noted. How is it that everybody is a mustard connoisseur? Usually people have difficulty picking out flavors, but this mustard is described specifically. Oh, the seeds too, they were from Whole Foods, but I do not think they are important. They are just texture enhancement. They, some of the guests, smeared the mustard all over the pork chop. Coated it. I tried doing that and scraped it all off. They could not take the jar with them but they wanted to. Or pretended convincingly that they wanted to.

* Pineapples quartered. This is an elegant presentation. It's a lot better to show it, so maybe I will later. Must have good pineapples, ripe with attractive tops, symmetrical as possible, sometimes hard to find those because in the field they grow all wonky in every direction and tops bend around tortuously this way and that. All that bending is disastrous for this quarter pineapple presentation so sometimes it only works for half of the pineapple and sometimes not at all. Slice in half straight down. Get the top in half and get the core in half. If you miss either top or core the thing is ruined. They must be half and half in equal parts. The more off that the two sides are then the worse that half of it will be. Slice each half in half the same way to produce four quarter sections sliced the long way. Using a sharp paring knife, cut out the center portion leaving the core intact. The whole point is to keep the core and the rind intact and remove the part you want to eat in one piece. Now you have this lovely quarter section of edible pineapple, perfectly trimmed of all the alligator-y stuff and the sword-like quarter pineapple top and the undisturbed length of quarter of the core are sitting there in one piece like it had surgery done on it. Slice the pineapple into chunks as you would as if it were a stack. Keep your pineapple chunks together, be sure to slice all the way through then put the whole section back complete from where you pulled it. That is, slip the edible portion back in. You thought that was fancy? This is fancy: gently push the first slice slightly out of position one direction or the other. It will slide. Then gently push the adjoining slice slightly out of position in the opposite direction. So, underneath the quarter core, alternate the slices zig zag zig zag zig zag. Then present it on a plate as if all that accidentally happened. I wish I could take credit for this but I saw it in a restaurant.

The beautiful green beans available today is what determined this meal. Everything followed from that as I made my way through the store. Once at home and bringing it together the green beans were superfluous so I blew them off.