Sautéed Mushrooms (Part 1)

[Nicolas Lepage 0]

By Drs. McKinny and Lepage

 

Nick stepped out of the shower and reached for his clothes. While getting dressed he went over the menu in his mind. He had decided to keep it simple. Stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer, then salmon fettucini with blue cheese and olives and banana sorbet for dessert.

 

"Alright Nick, make a plan... the sorbet is as good as ready, you need to make the mushrooms and the pasta." Talking to himself when trying to organize his thoughts was a habit of his, one he had tried to get rid of but never quite managed. Nick walked over to the tiny kitchen area and started to get busy. He still had two hours until DJ would turn up. Enough time to prepare the food and lay the table.

 

About two hours later the mushrooms were baking, the onions and bell peppers were chopped and the rest of the ingredients for the sauce were ready to go into the saucepan. The sorbet was just perfect. Nick walked over to the table to put some finishing touches to the decorations. Still, something seemed to be missing...

 

"Wine glasses!" He was going to serve white wine with the fish. The Chardonnay was already chilled. Placing the glasses on the table he checked his chrono. Just then the door chime sounded.

 

Nick hurried to open the door. DJ was standing there, looking him up and down, her gaze finally resting on the dish towel in his hand. Nick smiled back at her. "Please, come in," he said, moving a bit to the side to let her enter. "Why don't you sit down on the sofa while I get something to drink? Dinner will be ready in about 5 minutes."

 

DJ stepped into Nick's new quarters and allowed him to show her to the small but ample sofa. He'd received an upgraded apartment upon his promotion to Lieutenant Commander. She assumed the sofa was fairly new. His old apartment wouldn't have been large enough to accommodate one. "Gee, Nick," she said while sniffing the air. "Something smells good. I had no idea you were such an accomplished.....chef."

 

Nick smiled at that comment. "Well, we never had replicators at home. My mother hates them so she always had to cook. You can imagine that cooking for 14 people is quite some work so I helped her a lot. After a long day in sickbay i love cooking. It poses its own challenges."

 

So far things were going great, Nick thought. DJ had been just on time which allowed for them to sit on the sofa together for a few minutes before dinner. Just enough time to establish conversation and make sure they didn't feel rushed. Standing in front of the replicator Nick turned to DJ. "I promise the drinks, except the wine, will be the only replicated things tonight. What can I get you?"

 

The soon to be ex-CMO smiled brightly at her associate. "If you're serving wine with dinner, I'll start off with water with a lemon twist." She leaned forward a bit and took a long look at the small dining table. It was set perfectly, complete with a linen table cloth and what appeared to be real china, silver and crystal. The cloth napkins were folded to look like miniature tiaras and strategically placed in the center of each plate. There was even a cut glass vase of spring flowers on one end of the table. Obviously, Dr. Lepage had some experience at this sort of thing. She found herself feeling a little guilty about all the time and effort he was putting into this dinner.

 

"I'm really impressed," said DJ as she accepted the glass of water from her host. "But you shouldn't have gone to all this trouble. A hamburger and fries would have been okay."

 

Sitting down on the sofa, too, Nick took a moment before answering. "I'm not a fan of hamburgers actually. Especially for a guest, its not an appropriate dinner." He paused and contemplated his glass for a moment. "You know I'm from Montréal. My family can be traced back to the early 20th century...all French Canadian. That means I have French roots. We don't do hamburgers and fries," he added with a broad grin.

 

"You don't know what you're missing," laughed DJ. "A good hamburger smothered with mustard, sweet relish and onions," she paused and grinned. "Well, it can be something special.....even if it isn't French."

 

He chuckled as he saw DJ's amused expression. "Alright, the real reason... I wanted to impress you and make sure you miss at least my cooking...which reminds me. I need to check on the mushrooms or we'll have to skip the appetizers."

 

"Mushrooms?" asked DJ. "You've fixed mushroom appetizers?" She shook her head slightly. "Wow, you're going all out."

 

With that, he sat down the glass on the table and got up to walk back into the kitchen area. Opening the oven he took a quick look at the mushrooms. "Almost done," he called over to DJ. "Alright... sauce and water."

 

DJ stood and made her way over to the tiny kitchen area. She surveyed the range with it's pots and pans. She was starting to feel a little embarrassed. She hadn't expected Nick to prepare such an elaborate dinner.

 

It took him only two minutes to heat some olive oil and saute the onions and peppers. Adding the olives, spices and lemon juice he stirred the sauce briefly and turned down the heat to let it simmer. Turning up the heat for the water he turned around....

 

To Be Continued....