Special Night Stretch

Let me introduce you to my beloved other half.

When I met him he had a bumper sticker that read, "If I was meant to hang onto money it would have handles," bought by his mom. Nope, no warning bells were ringing. No flashing lights, just stars in my eyes. This handsome, adventurous  young man swept me off my feet and into the future.

We complement each other in so many ways: I follow recipes, he creates fantastic food from inspiration. I am academic, he is artistic. I enjoy soft classical music, he enjoys any music as long as it is reverberating through the house. I like to tie up loose ends, he delights in new ideas and starting up projects. I shiver through the cold nights while he swelters under the covers. I like order and predictability, he thrives on spontaneity and random living.  When I look back with longing, he is looking for the new adventure around the corner. I am Elastic Mom, stretching resources, looking for ways to be frugal and thrifty, he is Extravagant Dad, caring more about quality and the best possible experience that he can find. I save, he spends. As I said, we complement each other and, hopefully, our children will find the balance.

The highlight of my week is Special Night. Every Friday evening my wonderful, kind husband makes dinner and decides on the entertainment for the night. Now this is not just any dinner, but something SPECIAL, out of the ordinary, usually cooked with great gusto by Extravagant Dad, and almost always with dessert. The only snag is that sometimes Extravagant Dad spends the same on Special Night dinner as I do on a week's worth of shopping.

Times being tough, as they are, Extravagant Dad decided to make Special Night dinner Elastic Mom style this evening. Eating it, one never would have guessed that all it cost him was the price of a block of blue cheese. This is what we had:

Three enormous potatoes dug from the fields behind the harvesting machine by some excited visiting children. They had a competition to see who could find the biggest one.

These were roasted and made into gnocchi.

The gnocchi was served with the most delicious sauce made from Rose's milk white sauce, bacon that had been kindly given to us, and the bought blue cheese along with a pinch of this from the pantry and that from the spice rack. First class, as good as date-night gnocchi meals back in Cape Town. Served with a bottle of gifted good red wine, a very special meal that cost us R22 (equivalent to a good cup of coffee out).

So, Extravagant Dad is capable of a bit of classy stretching in the thrifty department too.

We completed this gourmet meal with a scoop of my homemade dark chocolate orange ice-cream that was leftover in the freezer. Who needs fine dining when we are doing it here at home with Extravagant Dad as chef.