Positive Potatoes

   Last week I had supper with my friend Bo.  We were due at a meeting at 6:30 and she got home at 6 o'clock.  So we had about fifteen minutes to eat a meal.  We poured a glass of wine but instead of cheese and crackers or a quick sandwich, she decided to cook.
   Bo became my friend because she is from Connecticut.  Finding someone from Connecticut in a small Midwestern town is like discovering diamonds in a corn field.  We both may be from The East (Big Bad East to the Midwesterners) but our worlds weren't exactly adjacent.  She is a frugal Scottish Connecticut Yankee and I am from New Jersey.  She lived outside the gravitational pull of NYC while I was in the thick of it but still, yes loyal Midwesterners, out in "the country."  Midwesterners know intellectually that there are rural parts of the East but in their hearts they want to believe it's one big piece of asphalt. But back to the supper.
   Bo decided to cook a farmer's omelet.  She peeled and sliced potatoes and chopped a Vidalia onion. (She lives alone but buys them in bulk from Georgia. Some kind of a fundraiser.) The veggies went into the cast iron frying pan with a little olive oil and started to cook, fast she hoped, on high heat.  But the onions were caramelizing way too fast (in other words they were burning) and we had to slow it down.
   She chopped some ham and beat a few eggs and the omelet was on its way.  The meal needed to be done in five minutes but that wasn't going to happen. Bo said we have to eat now.  I said but Bo the potatoes aren't cooked yet (one of those Emperor's New Clothes moments.) Bo said that's OK, we'll eat them al dente.
   Al dente.  Brilliant! Now THAT is a true positive attitude.   I can learn so much from Bo.  She has turned many a lemon into lemonade and now her raw potatoes are a gourmet treat. The potatoes were a little crunchy but the omelet was delicious.  And, oh yes, we got to our meeting on time.