Your parents' meet cute

In a recent episode, I mentioned in passing having "had the perfect meet cute with my dream woman 40+ years ago in the Hopkins cafeteria." I was surprised when Moriah texted me to get the scoop on the meet cute because I thought Dylan would have known the story, but he didn't, and apparently neither did the rest of you. So here it is.

 

My freshman year at Hopkins I lived in the Lazear dormitory. The dorm was three stories, the first two for men and the third floor for women (make those women get more exercise!). One of the women who lived in the room directly above mine was Hali, a fellow Long Islander. Hali ran cross country, as did your Mom, both in high school and at Hopkins.

 

One evening after cross country practice, Hali brought Karen to dinner in the freshman dining hall and sat across from my roommate Rich and me. But Hali failed to make the introduction, and Mom was way too painfully shy to introduce herself. Hopkins freshmen were on a meal plan, and to make sure no one got more than their allotted share of meals they'd paid for (as if they'd want to given how bad the food was!), everyone had a punch card with their name and picture on it that you had to get punched every time you ate a meal in the dining hall. Mom had her punch card face-down on or near the tray her food was on. So I picked up her card, turned it over to see her name, and said, "Hi Karen, I'm Paul." Mom was way too shy to say anything in return, and I'm not sure she said anything at all during the entire meal. But the wheels were in motion.

 

Of course, it took a while for everything to click into place. While Mom and I slowly became best friends, it didn't develop into anything more than that for a time, because I had a crush on Mom's — unbeknownst to me — lesbian roommate. While I was dilly-dallying, Mom finally took matters into her own hands. After her second cross country season, which she capped off by running the Baltimore Marathon, Mom developed a sore knee and couldn't run for a time, so she started swimming at the Hopkins gym instead. Mom knew exactly what she was doing when she invited me to join her, as one look at Mom in a bathing suit was all it took for me to see her as something more than just my best friend. So now you all know our meet cute.

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While Mom and I were still at Hopkins, one of our friends drove us and a few others to the now-long-defunct Charles Street Pantry, which was down Charles Street a mile or so from the Hopkins campus. There we both had a dessert that consisted of a croissant split in half lengthwise, with vanilla ice cream scooped onto the bottom half, then covered with a drizzle of chocolate sauce, and finally the other half of the croissant rested on top like a hat (or more like a beret, I guess, since it's a French pastry). Mom and I liked this dessert so much that we used to walk all the way to and from the Charles Street Pantry, at night, through a not-safe part of crime-ridden Baltimore, when we had a craving. (UaKS parental advice: Do as I say, not as I do.)

 

One morning over the holidays, I picked up some yummy pastries from the excellent Cou Cou Rachou bakery (on Preston, around the corner from Stix), including some plain croissants. Shockingly, we didn't scarf all of the croissants before dinner (though we had eaten the rest of the pastries). When it came time for dessert, I looked at the leftover croissants and the Charles Street Pantry came rushing back into my mind. We had some vanilla ice cream in the freezer, so all I needed was some chocolate sauce to recreate our long-ago favorite dessert. I looked through a few cookbooks and went with this recipe from David Lebovitz, who, fittingly, has lived in Paris for many years. The sauce was not only quick and easy but quite delicious, and everyone enjoyed the reconstructed Charles Street Pantry (RIP) croissant with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Sauce

Adapted from The Sweet Life in Paris (2009) by David Lebovitz

 

Time: ~9 minutes
 

113 grams / 4 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate (such as 9 squares of Trader Joe's 72% Dark Chocolate)
120 grams (½ cup) whole or low-fat dairy or nondairy milk (I use unsweetened, unflavored almond milk), more if needed
12 grams (1 tablespoon) granulated white sugar

Chop the chocolate into very small pieces. Transfer to a small saucepan. Add the milk and sugar. Place the pan over low-ish heat. Stir with a whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. If the sauce is too thick for your liking, whisk in more milk, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time, until you reach the desired consistency. Serve right away or store in a covered container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Reheat gently before using. Makes 1 cup.