Eat Me

John and Justin are coming over for dinner tomorrow and for a change, i'm cooking.

see, whenever we have friends or family coming over, stephen does most (if not all) of the cooking. it's rare that i get to cook for anyone but him just because...well...he's a much more diverse cook than i am.

i have a very limited repertoire which really only includes Italian staples (pasta sauces, pasta/vegetable dishes, 101 ways to make cutlets), "Asian inspired" meat/vegetable dishes and soup; don't scoff, i make a killer Chicken and matzoh ball soup.

Stephen, however, can cook Asian, Latin, German, Italian, and Greek, all off the cuff. he's a culinary McGuyver, i tell you, and i'm jealous as hell. Don't get me wrong, i can read a cookbook and follow a recipe to a tee and whatever i cook it will taste fantastic; i'm just not terribly creative in the kitchen like he is. he's also a master baker (hee hee...say that out loud) and turns out breads that could make a person weep, whereas i actively fear using yeast. His meals usually leave our friends and family satiated and impressed by his culinary ability. If i'm lucky, i can pick up a spare by making dessert: a cake, cookies or bars, but more often than not our guests offer to bring dessert so the meal gets complimented by one of Bri-the-Pie-Guy's fantastic cakes, pies or tarts or whatever my mom whips up (last week it was a Cranberry Upside down cake).

anyway, tomorrow night's menu will be Penne Vodka (which is one of my specialties and one of John's favorites) and a loaf of Stephen's fresh bread. I know, it sounds very simple, but what can you do? Justin is making a Bailey's Chocolate Cheesecake which i'm sure will outshine my dinner, and that's fine with me. i'm all for dessert being the main course.