Fine Dining

What is my problem? I know how a broiling lamb chop shed fat so why do I forget every time and cover the broiler-pan with tinfoil? Do I really not remember what you get when fat pools on foil in 500-degree heat? Fire! But they’re so little, went my thinking last night.  Just four slender little rib chops. How much fat can they produce?” I stretched the foil  over the rack that sits in the broiler pan and laid those chops DOWN, once again giving nary a thought to the fact that I was covering the holes designed to drain the fat away.Just then I got an emergency text from a reporter and begun madly texting back and the next thing I knew the kitchen was filled  with a cheerful crackling sound and a warm orange glow lit up the inside of the oven.“We got fire!  I yelled to Old Dave who was stretched out reading a couple of rooms away. “I’m on top of it !" I added even as I rapidly flung open every canister on the counter-top in search of the one with the flour.I turned off the broiler and opened the oven door: sure enough, a fire as merry as Christmas Morning. I tossed in a scoop of flour and half the flames went out.Then the smoke detector went off. I opened the back door to get the smoke out and David, newly arrived in the kitchen, took a dishtowel and began waving it in the air. I returned to the stove, threw more flour onto the flames and watched as they quickly disappeared.All this went forth without a word being spoken between us. We're old hands at this kind of thing.  He got out the plates and the silverware and set out some napkins. Then all that was left for me to do was to set out the salad and the rice, open a nice young  Chianti, throw a little salt on the floury goo, stir it around on its tinfoil and voilà: crispy lamb chops served up with some good-old-fashioned spur-of the-moment PAN GRAVY as an unexpected treat. :-)

 Bon Appetit!