May 3
The Bed
Menu
- Grilled Salmon with Chili Honey
- Stewed Green Beans [View Recipe]
Quick View
Ingredients
- .5 pound green beans
- 1 tablespoon oil
- .25 cup onion (minced)
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 2 medium tomatoes (rinsed)
- .75 cup water
- salt & pepper
- hot pepper flakes
Instructions
We start by rinsing our green beans in a colander with cold water. Then we put a large pan on the stove and begin heating it with the olive oil over medium-low heat. We add the onion and cook it gently, stirring occasionally, until softened.
While the onion is cooking, we snap off both ends of each green bean. Discarding the ends, we place the green beans on a plate. When all the green beans are trimmed, we add them to the pan, along with the garlic, and stir. Using a sharp knife, we cut each tomato, removing the skin and flesh, leaving the seed pod. We chop the tomatoes, yielding about ¾ cup, and add them to the pan. We add some salt and pepper and the water, then raise the heat to medium-high. When the mixture is boiling, we lower the heat to medium-low, cover, stir occasionally, and cook for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, the green beans are tender and the liquid has reduced to a nice glaze. We taste for salt and pepper and serve warm sprinkled with hot pepper flakes.
- White Rice
The story begins the night before. Grammy graciously agreed to babysit so that we could go out to dinner (Thai One On in Towson, which was quite good). After we returned, we finished putting the kids to bed (Grammy had given them a bath). Chris then went to the store to pick up milk and various other necessities.
Chris left his house keys in his car overnight by accident. When it was time to leave the house this morning, he searched for some time trying to find the keys, which also include the keys to the family car. When we finally found them, we headed out.
At this point, Chris had both sets of his keys - his house keys and the keys to his car. That's not terribly unusual, but it will factor into the story later.
We arrive at Grammy's house to help move her bed. She and Boppy are getting a new bed (on account of Boppy's bad back). Removing the mattress and box spring goes relatively smoothly, as does disassembling the bed frame. The kids have a grand time playing with the mattress and bed frame. We even find a picture of Ben Crenshaw under the bed (Grammy's solution to Boppy's insistence that it be in the bedroom!)
We have gotten by for 8 years with a simple metal frame for the bed but are more than happy to take Grammy and Boppy's headboard/footboard off their hands. It takes some effort to maneuver the footboard into Grammy's CRV, but it is managed. We drive back to the house, unload the footboard and head back to Grammy and Boppy's to retrieve the headboard.
When we return, the kids are still having fun under the watchful eye of Grammy. The thinking is that the headboard might not fit into the CRV since the footboard was somewhat difficult. To most everyone's surprise, it goes in with relative ease. One of the posts is sticking out the window a tad, but really, everything is going smoothly at this point.
We tell Grammy that we'll pick up lunch from Panera after dropping off the headboard. A quick goodbye to the kids (who could care less - they're playing with Grammy!) and we're off.
When we try to unload the headboard back at our place, we find that we cannot get it out. We turn it this way. We turn it that way. We try moving the foot out first. Then the post first. We try it high. We try it low. It will not come out. It will not.
An hour later, we are at wit's end. It went in so very easily and it will not come out. We're both quite hungry and aren't thinking clearly any more. The problem must have a solution - the headboard got in, after all.
Whatever the solution, it's eluding us at this point. Something had to be done. Could Robin take Chris's car to take lunch back to Grammy and the kids? It's at this point that Chris realizes that he has left his car keys back at Grammy's. And they're the only keys we have to that car.
Maybe Grammy could bring the kids to us in our car? Nope. We brought back both sets of keys to that car with us.
So there we are, hungry to point of non-function. We can't drive the car we have. Grammy can't get to us. We can't even get the headboard back into the CRV to drive it. And it looks like it might rain.
We decide to run into the house to grab a quick bite and to call for help. We're extremely lucky in that Eric is home and can come over to offer a fresh pair of eyes on the problem. After no more than five minutes, he extracts the headboard and we're released from our little conundrum.
What can we learn from this experience? Always have a spare Eric around. They're very handy. Also, salmon makes for good eating.