What is Easy? (Illusions, Part 2)

"This looks amazing," my friend Mike said, as we sat down to dinner. He was in town on business, and Jenny was at a work event, so it was just me, Mike, and the kids, rocking out on a Wednesday night. On the table: chicken tandoori burgers with a yogurt-mint sauce, sauteed spinach, curried carrots, and the remnants of some math homework. "Man, if we could eat like this every night..."

Mike's one of my best friends. He's a smart guy. He's also an extremely talented writer with some serious -- and rare -- powers of observation. He's crazy insightful. His stories, as they say, get at the deeper truths. He'd just spent the last 30 minutes, standing in our kitchen, getting his gin-and-tonic on and watching me put this dinner together. How had he not seen how unmagical this really was? What had I done that could have possibly suggested this was hard, or complicated, or beyond his skillset? In some ways, this was like watching a friend back his car out of his driveway and saying, "Holy sh*t, dude, you are amazing! How did you do that?" It's not that I don't enjoy a good, undeserved compliment -- and oh, how we love a gracious guest -- but I can't, in good conscience, let this perception stand. I can't let Mike get away with acting like what we're doing is hard. The big secret here is that most of the stuff we make on any given night is simple, requires very few ingredients, very little prep time, and no expertise (which I don't have, anyway, at least not in any real sense of the word). All it takes is will, and a little planning ahead. This was no exception.

"God, these carrots," he said, taking a bite.

The tandoori burgers take all of 20 minutes. The yogurt sauce is plain yogurt spiked with a handful of chopped mint. The spinach is sauteed in olive oil for three minutes, with a clove of garlic, and then topped with a squeeze of lemon juice and some salt. And the carrots he was talking about? Our Boston Terrier, God love her peanut brain, could make them with one paw tied behind her back. Here's how I did it: I peeled four carrots and cut them into quarter-inch rounds, and tossed them in a pot. I added 1/2 cup of water, 2 tsp of curry powder, a small pat of butter, some kosher salt, and a squeeze of honey. I simmered, covered, for 15 minutes. That's it.

"That's it?" M. said.

Illusion shattered. -- Andy

Iris takes notes on preparation. "Yeah, I got this," she says.