It's always a delightful time when the dinner table is filled with dear friends, and the cast of regular characters was on hand back on Friday the 13th as I rolled over into another year on this earth. It was a busy day from start to finish, which meant the supper could not be a grand affair. Instead, I think we were all comfortable with a couple of sheet pan beef nachos trays, along with a near-perfect lime crema. We all seem to dig that meal, and it's a bonus that it can be put together in short order.
While the pursuit of seconds seemed a universal condition for the six of us, we still found our way back to the kitchen later to partake of a house favorite dessert: Atlantic Beach pie. It's one of those temptations where the left brain knows the slice size is wisely proportioned but the right brain thinks it's not been drawn nearly large nor lifelike enough.
Pardon this personal rumination, that the occasion seemed to dredge up, but I'll try to keep it brief. To wit: I don’t know if the fact that my mother was a math and PE teacher, and my dad briefly a science teacher before taking his first principalship, is what explains the orderliness, precision, and symmetry of the birth order of my siblings and me. The girls are 12 years apart; the boys are 12 years apart; two years after the first girl came the first boy; two years after the second girl came the second boy. I am that last child.
Whereas the older pair were both born in November, my nearer-aged sister was born in May and I didn’t come along until September. I remember my mother saying my father’s first heart attack, around age 41 or 42, threw off the “plans” for the last child. I was supposed to be a May baby.
The second massive heart attack that killed my father occurred when he was 58, and on this latest birthday I rolled over to 59. I’m obsessive about order but this was a matter of symmetry that was happily unrealized.
Sheet Pan Nachos seriously modified from "Loaded Sweet Pork Sheet Pan Nachos," from Elyse of Six Sisters Stuff. [Published 14 March 2018]
Taco-Style meat depended partly on "Crispy Beef Tacos," by Hilah Johnson. From HilahCooking.com.
"Homemade Chili and Taco Seasoning," from Jamie Lothridge of MyBakingAddiction.com. [Published 03 February 2011]
"Easy Lime Crema," from Lisa Bryan of DownShiftology.com. [Published 22 April 2020]
"One Phenomenal Pie: Atlantic Beach Pie," from Chef Bill Smith. Published in Our State Magazine, May 2014. Also featured in "Found Recipes" on All Things Considered from National Public Radio, broadcast April 13, 2013. First made in the RoHo: July 2014.
2 comments:
Your rumination has made for some fine reading this afternoon. Thank you for sharing.
I do get a bit wound up sometimes, but I appreciate your willingness to indulge my indulgences!
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