On occasion, I get to fend for myself. The wife may be off visiting her sister or out shopping with the daughter. At any rate, I'm on my own for lunch. If I've got a heads up and can plan ahead, I'll do a little shopping for myself of things the wife doesn't like and won't eat. This past week I put together a sandwich I haven't had in years and it was even better than I remembered.
2 slices of rye (Pumpernickle) bread. Buttered
1 or 2 slices of Provolone cheese
Pastrami to taste, sliced from the from the deli counter
stack 'em all together and microwave on high for 30 seconds until the cheese just starts to melt.
add a little honey mustard and a couple dill pickle spears on the side.
served with a beer or wine of your choice and your good for the afternoon. Quick, simple, easy and nice cross section of bold tastes.
Once a year I do something similar with limburger cheese. Wife insists I prep and eat it outside. Says it stinks up the house. So on a nice evening in the fall of the year, it's me and the dog in the back yard. He thinks I'm a hero for the day.
Dark bread like pumpernickel, Buttered
Big slice of raw onion
enough slices of limburger to cover the sandwich
dill pickle slabs to cover the sandwich
another slice of buttered pumpernickel and your good to go.
Chase it with a Bold beer like Guinness Extra Stout.
A jar of chilled pickled pigs feet or pickled pork hocks to go with it.
Pie and coffee, or cookies and milk are okay, for a mid afternoon snack. But for a little taste kick, Gorgonzola or blue cheese or kippered snacks on crackers or a slice of stout Italian bread, washed down with a glass of wine that's not to dry is a nice change. Don't know where I got my tastes, no one else will eat these foods with me.
I'm thinkin' to myself "Good stuff, your loss!"
Oh well, it's only a couple times a year that I indulge myself. They all pack and keep well for a day trip or hike. The pastrami was originally formulated to keep meat before refrigeration. Though, I'm not sure I would push it more than a couple days on a hike.
It would seem that if someone is interested enough to hold membership in an organization, club, group, or forum that has it's roots based in learning, teaching, sharing self reliance such as this one they would want to have at least a basic knowledge of food, how to prepare it, and in such a way as to make it both nutritious and good tasting.
This reminds me of a funny but true story, the bride and I have seven children (all grown and with families of their own now), ten grandkids, and five great grand kids, all are wonderful, while I can't speak for my great grandkids they're still to little, but the rest of my clan either know their way around the kitchen or they are well on the way to learning, as it stands I only have two daughters that have mental blocks where cooking is required, both are bright, strong, and beautiful business oriented women, but neither can cook worth a $hitt, but that's another story for another day.
Todays story is about my youngest son, he's come a long way as far as food goes, but in his teen years he was a dumb as a post around the kitchen, I remember one time in particular when I was busy in my basement workshop working on some small project when my boy popped his head in the door of my shop (he was about 15 yrs. old at the time) and said "hey dad, I'm awful hungry, and mom's not around", being a bit annoyed at being disturbed in the middle of doing a time sensitive application I answered him by saying, "just grab a bowl of cereal for now, I'm kind of busy at the moment", to which he fired back, "but you know I hate to cook".
Just how much cooking is involved in pouring a little milk into a bowl of Coco Puffs ?