Upside-Down Pear

In other news, Nat got threaded comments working, so actual discussion is now possible. Three cheers!

When I was around 13, I went to visit my friend Sue. She lived perhaps 45 minutes away, and was tall and loud and brash and British, with wild red hair and a wicked sense of humor. I adored her. We decided to cook dinner for her family – five people, all told, including myself. In the fridge, we found two Cornish game hens, some bacon, some scallions; in the pantry we found rice.

First, we cut the bacon into half-slices, and wrapped each half-slice around an inch of scallion. We arranged these on a tray and popped them in the oven. We washed the hens and butterflied them and put them in to roast; we made rice and giblet gravy. We nervously poked at the hens, hoping they were done, and burnt our fingers on the oven rack.

When we served dinner, we found that two Cornish hens are not nearly enough for five, so her parents got a half each to themselves, and the two remaining halves were divided among the three children. The scallions in bacon went well with the crisp skin of the hens; the giblet gravy was neither too peppery nor too salty, and if the rice was a bit bland and sticky, well, mixed with gravy you couldn’t really tell.

At the time, I was dreadfully embarrassed – not enough food! The horror!

But now, I think – we were 13, and we tried hard, and we turned out a tasty meal in under an hour. If Sue turned up at my doorstep tomorrow with two Cornish hens, we might be able to make a meal fit for a king, but I don’t know that we could truly replicate the accomplishment.