December 11 Best Meal

December 11, 2011 Prompt:

Best Meal

What is the best meal or best food that you have eaten all year? 

A story about my favorite sandwich;

Good food and a gracious cook can lead to being unceremoniously removed from a perfect living situation if you are not careful. One thoughtless comment about a fabulous dining creation is a dangerous utterance. When you are a freeloader who is clueless to all socially acceptable behavior and you are living among civilized people there is bound to be misunderstandings, and questionable behavior. Regardless of your unique inability to live with others, when a culinary sensation is being raved about by your host you should be in agreement.

Let me set the table so to speak. We heard of a  young man who attended OIT and  was doing an internship at ADEC the local largest employer here in our home town, of Newberg, Or.  He was from Greshem Or. and felt it would be a rather lengthy and costly commute to Newberg daily. He was looking for a place to stay free or cheap. He came from a rather large family and money was tight so, we were feeling generous, we had a nice home and room to spare so why not help out a kid who is trying to get a head, we would want someone to extend that generosity to our kids.

The agreement was he could live here for free if he would take care of our two, beautiful, like one of the  family, standard poodles, when we went to Spokane for  a week for our sons college graduation. Turns out he is afraid of the dogs, hates the dogs, refused to let them in the house, and could not bring himself to touch the raw chicken that they are fed. I brought in another house sitter for that week, much to our house guests surprise at a bonus cost to me of two hundred dollars.

We made numerous accommodations for him; cleared out space in the garage for his bike, finished a guest house in the back yard, which he promptly told me he would not have painted it the soft yellow color I had chosen, nor would he have put an entire wall of dry erase board in the structure. Ok opinions are good to have. We left our back door unlocked for him to gain access to our home. He used my sewing machines, no one is ever allowed to touch my sewing machines or my sewing scissors, but I graciously granted him permission. He was making jeans. He made jeans no bigger than a 34 inch waste but they were custom designed and he had a target market in mind. Skinny ass boys if you ask me but that did not matter to me. No one in our family has worn smaller than a 36 in the past 7 year.

There were other things, he wanted; an air conditioner for the guest house, no problem we can accommodate, if we were lucky we could find a narrow one that would fit the window. No such luck we would have to buy a free standing one. They run about $300. He was ok contributing half if we were to purchase a $100 unit, but he was not interested in contributing toward the expensive one. Mind you he is making $10 an hour working 40 hr a weeks and not paying any kind of room and board. You might think out of a sense of gratitude he might want to contribute. We chalk it up to immaturity; we are willing to accommodate him.

He loved to sing, he would bring out his guitar and sing beautifully, it was calming, much like when David played for King Saul, I truly enjoyed it during waking hours. But he also sang at the top of his lungs, at 7am as he was getting ready to leave for work, he had a beautiful voice, but it was 7 am. We politely asked him to take into consideration those still sleeping in the house. He came home at 11 pm and did the same vocalization; once again, we had to ask in to refrain from singing.

The La- Z- Boy chairs are focused directly in front of our big screen HD TV. These are “mom and dad’s” chairs, yes we have the best seats in the house, we own the house and we bought the chairs so why shouldn’t they be there? We ask you to respect that they are our chairs and not sit in them. This was the discussion that we had prior to his moving in. There are two couches and a plush glider rock in the same room as our chairs. Either of those sitting arrangement are comfortable and not ours, so make yourself comfortable, enjoy! But where did I find our house guest every time I came home? His size 32 plunked in my chair, with my purple La-Z-boy pulled forward 3 feet and a plate of food, that I had cooked earlier, placed in his lap. No one eats in my chair but me! But I was willing to tolerate I mean accommodate.

Food preparation was something I worked hard at, two months of being a contentious cook and preparing meals that were balanced per the government standards I was really getting in the groove. For the first time in years, there was a meal on the table, or served up buffet style every night. Always including a lean meat, two vegetables, a starch be it a grain or flour product, it was there. Several times our guest requested or hinted could you maybe make some more vegetables, you might want to add some spinach to this, or you might want to have some broccoli with that.  There was an aggressive attempt to make a fare that had plenty vegetables and was sumptuous and low calorie so as to enable that 32 inch waste to remain, who knows maybe we could benefit too, I was willing to accommodate.

But the meal in reference was a wonderful night of creation. Winco grocery in Tigard, sells a fantastic roasted garlic deli turkey. The rich savory flavor was something I had never experienced, so flavorful, distinct in all flavors, salty turkey, pepper, and garlic, so tender and juicy, it made your mouth water. They also sell a wonderful, firm, pink Italian roast beef deli meat. The mingling flavors of rosemary and basil is exciting. With the desire to be creative and blend the flavors of some of my favor things I created a sandwich that I felt was outstanding. Fresh tender Cibatta bread, sliced through the middle horizontally opened up to show its tender holy sides, so butter could be bathed over it, then pushed in the oven to warm up so it would be ready to receive the meat. Then there was a succulent layer of garlic turkey, an aromatic layer of Italian roast beef. Caprazia inspired alternation of thin sliced fresh vine ripe tomato, sliced fresh tender, water packed, mozzarella and fresh from the plant, basil leaves. Gently placing the side’s together completing the sandwich.

Our house guest was not home once again, at dinner time to receive my heart filled creation. So there was a selfish debate in my mind that then it slipped out my mouth. Should I cut this loaf in fourths or thirds? It looks and smelled so fresh and good, I was leaning to the thirds. But in an effort to accommodate, I cut it in fourths. We sat down in our respective chairs in front of the TV, and sunk our teeth into my creation. Spilling out of the corners of our mouths were raves of how incredible, delicious, amazing and wonderful this tasted. It truly was a new creation that would make a repeat visit to my kitchen. I had made a hit and that did not happen often.

Upon our guest late return, he sheepishly and rather effeminately asked if the remaining sandwich was for him. In my cheeriest June Cleaver voice I chimed, “yes it is, I think you are going to enjoy this, it is really out of this world”.  He made his plate and joined us, we were still raving about how amazing this sandwich tasted. A simple inquiry of his opinion on the sandwich invoked a sense of indignation in me. His response was, it is ok, but I think it needs some sort of crunch, I think I will add some cucumber.” He stood up to walk in to the kitchen.

This was the last straw, I had run out of accommodation. I could not imagine trying to please this ungrateful person for a minute longer. I told my husband he must go, tonight! The notice was given for him to be gone by 4pm Saturday. He had the nerve to ask if he could stay until Sunday evening. He had no idea what he had done, and I think that was pretty much the problem for the past 2 months and I could not stomach another minute of it.