The Affair, Birthday's and Chicken Carbonara

Like many couples, my wife and I watch certain shows together.  One of them happening to be "The Affair," which centers on the destructive power of trust being tarnished while giving the perspective of the character in the chapter. 

For example, from Noah's perspective in the show he is a misunderstood hero character.  Someone who is looking out for others while at the same time attempting to be the best father or companion he can be. 

For me this is kind of how I'll approach this article.  Written from my perspective about my lovely wife's birthday.




Part 1.  (of 1)

Ben.


It really all started at Wegmans, where Ben would wander section to section for each individual ingredient.  He didn't really know exactly where each item would be, and in fact the only basil he could find came as a full-on potted plant.

He bought a plant.

He fumbled his way getting the parsley leaves, wanting to not pay the $1.49 per bushel, he attempted to pull some out, put it in the bag and then weigh the item to see if he could pay less.

He couldn't.  The only price available for the parsley was for the entire bushel.  This meant he had to try and discard his prematurely stolen parsley, and not wanting to waste it, threw it with the small bag back behind the other bushels. 

He was pretty sure no one saw him, except for whatever poor soul had to watch security tapes from the store.

On he went through the store picking out each ingredient he read off from his phone.  The chicken, the eggs, the heavy whipping cream (He took 5 minutes to google the difference between heavy cream, half and half, and heavy whipping cream).  Ben would eventually settle on the Upstate brand of whipping cream after careful cost and flavor considerations.

Upon exiting the grocery store, he had a few more stops to make.  One being to the local jeweler to buy his wife something pretty. 

Ben had never been one for attempting to make the world around him beautiful.  He really barely knew how to dress himself in any kind of fashionable way, instead, relying on the work uniform, the advice of others, and an ability to stay away from daily social interaction to keep the myth that he understood what looked good or bad.

Buying jewelry was again, not exactly something he was good at.  So he improvised, giving a budget and attempting to relay his goal to saleswoman.  Something simple that would remind her of him, and he of this fun, fulfilling, and personal day.

When he arrived home, Ben began the cooking process as best he knew how.  He prepped the ingredients as similarly as he could to the Blue Apron dishes he and his wife had gotten in the mail from time to time.

Blue Apron would be proud

Needless to say at this particular juncture he was quite pleased with his efforts.  It all seemed so neat and orderly, as though he was on his way to a successful dish with minimal hassle (save for finding the ingredients in the first place). 

He then realized he had forgotten about the chicken, and his wife would be home soon.

While panic wasn't exactly striking him, a bit of unease and self-doubt certainly began to poke its head around the corner.

Quickly, he put the chicken in the oven to "roast" so that he could later shred and put in the pot.

The problem seemed to be the timing of it all.  For all the prep work he had previously done, he had failed to preheat the oven, and now time was ticking away.

Thankfully there was an antidote to that. 

For most people in general, after a day's work, and especially on your birthday you would probably want your vice.  Like the vast majority of the world, Allie enjoys a glass of wine after work.  For others, maybe a nice beer or a martini, or maybe you live in the free states like Colorado and California and like to light up some ganja. 

In any case, this birthday meant she would be able to enjoy one her simplest and most guilty pleasures: boxed Franzia wine. 

Yes, Ben could have bought a bottle of something else, but the reality has become clear to both of them that we can't detect a very discernible difference in most chilled wines.  A Pinot Grigio or "Crisp White" blend from Franzia is going to be at least as good as a 15-25 dollar bottle of whatever random California, South American, or Western European wine.  This obviously excludes Dr. Konstantine Frank's Gewurztraminer.  (That is a white wine that I simply find out of this world with spice and flavor.)

A teacher's kryptonite

When she finally gets home, she walks through the door and she is all smiles.  Seemingly not a care in the world and so happy to be home.  The feeling is completely mutual.  They both feel all the pressures of the world just fade away.  Here they are, home. They feel at peace, and nothing can hurt them. 

They embrace for seconds, but it feels like days.  Kisses and the typical couple talk ensues, and eventually time and place comes back into the fold.

Ben springs for the wine glass, pausing briefly in mid-stride to ask if she actually wanted the wine. 

She's enthusiastic and buoyant with a proclamation of "Yes!"

The chicken comes out, but Ben feels it's still underdone.  He shreds the chicken as best he can, then puts the chicken back into the oven and lowers the heat on the pancetta that he had started.  The recipe called for the pancetta to slightly cool anyway while the water for the pasta boiled. 

In a large bowl, Ben whisked together some of the prepared ingredients.  He added slightly more pasta then the original recipe asked for and was hopeful that a slight adjustment for some of the other ingredients would be enough. 

Once the chicken was cooked a bit more thoroughly, Ben combined the chicken and the pancetta, thoroughly mixing the two together and cooking on a medium to low heat.  Then he poured the pasta on top, then the cream sauce, mixing it all together and becoming increasingly confident that the meal being created would be one of the best he had ever made.

A goober unnecessarily
confident about his cooking

From there dinner would be served the way that all meals are served.  With a bit of garnish and flair so that when captured for a short Snapchat or Facebook post, it would make other people respond with a bit to share in that happiness.

But Ben, for what seemed like the first time in a long time, felt aware that there would be more to this story than just a quick little picture.  So he decided to take many pictures of the process, and then write about it.

What was making this day wasn't one moment in particular, it wasn't one thing.  It was the multitude of steps and moments strung together to make that delicious meal.  Every thing moving as if connected on a string.  It started with a trip to Wegmans, then as the moment hits about how special this day is going to be, to really stay in the moment and live it.  To remember how it feels to celebrate the birthday of a loved one.

From there it becomes a journey and at the end you arrive at a place that's so unapologetically happy that you can't hide it.  That it'll make you want to take pictures of your food and share them with others.  To enjoying a night watching a fictional show that exploits the viewpoints of others to tell its stories.  Ben felt that he had helped to make this birthday a successful one.

When you're so happy you just
want to take pictures of food.