Food, Home And Away

      Or "Away and Home," because we started with takeout.

      One of the few good effects of the pandemic is that nearly every place that serves food will make it to go.  Root & Bone expanded to Indianapolis several months before the great upheaval.  Tam and I had wanted to eat there, but indoor dining was shut down for months and the location is a little out of the way.

      Memorial Day shifted our night before trash-pickup day, when we usually get take-our or delivery for dinner and spend the time saved emptying wastebaskets and cleaning out the fridge.  I decided it was a good day to try the place.  It turned out to an excellent idea!  The food was marvelous.  I had the Braised Short Rib "Meatloaf," which was amazing, the nicely-seasoned meat falling-apart tender, and Tam tried their Bacon Board, very rich thick-cut bacon, house-made pork rind, cheese, picked, and pickled peppers and onions.  She loved it.  I got a side of butter beans, in case we were still hungry (nope -- portions were generous; my dinner came with mashed potatoes and asparagus) and because they're a bit tricky, delicious if the kitchen crew is paying attention and much less so if they're not.  The beans surpassed my hopes, smoky and flavorful, tender and not bitter.  By present standards prices are good, especially for the quality and quantity.  I found indoors to be slightly too loud (a happy, officially-reduced-capacity crowd) for my aging ears.  They have a nice outdoor dining area, so we'll plan on an in-person visit soon.

      Saturday was an at-home day; laundry and a little gardening for me, lawn-mowing for Tam.  Dinner was succotash (small red beans and tender white corn, seasoned with a little garlic, black pepper, parsley, cilantro* and the least hint of chili powder) and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.

      They were not your usual grilled treat.  You see, I had bought truffle butter earlier in the week; I worked overtime last weekend and could afford to splurge.  It makes fabulous steaks; I made thin-cut ribeyes with it Wednesday.  There was plenty of the fancy butter left.  Starting with thin rye bread, I layered a slice of Black Forest ham, a slice of Swiss cheese, another slice of ham, cheese, and ham.  The meat and cheese slices are thin enough that it's not -- quite -- excessive.  Grilled in a frying pan over medium heat in truffle butter until the cheese is melted and bread is crunchy-toasted, the end result is warm and wonderful.  You can use plain butter and I usually do, but this was extra-special.
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* Neither one of us tastes soapiness in cilantro.  Some people do.  It's genetic, not learned: either you do or you don't, and if you do, nothing's going to change that.  Use it with caution and always tell people if you did.