My daughter called today,
actually this evening as I was making dinner. She was on the road I'm not
sure where from but on the way home. There's something weird with my
phone. I picked up some app somewhere that flashes to announce a
phone call. It always takes me by surprise and somehow I can't work
the answer mechanism the right way and I dropped the call. Usually
it's not a big deal because all the calls that I get are come ons or
mechanical calls. Stupid calls that I don't care if I drop. However
this calls from Shelley and I've been thinking of her a lot over the
weekend and today.
I was in the middle of
making a dish I call Frank, named for Frank Bonacore, a
roommate I had 40 some years ago. I think i've written about Frank
somewhere before in some of the 2000+ blogs I posted. Frank is
essentially chicken stirfry. I had chopped celery, onion, green
pepper gone red and ginger. Yesterday I fried chicken legs and had two
left over that I stored with the rice I'd made. I separated the
chicken meat from the bone and combined that meet with the vegetables
been added the rice. I was stirring the concoction when Shelley
called. Magic.
When the kids and I all
lived together, Frank was a staple. I don't know how much the kids
like Frank but they all seem to like it enough to get by for dinner.
Frank was basic, relatively cheap to make and produce. It seemed like
a little bit of ingredients produced a lot of dinner. Shelley,
remembered the dish fondly which made me feel good and admitted that
she had not made the dish in sometime. So long in fact she was not
sure of the kids would eat Frank since this was basically vegetables.
She said she might throw together a batch. I suppose she said that
made the old man feel good – – however Shelley is smart and she's very, very
practical and if nothing else Frank is very practical.
Shelley was driving home
from work, she was on the back roads, the scenic route. I think she
wanted someone to keep her company for the drive home. Besides,
calling the old man is part of the job when you're a kid. Probably
not a pleasant job but a job one has to do to be a good child and
Shelley is a good child. So, call the old man having some company for
the long ride home is killing two birds with one stone and doesn't
get any better than that. We talked and talked I stirred and stirred,
I was a little worried about rice blending together. But I cooked the rice yesterday I think I used too much liquid and the rice was
kind of mushy but it seemed to pick up nicely with the chicken and
vegetables. I really liked the aroma of Frank when it's cooking it's
almost Asian and I like that. We talked about Shelley's work and her
challenges with your new job. We talked about her mom and the kids
but we basically just talked. Once during a conversation we dropped the
call completely and I called back and we seemmed to get better
reception after that. Traffic was light because it was the
back roads. She was not having Frank tonight probably just
McDonalds but the girls wouldn't care take out almost always beats
home-cooked when you're a kid. That is just the way it is when your kid golden arches
over fallen arches always wins.
Shelley finally had to end
the call because she was coming into a more populated area with more
traffic and she had to pay attention to her driving and I finished
Frank for the evening. We said our goodbyes and I thanked her for
thinking of me and remembering the old days when Frank fed us all.
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