Lowering the Bar
Recently a friend shared the article titled Friday Night Meatballs: How to Change Your Life with Pasta. And I was all, like, OhMyGaaawddddd, I loooooove that. (Say in the voice of Alexis from Schitt’s Creek if you please). (I just love her).
Shortly after that, came When In Doubt, Make Soup from David at Raptitude. And I thought, well, this sounds even easier! I sincerely love this idea, too.
But then….I mean, could I love the actors from Schitt’s Creek anymore than I already do? – there was this article about a fancy brunch that Dan Levy hosted, and Annie Murphy showed up with KFC. From the article:
“He didn’t ask her to bring anything, but she didn’t want to be rude. “I made the bold decision to stop by KFC and get a bucket of chicken,” she says. “Not that that’s what I connect with brunch. I just thought everyone likes KFC secretly deep down.” She shrugs her shoulders, not needing to defend her irrefutable statement. “So I showed up and Dan had this beautiful table set. There’s blueberry ricotta pancakes and candied bacon, and I plunked down this greasy bucket.”
“And what did people eat?” Levy interjects, rolling his eyes with such drama he likely ran a risk of straining an optic muscle. Murphy flips her hair in response, pleased with herself. “So I think that’s really what cemented our relationship,” she says. ”
So, honestly, if that doesn’t inspire, (and I’m not being at all facetious here), what does? But you know, I’m here to take that whole, pasta, soup, brunch, KFC at brunch, concept down a notch. I’m here to say that all you need is bar snacks. Maybe that’s because I associate this idea with an afternoon Rob and I spent in Rome this past November on the rooftop restaurant at the Capitoline Museum where we ate snacks and I drank the best Negroni I’ve ever had. (Not that I’ve honestly had that many, but still). You could put out a wedge of blue cheese, I suppose, to go with the nuts and the chips and the olives, but I would suggest not. Because cheese might lead to, I don’t know, paté, spreads and dips. And you really want to avoid spreads and dips at all costs because you have to actually make those. I’m in favour of chips, olives, nuts, because you can have these in your pantry at all times and no one can really judge you if they taste bad, which of course they can’t. Chips cannot taste bad. It’s one of the universal truths.
I mean, get the good chips, by all means (Miss Vickie’s), and the fancy balsamic vinegar cashews from President’s Choice, and the olives from the Italian store or wherever they sell nice olives where you’re from. But I caution you to leave it at that. Invite some people over late in the afternoon. Pour them a pour. Sip. Talk. It’s really the best.
Ideally, someone will bring over KFC to your chips and whiskey (or pop or club soda) party but that sort of fancy showboating is clearly not necessary. Thank you and kind regards, as David Rose might say.
Because, in all seriousness, what we need (and by we I mean probably me) is just to get together and hangout and chat more. Soup, spaghetti and meatballs, or chips. You do you. In short, though, all in favour of lowering the bar, say yay! I just think we’d get together more if we didn’t worry about looking on Pinterest for recipes, making elaborate grocery lists, shopping for all the perfect ingredients, spending a ton of dough, cooking for hours, and then having anxiety attacks about how things are going to turn out, and wondering later, if you royally F’d up the whole thing anyway due to your stress drinking. (Or, hey, maybe that’s just me). (I should mention here that I probably have whatever that phobia is where you are terrified of cooking for people haha). So. If I were to have a New Year’s resolution it would have something to do with chips and lowering the bar pretty much to the ground floor, just saying.
