It has been a reasonably quiet week with us as Diana continues to move 
around pretty gingerly on her injured left foot. The pain is certainly a lot less than it was last weekend but she still can’t rotate her foot on its vertical axis at all (no yaw is possible in McD’s foot). One more week and then she’ll see the doctor if it’s not a lot better. I’m enjoying grocery shopping and a few other tasks that are normally in Diana’s domain while she tries not to walk too much.
“Who reads at 5am?” was Alicia’s question when she came in our bedroom to say goodbye on her way to early morning band practice. We chuckled. She doesn’t enjoy reading and so was incredulous that I would be engaging in such a boring activity so early in the day. I was trying to make some progress on “4321” by Paul Auster – I’m really enjoying the 4 different versions of Ferguson’s life that are set off by slight differences in life choices in the first chapter – but it is very slow going.
Diana met me at the Cowboys Club on Wednesday afternoon and we watched the team practice from the Quarterback Corner area. We noticed a couple of the passing plays from practice in the game today against the Los Angeles Rams. Unfortunately the Cowboys lost the game after a very strong first half and an opportunity to win in the last two minutes.
On Saturday we made an impromptu decision to attend a celebrity cooking demonstration and lunch at the Granada theater. First time either of us had been to anything like this and we were very pleasantly surprised. Chef John Tesar was quite the character, with an endless supply of stories from his years in the kitchen and on shows like Top Chef and Restaurant Wars. The first course was risotto with duck confit and wild mushrooms. The duck confit preparation technique was quite interesting and the risotto delicious. Everyone’s name was placed in a hat for a raffle at the end of the event and I was lucky enough to be 
pulled out in time to claim a huge tray of the risotto. It has been a nice accompaniment to football watching today. The main course was Beef Wellington with dauphinoise potatoes – also very good but a huge palaver to cook. I looked up palaver just now to make sure I was spelling it correctly (it’s a West of Scotland word meaning a lot of fuss and bother) and was surprised at how many fake definitions there are published on the internet. Lunch ended with the pastry chef from Tesar’s “Knife” restaurant demonstrating his special technique for chocolate mousse – again very good but quite rich after the first two decadent courses.
Tesar was the chef at the Mansion on Turtle Creek (a famous Dallas fine dining institution) in 2007. He replaced the well-known chef Dean Fearing and lasted two years before moving on to several other opportunities. Until the last few years (when it appears he may have matured and settled down just prior to turning sixty) the consensus in the Dallas restaurant trade was that “he’s a talented chef, but he’s also a narcissistic sociopath with his calloused index finger always hovering above the self-destruct button”. That personality was certainly evident as he told stories while demonstrating amazing technique.
In his book, “Kitchen Confidential”, Anthony Bourdain writes, “Tesar was probably the single most talented cook I ever worked with—and the most inspiring. … His food—even the simplest of things—made me care about cooking again. The ease with which he conjured up recipes, remembered old recipes (his dyslexia prevented him from writing much of value), and threw things together was thrilling to me. And, in a very direct way, he was responsible for any success I had as a chef afterward. …”
Thankfully the lunch portions of all that decadence were pretty small since we had been invited to Patty and Brent’s home for dinner. Dinner was delicious as always with both of us wishing we’d had better self-control when presented with such yummy fried cheese as an appetizer. Brent administered a “Love Languages” quiz on us. This is from a book from a few years back that talks about how people prefer a couple of the five common “love languages” – Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, Touching, and Quality Time. Diana and I guessed each other’s preferences and then took the test. She did a much better job of guessing my languages than I did hers. Quite an entertaining evening as usual.
“Love is Like Oxygen” by Sweet transported me back to 1978 this week on my commute. I can remember watching the band lip sync to this song on Top of the Pops. I really like the initial syncopated guitar riff and the high vocal harmonies. It reminds me of “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. What’s special about that song? I’ll give you a couple of minutes to ponder while you watch Top of the Pops or listen to the song…
Ready? It was the first song ever played on MTV. I know – those are precious brain cells that I could be using to store something useful.
Now for something from a totally different genre and time – I really enjoyed “Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t Ma’ Baby” by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five form the 1950s swing era.