Travels with Grumpus

Given his general curmedgeonliness, Grumpus is surprisingly easy to feed. Today’s lunch, for instance, was, by special request, hotdogs, scrambled eggs and fried rice. Dinner was our semi-regular “leftover night” - tonight we had two kinds of pasta and, uh, fried rice. Yup, left over from lunch.

Granted, my cooking skills have not been honed by marriage, unlike bandit, nor am I a gourmet/ kitchen genius, unlike ragamuffin girl. Still, within the narrow confines of my culinary repertoire I like to think I’ve developed a certain expertise. For instance, my tuyo pasta, sauteed in garlic and olive oil and seasoned with capers and red chili flakes is both tasty and filling; my longganisa “Heart Attack” pasta, sauteed this time in garlic, and three kinds of oil: the oil from the sausages, olive oil and butter, and again seasoned with capers and red chili flakes, is sure to give you a coronary: but at least you’ll die happy. I’ve even mastered the art of fried rice.

I’ve also heard it said that the secret to good cooking is first-rate ingredients. Applied to our household, this philosophy means tracking down the best hotdogs (the ones we had for lunch were some strange brand, and uncured, meaning no preservatives, meaning keep frozen). And although this doesn’t involve cooking, we’ve also tracked down some insanely delicious peanut butter. It’s so good that we’ve bought three kinds. And they’re so pretty I’m giving them their own picture.

Grumpus likes the chocolate one and I like the chunky one. We both love the cinnamon raisin swirl which has disappeared by the spoonful. We’re kids again.