Dinner Guest #13 - Mr. P. and Ms. L.

Mr. P. is a computer genius.  He makes Best Buy’s “Geek Squad” look like ridiculous amateurs. 

We met Mr. P. several years ago when he set up, networked, and troubleshooted the computers at Ryan’s work.  A few lunches later, more computer sessions, and we now have Mr. P. over for dinner on a regular basis.  He has also joined our New Year’s Eve tradition and beats everyone at the DVD board game “Scene It.”

Single no longer, Mr. P. now brings Ms. L. along.

They are in love.

Mr. P. is another one of our gluten-free friends.  However, he’s easy to cook for because he loves Brazilian food.  Mr. P. and Ryan share the same favorite restaurants:  Texas de Brazil and Del Frisco’s.  This Sunday, our menu was back to Feijoada (black bean stew), Brazilian rice, and pao de queijo (cheese bread).  For some variety and color, I threw together a few vegetables dishes and made roasted sweet potatoes and corn pudding.   Ryan picked up a case of guarana soda at a local Brazilian market to top off the meal.

I would normally make some kind of fattening, thousand-calorie, decadent dessert, but I’ve temporarily lost my sugar drive.  I watched a documentary called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” this week and it turned me off to eating unhealthy food.  While I’m sure the movie’s after effects will fade, I stopped eating dessert a few days ago.  I don’t want to eat any processed food, I lost my desire for fast food, and I don’t want any red meat.  My family doesn’t share my new food convictions.

For tonight’s pseudo dessert, I served apple and banana slices with fruit dip.  Jack complained,

“Fruit is NOT dessert!”

The fruit dip contained cream cheese, marshmallow crème, cool whip, and pineapple juice.  Anything with marshmallow crème counts as dessert in my book.  Every last apple slice was eaten, so I will most likely serve it again.

Rock couldn’t seem to keep his sippy cup on the table during the meal, so after multiple drops, we just left it on the floor.  Aside from that minor annoyance, the kids were very good.  They asked their usual questions and we learned that Mr. P. was born in Connecticut and Ms. L. can’t eat chocolate.  We also heard about Mr. P.’s first ride in the back of a police car.  No one else had a cool story like that.

Several hours later as we talked and laughed and yawned around the dinner table, it was time to put the kids to bed.  Mr. P. and Ms. L. said their goodbyes and drove away.

Tonight I learned that Sunday dinners are easy if you:

(1)   make the main dish the day before

(2)   serve fruit for dessert

(3)   You have a kind husband who cleans the kitchen, mops the floor, wipes down the stove top, and watches the kids while you take an afternoon nap!