Monday, July 24, 2006

Next Door Chef

Chef John & his wife Emmy live next door. Tonight they cooked a welcome home dinner for us. You probably think it's not fair that they don't live next door to you, and you're right. We're still trying to figure out what we did to deserve them.

Silly Story
John used to tape
The Sopranos for us. Remember the best episode ever–The Pine Barrens–from season 3? While on a collection errand, Paulie and Christopher find themselves thrust into a deadly chase with a Russian in the frigid woods of South Jersey. The one where they get hopelessly lost in the snowstorm and almost freeze, and are dying of hunger? At the end, back in the car, they find some dirty old ketchup and relish packets under the seat and rip them open with shaking fingers, inhaling the ketchup like it's some kind exotic delicacy. I was crazy about that episode, and called John and Em raving about it. The next morning when I went out to get the paper, I found a handful of ketchup and relish packets outside our front door.