Long, long ago at the Roses

It had been a hairy week at work.  I'm not sure why, other than I was recreating the feeling of being a grunt associate in private practice, staying late to finish a brilliant (or not-so-brilliant-but-maybe-with-another-hour-of-work-it-will-become-brilliant) brief, and racking up the billable hours.   It was, in my own twisted, sadomasochistic sort of way, a fantasy.

So there I was, Wednesday night, getting home late, long after my local pho shop closed, and my only options were to scrounge up something from the fridge or go to bed and start over in the morning.  Oh my!  What's this?  Lucky me!  Two thick pork chops, collard greens, fennel, and pancetta.  I'm not big on the pig, but I'm even less big on going to bed hungry, especially when I've been working hard.

"How would you like your pork chops prepared?" I asked Mr. Rose.

"I dunno.  I don't really like pork chops.  How would you recommend they be prepared?" he responded.

"I dunno.  I'm not really into pork chops either." I admitted.

"Well where did these come from?" he asked.

"The pork fairy," I replied, "the marvelous wonderful, pork fairy."

I opened my spice cabinet and found my fairy dust.

Five minutes later, I had two 10 oz pork chops cut about an inch thick, each wearing a rub of sweet paprika, powdered onion, garlic, chili powder, cayenne, salt, pepper and sugar.  There's something infinitely pleasing about a thick cut of meat dressed in a speckled coat of spices.

Excuse me while I step outside to preheat the grill and open a bottle of wine.

At 10:30 on a Wednesday night, I'm not a very good conversationalist until I'm on my second glass of wine -- it's an elixir of good conversation, a potion to lubricate the brain and the tongue.  Luckily, Mr. Rose had good dinner company as the pork chops took 18 minutes on the grill (ample time for the collard greens to have their ribs removed and to be sauteed with minced garlic, pancetta, and fennel, and most importantly, to sip indelicately on a juicy glass of wine).

We went to bed with full stomachs and happy hearts and slept happily ever after the alarm went off.

*the end*