Week Seventeen: Sarah and Kevin

Busy and broke, we stumbled toward Week 17 following two consecutive cancellations. I thought I was done with the dates. I kept proposing to Erica that we close the blog. I was mentally "over it" but she convinced me to at least stick with it long enough to have her brother over. Little did I know, my attitude was the real problem, and having a couple who was very excited to come over really turned things around for me. It was Kevin and Sarah's attitudes that made me correct mine.



There were a few firsts on this date. The first first was a 15-minute early arrival. Erica was still wondering around the house in boxer shorts and a tank top at this point. I hadn't started cooking because I just assumed I would get my 30-minute buffer. I opened the door to wide grins, a cheese cake platter and a six-pack of Newcastle. The first time I was presented with both my favorite dessert and favorite beverage. Sarah and Kevin are also the first family members to "do the date."

It was time to start cooking, because we were all hungry. I was aiming for cheap, light and easy, so I planned on making chicken Caesar dinner salads. I picked up all the ingredients at the grocery store for just $19! Four boneless skinless chicken breasts, three heads of romaine lettuce, a small packet of garlic croutons, one lemon, Caesar dressing and some parmesan cheese. However, I was so impressed by the gifting effort of our guests, I felt I would be letting them down if I didn't take a culinary risk. So at the last minute, I decided to make my own vinaigrette.



I cut the chicken breasts into smaller bits and tossed them on a skillet. Then I took out a pot to craft my own vinaigrette. I started with a cup of olive oil, then added a half cup of lemon juice, a 1/4 cup of Worchestershire sauce and a generous squirt of beer mustard (that I had left from the hot dogs night on Week 13). I put in a squirt of red wine vinegar for some punch, then sprinkled in various eye-balled amounts of salt, pepper, sugar, minced garlic and red pepper flakes. I whisked it and set it off to the side. I washed the romaine, cut the romaine, then tossed it in the salad spinner with the vinaigrette to coat the lettuce but not over-dress it. I put the lettuce in the bowl, added the parm over it, added the croutons, topped it with the hot chicken and served with a lemon slice on the side.



I must say, the salads turned out pretty well. I was nervous it would be too simple, but simple is often good when it comes to cooking. Sarah is an excellent chef herself, so I wasn't going to blow her away with any fancy complicated dish. We talked about cooking for a minute while we ate, and Sarah described a stuffed hashbrown breakfast muffin she makes that sounds fantastic. Imagine eggs, cheese and bacon inside of a hashbrown muffin. Delicious.



We did a bottle of cabernet sauvignon with the salads that Kawai and Danny (Week 16) brought us the week before. And we debated in a goofy manner the proper pronunciation of the wine when we opened and aerated it with this handy device. Out came the cheesecake and Newcastles for dessert. Then, of course, out came the Table Topics.

Conversation during this game took it's natural course and expanded in several different directions. The most notable question was "how do you view life differently from your siblings?" It was interesting because it was the first time that question was proposed in front of a family member. It was too on-the-spot for the Stensberg clan, so Sarah and I added our takes and Kevin and Erica took a pass. Though the game provided us with some good moments, including a dream analysis of a recent nightmare, we passed on playing it for too long and switched over to Blokus.

Blokus is a tabletop four man Tetris. It is a fast-paced strategy game where each player selects a color and is presented with various different block shapes to play on the board. Each shape has a different number of squares, and the object is to have the lowest amount of squares left when all the players are blocked from moving. A "move" starting from your respective corner most include your newest piece touching corners, but not sides, to a piece previous played. It is not to complicated and very fun. You can play on-line for free at the website, which I did just now while summarizing the rules.



Somehow, during Blokus, we came across the term "smouldering dog balls." Kevin used to work as a vet assistant and would vacuum the canine testicles after removal with a tube device. One night, an disgruntled dog bit out his stitches, bleed and vomited all over the kennel and Kevin spent an entire shift cleaning off what appeared to be exploded animal from the walls. That was the day he decided to quit. That story was rather entertaining and makes mopping a floor at a sandwich shop seem like a cakewalk now.

Speaking of cakewalks, I had a 6am wake-up call to open up said sandwich shop the next morning. So, after stories and laughs, Kevin and Sarah packed up and made an exit right around 11pm. The timing of the whole event worked perfectly for us. Being family, we were finally able to stick a guest with the infamous mantle piece, which is now Kevin and Sarah's to regift. Gotcha!



To put in on basic terms, there is no better guest than a guest actively excited to be there. Sarah and Kevin were super gracious and involved the entire night. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and it reminded me to be stoked on the fact I get the pleasure of seeing people every week.

Next week is a Cinco de Drunko extravaganza with Chad and Ellie, complete with sombreros and mustaches... it should be a wild time!