Sunday dinner

We invited my niece Rachel over for dinner tonight - homemade pork eggrolls, sweet and sour sauce (the thick kind with pineapple chunks in it), and fried rice. Then Steve informed me he'd be in Tuttle speaking. No worries, I thought, we'll still have Rachel over - it will be fun - just the four of us. Then Rachel e-mailed - she's sick, and can't come to dinner. No worries, I thought, we'll still have the three of us. So I cooked the onions, added the pork, then the oyster sauce, cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts and water chestnuts. I tried something new this time - I drained the whole batch in a colander to get the excess moisture out, then stored it out in the garage to cool it down a touch before I put the rolls together. The other times I think the insides were too hot, and the steam cut open the wrappers. I put the brown rice on to cook, cut up the green onions for the rice, got the eggs out, and assembled the plate and paper towels to stack the rolls.

I put the cornstarchy wrapper on the plate, then spooned a big glop of the mix into the middle. I wet my finger with cornstarch mixed with water and ran it along the whole outside edge, then wrapped the eggroll like a diaper. One down, 26 to go. I put a whole big bottle of canola oil on to heat to 350 degrees, careful to tell Bill to stay out of the kitchen for a while. That high heated oil really makes me nervous. I could cook 9 rolls at a time, pausing to scramble the eggs for the rice and let Rusty in from outside. I tented the rolls with foil to keep them warm, then mixed the scrambled eggs, green onions, bean sprouts and tamari sauce into the rice and stirred it all around. I made a double batch of everything but the sweet and sour sauce - I QUADRUPLED that (don't ask me why - I don't know). I put the sauce into a two-cup measuring cup and put it on the table, set it with three plates, three spoons, and three cups. Just Erik, Bill and me - that's a cozy Sunday dinner, isn't it? With all 27 rolls done, I dished us up, then called Bill to the table. We sat for a minute or two, waiting for Erik. But he didn't come. Finally, we ate without him. Just the two of us.

"That wasn't a very good Sunday dinner, " Bill said kind of sadly when we were done.

"Oh, I think it was," I replied. "Any time you and I are together is a party and a half."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Bill said, "Only I wish Dad were here, and Rachel, and Erik."

"Yeah, that would've been nice," I said, "but sometimes things are different, and that's okay, too, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose it is," Bill said, taking another bite of his eggroll.