spuds

the final night that i cooked on vacation was wednesday. it was like i was so relaxed and into being on vacation that i couldn't get inspired to cook... plus, i realized that it is amazing to take a nap on the beach right around 5 pm, and i was missing out on that cooking dinner every night..

wednesday was the night that wally and dianne came to have dinner with us. we had a "baked potato" bar. i got pretty interpretive with this..

i can't say that i have ever made a traditional baked potato. i have no idea how. my dad had this rack with prongs that you stab into the potato. i think that you are supposed to stab it with a fork so that it doesn't explode. i have vague memories of watching someone slather the spud in crisco before baking it. there were just too many unknown variables for making a baked potato the old fashioned way.

so i just went ahead and cut up a bunch of sweet potatoes and idahos and roasted them in the oven at 450 till they got some color. of course i rolled them around in oil, was liberal with the s & p and some red flakes. i also did a bunch of the little red potatoes bravas. crowd pleaser.

for the toppings there was chili. some cheddar cheese. sour cream. steamed broccoli. bacon.

it was good. and we had that corn that molly made.

and i really loved having dinner with dianne and wally. these are the kinda new york talkers that are seem trained in story telling. we covered everything from dianne's coincidental reunion with previously unknown half-family. lots of twists and turns in that one. and wally told us more stories about being a firefighter in NYC for 9/11. they add to the other's version with seemingly choreographed interruption.. it was magical.

i was stuffed, but we had picked up some cheerwine, a delicious beverage that is only really found in abundance down in those parts. we had it out at the whoop in waitsburg, so i knew what we were getting into... and we also got some vanilla ice cream and we made some floats and there is no other feeling like drinking a float. float bloat.