This month’s Dempster’s sandwich gave me a little lesson in supply, demand, and the art of improvisation.
Originally, we wanted to rock some mean burgers. Sarah and I are part of a crew that does semi-regular Danforth Dinners, a dinner party for 8-10 where we take turns hosting to give everyone a taste of what the group has to offer. Though not everyone lives in East York anymore (rumours of a St. Clair Supper are in the air…), we still try to keep up, regardless of the newest — and likely most difficult — member sometimes wanting us to do otherwise.
So, knowing that time’s often limited for parents, our friends give us the easy job — “just bring the buns”. Well — everyone in town must’ve had the exact same idea now that our weather’s more promising than the horror we dealt with for 6 months, because no matter where we looked, we couldn’t find Dempster’s Deluxe Hamburger Buns anywhere! We checked six stores, and everyone must’ve been out barbecuing in 10° weather, because they were out of stock like the hot toy at Christmas!
So that didn’t work out — I mean, obviously we still had burgers, we’d be stupid not to — but with some other bread we’d never heard of before to encase the deliciousness we knew we were to get.
With my delicious burger dream reduced to crumbs and the buns to hold them mysteriously absent wherever I looked, I needed a new sandwich idea and fast; a freelancer’s deadlines wait for no man! So it was off to Plan B — thinking back to my childhood and the stuff my Mom whipped up when she was in a hurry — SLOPPY JOES.