A Random Dinner

The other day, at the Smith & Hawken going-out-of-business sale, Elizabeth and I picked up a cool little table-top fire pot. It was on sale for about 40% off, and we both love anything that catches on fire, so we bought it. We lit it in the evening and were drawn to it like moths; we didn't want to leave it.

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The day earlier I had been at my parents' house and my mom told me she had bought a pound of shrimp at Whole Foods the day before, but she and my dad hadn't eaten it and they were going out to dinner the next two nights, so she asked me if I would like it. "Yes," I said, "I would like a free pound of shrimp from Whole Foods." So Elizabeth and I texted our friend Tracie to come over and join us for happy hour on our patio.

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A family friend, Laura, had given me and Elizabeth a beautiful set of plates, and I poured the shrimp onto one of the plates with a couple sides of cocktail sauce. (I added a fair amount of horseradish to one of them to make it spicier.) Laura's mom, Margie, had been in Arizona recently, and picked me up a case of New Belgium Sunshine Wheat, one of my favorite beers in America, something that is not available around here. It's a wheat beer, obviously, with touches of coriander and orange peel, and is an absolutely perfect beer for a summer evening. We drank several of them.

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Our friend Murph sent a text that he was going by Philly's Best and was planning to swing by our place to eat his sandwich, and asking if we wanted anything. The three of us figured we could split a sandwich, so we got a regular cheesesteak. It was outstanding, as always.

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It would be nice if we got a free pound of shrimp and a sandwich delivered every night of the week. And beer imported from Arizona for me at least once a month. But that's probably not going to happen. At any rate, it was fun for one night.