Monday, June 1, 2009

Dinner with Nikki

My sister and I don’t get together nearly as often as we should. This is one of the things that I plan on changing. And so last Thursday I headed over the mountain to Jerome and began that change.

 

The plan? Making dinner at her house. The ingredients? Whatever happened to be available in her cupboards. She gave me a basic rundown over the phone, I stopped by the store for $1.50 worth of groceries, grabbed my chef knife and a couple spices, and rolled out with dog in-town.

 

Nikki’s days are filled with hard labor at the Page Springs vineyards. Scrappy and I arrived a bit early and waited for sis. I started to get things organized for dinner. She finally made it home covered from head to toe in dirt. We chatted for a bit, as siblings are wont to do, then she headed off to take a shower while I got dinner rolling.

 

What we had:

- 1 can black beans

- 1 small piece of a bell pepper

- 2.5 old corn tortillas

- 1 zucchini

- 1 weird small pepper thingy whose name is lost on me

- 1 head of garlic

- the trailing ends of a jar of salsa

- some mildly old, yet deliciously awesome sour cream

- a cob of corn

- 3 mexican green onions

- 1 avocado

 

More than enough for two enterprising Check kids to make a meal! We popped the beans into a pot, heated, then mashed and continued to cook until done, adding minced bell pepper and small pepper thing along the way.

 

The corn came off the cob and went into a fry pan with a little oil and some spices.


Zucchini was heated in a separate pan as the mexican onions roasted away in the oven.

 

The whole shebang went on the tortillas and was topped with the last of the salsa, sour cream, and slices of avocado. SOOOO tasty:

 

We ate dinner outside on her porch, enjoying a cold beer and grand conversation. It was a seriously enjoyable evening with my sis and a great opportunity to catch up with her busy life.

 

Hopefully this will become a regular type of visit. :)

5 comments:

megan said...

it's all about family ya'll! tell nikki i said whatup.

Catalyst said...

Good job, Tombo. How long has Nikki lived in Jerome?

TomboCheck said...

Megan - yep, family is the bomb. I'll definitely tell her you say hey.

Catalyst - thanks! Nikki's lived in Jerome for almost a year now.

Melissa said...

Definitely hope you guys do that more often. It's all too easy to let too much time slip by without doing that, as you both know.

I love the makeshift meal. Looks delicious. :)

TomboCheck said...

Melissa - thanks! I'm definitely to blame for a lot of that slipped-by time. But no more! :)