Three Beautiful Things 10-21-2023: Preparing the Chili Sauce, Yakkin' at The Lounge, A Surprise Wah Hing Banquet and More!

1. Debbie and I are hosting Sunday's family dinner and had decided a week ago that with Patrick and Megan visiting us, it would be fun to have Skyline Cincinnati Chili for dinner. Debbie and I agree that the Cincinnati Chili sauce tastes better the second day, so I assembled water, tomato paste, unsweetened chocolate, apple cider vinegar, chili powder, garlic powder, cinnamon, allspice, cumin, ground cloves, pepper flakes, sugar, salt, and pepper. First, I put the chocolate and tomato paste in the water, heated it up to medium, and when the chocolate had melted and the paste was broken down and it was all combined, I added all the seasonings. Then I hand crumbled the ground beef into the seasoned liquid, brought it to a boil, reduced the heat to a low temp, and let it all simmer much of the afternoon. 

When it was done simmering and had thickened, I let the sauce cool and eventually loaded it up in containers to be reheated and served tomorrow over spaghetti with beans, grated cheddar cheese, chopped onion, and oyster crackers.  Some at the table might add some Frank's RedHot sauce to their Cincinnati chili.

2. Shortly after four o'clock, Debbie, Patrick, Megan, and I rocketed up to The Lounge, seated ourselves at  the table in the corner near the door, ordered drinks, and engaged in some serious discussion of family history and matters that are current. It was, to me, an awesome discussion. It brought up memories we enjoyed looking back on and opened up talk about some thorny family matters. Adrienne and Ellie got to join our table via FaceTime at one point and that was a blast. 

3. Our yakkin was running overtime, though. We had a food order in at Garrenteed BBQ to be picked up at 5:15 and Megan volunteered to go get it. It was a great day at the food truck, though, and by the time our order came up to be prepared, they were sold out of product! Megan returned with the news. We were of one mind and one voice as we joined each other in a group shrug, said together, "NO PROBLEM!", and almost immediately went to work ordering heaping plates of Chinese food from Wah Hing. 

We hadn't planned on dining at The Lounge, but that's exactly what we did! We moved into the roomier back room and, as a bonus, Brian strolled in, joined our table, and he got to meet Patrick and Megan, and join in our yak-a-thon, which was no longer focused on family history and family matters. Debbie invited Diane to join us and she did and soon we were enjoying a Wah Hing banquet. We all seemed to find common ground in yakking about music and live concerts, among other things, and we had a blast.

(By the way, Garren, the proprietor of Garrenteed BBQ, knew, from talking to Megan, that we were at The Lounge. He made a special trip up to find us, apologize for not being able to fill our order, and to thank us for our jolly understanding. We were all very impressed that he made this effort to talk with us and to make sure our evening was progressing all right.) 

We filled up our leftover containers, returned home, and Patrick and Megan became our evening music selectors, playing a wide range of music over the wireless Bose ranging from The Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin to Lucinda Williams to Gillian Welch to Guy Clark with a few Highwaymen songs peppered in. Patrick was at his laptop puzzling out a personal project he was working out. Eventually he succeeded! It was a moment of triumph we got to share in!

It was a smashing evening. More great yakking. Superb music, including several artists who were new to me. I also enjoyed a few pours of Stein Rattle Creek rum. 

I eventually hit the hay, happy that we'd had so much fun with Patrick and Megan today, that everything unexpected that happened was positive, and that we have more family time to look forward to on Sunday.