Cooking fun

 

Holiday view from my window

As I write, Jordan is making Christian’s request for dinner: taco salad with Catalina dressing. A bit ago, she asked if I would pull up a recipe. I told her we didn’t need a recipe. You just make some taco meat, dice tomatoes, grate cheese, drain beans, chop lettuce and mix it all together. She wanted something printed in her hand that would give her quantities. So she went to Pinterest, but when she was following the recipe, she complained it didn’t tell her how much lettuce. I said you just add it until you have enough. Cooking styles clash.

Taco salad

Since we’re quarantining and trying hard to make the holidays special and festive, I suggested we should have Beef Wellington on Christmas Eve. Jordan’s response was that it’s really hard to do. But I set off on an internet search for recipes. Found one I really liked, hit the wrong thing, and never could find it again. But I found recipes for hamburger Beef Wellington, a vegetarian version, and several that were close but not quite Cooking funright. Some called for paté, but I knew even the thought of paté would not sit well with either Jordan or Christian; most called for duxelles, that combination of mushrooms, shallots, thyme, and whatever—I like the idea of adding a bit of sherry.

Most recipes called for searing the meat, which sounded good to me. One or two suggested then rubbing it with mustard, such as Dijon. And the ones I liked called for laying out overlapping pieces of prosciutto on plastic wrap, putting the duxelles on that, and then wrapping it around the meat. Sounds good to me. I announced that I could put together a recipe from what I’d found. That scared Jordan. One recipe said 25 minutes prep time, 20 minutes cooking. I doubt that would happen here.

When Christian heard all this, he agreed it might be just as cheap to buy it already prepared. Jury’s still out, but the entire evening has suggested to me the difference in the way Jordan and I approach cooking. She wants a recipe; I’m willing to wing it. I must add that her taco salad, sort of made with a recipe, was delicious.

And last night she made a crescent-roll ring filled with pesto chicken. It was not a recipe I would have tried, but she followed the instructions and came out with a dish that was attractive and flavorful. We agreed to put it on what she calls the rotation list.

Pesto chicken in a 
crescent-roll ring

What I do think is that we’re lucky that we can eat so well with such a variety during pandemic. It’s one thing that has kept us from staring mindlessly at the TV and given us an occupation that interests us. I’m learning a lot more about food as we go, and I’m sure Jordan is too. Christian, who sometimes cooks for us, is also the beneficiary of what we fix. Jacob would just as soon have mac and cheese, but I hope that’s a passing phase.

Aside from cooking, life goes on in our little compound. As the picture above shows, Jordan has us all decorated for Christmas. Jacob has virtual school until early afternoon, and today he had a golf lesson. Jordan keeps after her travel business, does all our errands including grocery shopping, and keeps the household running. And I sit at my computer and write—some days it goes better than others, but today was a good day, and I think I nailed the first chapter of Irene in Danger, sequel to Saving Irene.

I’m hopeful as 2020 draws to a close about the vaccine and about a new presidential administration. 2021 is bound to be better if we can all just hang on until then.