Better than Store Bought

My lovely Girl Friend is, how can I put this delicately, respectfully, accurately.... the opposite of a food snob, true to her southern roots - particularly those roots that run through parks (you know the kind I mean!). As I wrote in an earlier post she is a connoisseur of things like potato chips. Never before have I had Mir*cle Whip, Rice-A-Roni, or Betty Crocker Scalloped Potatoes and Mountain D*w in my home. Never I tell you! Yes Mir*cle Whip and Mountain D*w, there are times she is a walking stereotype.

I, on the other hand, make things from scratch, have been eating tofu and brown rice for about 30 years and had only bought soda for the house once every 6 months or so, previous to our co-habitation. This is not to say I don't love my junk food, but I do try keep it to a minimum and have never had 4 kinds of chips in the house on a regular basis until now.

But love being what it is, I decided that I would gladly have these thing in my kitchen and pantry, that I would happily put these things in my shopping cart. Like I said love. And love being what it is, I decided to make beef stroganoff, the Betty Crocker version off the web even! for christmas eve dinner, as this is something that's kind of a tradition for her. I also decided that since The Girl Friend is a carbo fiend I would make dinner rolls. I also love bread, so no sacrifice there. Well, we go shopping and she picks up those damn ready made rolls in an aluminum pan. I just give up. Really.

Luckily she comes to her senses and realizes she is being rude to refuse such a sweet offer, to which of course I agree. Someone offers to make you homemade from scratch dinner rolls and you say no? I mean there are heathens, and then there are heathens!

So yesterday I get to work, choosing exactly which recipe of dinner rolls from my beloved Cooks Illustrated I will make and settle on version in the November/December 1999 issue. It actually is very easy and relatively quick. They were done just a bit ahead of the stroganoff, I would have liked them to be timed a little better, but hey both were new to me recipes. The dinner rolls look great! I mean perfectly browned on top, just barely colored on the bottom, fairly uniform in size - I have impressed myself anyway.

Of course my stroganoff looks different than any other she has had - the onions are more plentiful and not diced - OMG. Whatever. I know it was passable because she has two plates of it.

But, but, but the best part. She actually concedes that my rolls are better than store bought, something she "didn't think was possible". I am over the moon!

While I am obviously in her life to expand her palette (as well as other reasons, I assure you!), she has determined that she is in mine (again, as well as other reasons) because I have had it too easy what with people falling at my feet over my cooking. I'm sorry, but I don't understand why they should do otherwise. I am a very good cook, no Alice Waters, I assure you, but damned good. So why do I need to have someone so difficult to please in the food arena? I really don't see the need, do you?