use real butter

mom and dad in colonial williamsburg – a beautiful day

Jeremy started to feel pretty lousy this evening. I think all of his crazy work and travel (in addition to helping me with my freak out period of the past few weeks) has finally taken its toll. Jeremy hasn’t been sick in a couple of years, so I feel bad knowing that it was probably my fault. While he napped, I prepared dinner. Dad hovered over me because he (like me) has a tendency to think that I (he) doesn’t know what I’m (he’s) doing. It turned out just fine though! I made filet mignon with a port reduction sauce over parsnip purée with sautéed asparagus. I was worried they wouldn’t like the parsnip because you never know with my folks. They totally didn’t go for Thai food when I first introduced them to it, and my dad dislikes Mexican food… but they loved the parsnip and even want to use it for entertaining. Success! Dad served a fabulous 1990 Stags Leap cab with the meal.

the dinner i made for my folks

It’s kind of neat to trade entertaining recipes and techniques with my parents. They are such avid cooks and love to feed people. I am pretty sure this is at least 50% responsible for why I enjoy the same thing. Kris wasn’t an avid cook, but she had impeccable taste and knew how to throw a Good Party. Aside from being psychotic, hyper, loud, and garrulous, I suppose this is another thing that ties us together – food.

I’m sleeping fitfully at night, which means, not well. By the wee hours, my brain can’t think anymore and so the natural thing to do is go lie down and sleep. Except I go lie down and continue to write and make figures and revisit sections already written – all in my head. I wake every hour or so with clenched jaw and then I’ll remember that I still have to write things like a dedication, biography, and acknowledgements… I just might have a swig of booze tonight before I go to bed and see if that helps my sleep. Heck, it might help my writing too.

Because time is tight, our menu this week is filled with quick dinners that are the equivalent of junk food like hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta, tacos. I love that stuff and we don’t have it that often.

tacos tonight – yogurt instead of sour cream

Whenever I try to simplify my menu for entertaining, it always ends up leaving me with enough flexibility so that I go and try something new. I use my laptop and my cooking library for reference. Most of the day is spent on my mise en place, which, now that I think about it, is a good way to describe my approach to life in general.

was that 4 tablespoons of butter in that recipe?

**Jump for more butter**