Week Eight: Aaron and Ana

The darkness comes and the darkness goes. My month of sickness was coming to an end, but with it, the start of a new sickness for my wife. Despite a regime change of mucus dictators, things were looking up in the household. The boxes were finding their way out or unpacked, everything was a tad bit cleaner and we had a couple coming over who was already proven in the double date game: Aaron and Ana.



Erica and I know Aaron and Ana from the local music scene. Aaron is part of a local rap conglomerate called FATED EMPIRE, which includes my good friend Desmond who does the bulk of my artwork for shirts, stickers and albums.

Further research on their crew's material can be found at their website: http://http://fatedempire.com/

Aaron and I have gone to several of each other's shows, as performers and audience members, off and on, with the company of our wives for a few years running. Aaron and Ana got married last August, right on the back end of my tour with the Slow Dance boys (the vocalist from this group is Aaron from Week 4). That tour ended in my third tour van breakdown and was resolved by a rental U-haul escape. As a result, I landed back home at an unexpected time and Erica and I were unable to make it to their wedding. It is one of our greatest couple-friends regrets.

To make up for this mishap, Erica and I promised to take them out on a double date. We had coupled off a few times before (often with Jancsi and Bri from Week 3, or the notorious Power Couple John and Kim from Week TBA), but this might mark our first officially planned double date. In a sense, Aaron and Ana popped our DD cherry. As it was a first of sorts, we set the dinner date to be at the very restaurant I took Erica to on our first: Bizzarro in Wallingford.



Bizzarro is an adorable Italian joint tucked away behind the Blue Star. They have stellar food and the atmosphere is incredible. Our good friend Ben (from Week 1) used to work there and introduced us to it. So we took Ana and Aaron there and had a blast. The date migrated back to Greenwood and even ended at Bleacher's Pub. At the conclusion of the evening, we agreed to do it again, but they insisted NEXT TIME, THEY COOK.

We are down! We are so down. I almost never cook, and pulling off seven meals in seven weeks was enough of a balance beam for me to walk. So I was stoked when we started 52DD to have this wild card in my back pocket. When we invited Ana and Aaron over, THEY were going to cook for US. All we needed to do was have the ingredients they required and we could sit back and enjoy the night duty free.
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The dish of the day was sour-cream and cream-cheese bacon-stuffed chicken. I got to watch step by step as Ana and Aaron pieced together this cheap, easy and delicious meal. All that was required was 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, panko bread crumbs, two eggs, 6 strips of bacon, a small container of cream-cheese, a small container of sour-cream, and flour. They cooked the bacon, sliced it into small bits then mixed it in a bowl with the cheeses. Then they cut pockets in the breasts, and made a small assembly line of bowls for the panko, flour and eggs. After stuffing the chicken with the bacon and cheeses, they were dipped in the eggs, flour then panko. They pan-seared the chicken then tossed it in the oven. Quick, easy and super tastey!

To accompany the chicken, Ana and Aaron prepared some garlic, lemon and parm asparagus. It was fantastic to a) learn a new easy and awesome recipe and b) get to sit back and get food cooked for us. I was very impressed and certainly will make this dish for myself. It was excellent.



The overall theme of the night was definitely me being overbearing in conversation and trying to focus the spotlight on myself. I will admit upfront I was very annoying. It started while Aaron and Ana were cooking. We have a CD player in the kitchen which is stocked with horrible dinner party music, such as Sugar Ray (which was the initial selection of the night). However, I unfortunately took the initiative to dig out my old punk rock demo from high school and play that next. It would have been a totally acceptable 30-second listen-to-how-bad-I-sing/isn't-that-embarrassing moment. But I turned it into a let's listen to 30 seconds of every crappy song while I explain what it's about and why I wrote it moment.

Next came my shotty attempt at whiskey sours, followed by my constant interruptions at the dinner table and culminating with me screaming loudly and repetitively. Aaron and Ana had brought along a game called Whodunit. This was very thoughtful because they noticed on our blog that we were obviously sick of our Table Topics games. However, specifically with the screaming loudly, I am referring to my inability to play this game in lieu of me shouting the title stretched out in Oprah fashion.

Despite my inability to be a gracious host, Ana and Aaron were awesome company. Despite not having a deep history with them, Erica and I are super comfortable around them. We managed to have an extended conversation, filled with various personal information and stories both taboo and touching. And as the night came to an end, I was certain the four of us would break bread again. We do love seeing Ana and Aaron.

Riddle me this: what do you get when you take the most popular and pretty girl from Roosevelt High School and pair her with the studliest and most bad-ass guy from Ballard? A POWER COUPLE headed the way of the double date. Stay TUNED for Riana and John next week. I promise I won't break out my musical failures.