Central Market and a cooking day

This is my best friend from high school, Barbara Bucknell Ashcraft

If you do the math, that makes us friends for over sixty years

and we still love it.

 

I don't know how much of a hostess I managed to be today, but I took Barbara and her daughter, Amy, to Central Market. I of course had a list, knew where what I wanted was, and was ready to buzz through the store. They wanted to linger over every aisle they went down, and I spent a lot of time either commenting on what they were looking at--those black truffles at $299.99/lb.,-which none of us know what to do with, for instance. They bought special chocolate for a co-worker of Amy's (she's a CCC nurse), one of my favorite chocolate bars for Barbara, and coffee beans because the taste they had was so good--see, marketing techniques really do work. I guess my lack of ability to linger while shopping showed, and they said several times, "Judy's ready to go." But I knew I had a lot to do when I got home.

When we came home, compulsive that I am, I dove right into making the tomatillo sauce for the chicken enchilada casserole I was fixing. Then we had a fine lunch of leftover lasagna soup, leftover bread salad, and pimiento cheese sandwiches. While I cleaned the kitchen and got in a bit of computer time and a quick nap, they went on a long walk around my picturesque neighborhood and then to an antique store--and met a friend of mine, so they had a good chat and Amy bought some small things.

I picked Jacob up at school and we did homework, but he was upset about something that happened and balked at his math. I got him to do part of it, gave him a break, and Amy came in to help him, and he finished it in nothing flat. I suspect he would show me his unhappiness but not share it with her...and he did tell me what bothered him but didn't tell her.

We had a wonderful dinner on the deck--temperature maybe a degree or two cool but really a pleasant evening. I served chicken/tomatillo enchiladas--the kind I love to make because you put the tortillas flat in the pan, and layer chicken, mozzarella, tomatillo sauce--two layers--and top it with cream. None of that frying tortillas and rolling them. Really good if I do say so, though I haven't figured out what the cream adds. With that, we had Jordan's world-famous blue-cheese vinaigrette salad (Barbara and Amy said they make it all the time) and a fruit salad. Best of all, we had a wonderful visit. First time Amy had met Jordan and Christian, and they instantly became fast friends--I guess the sixty-year friendship of mothers passes down. It was a lovely evening, and to cap it off Barbara, Amy and I lit the fireplace and had a last glass of wine while we watched the dogs frolic. It is truly a blessing to feel such a close bond with someone I've known all these years. We're talking about a river cruise together, though we feel we need our daughters to shepherd the old ladies on such a venture. Who knows? We might go by ourselves. At any rate, this too-short visit has been a true blessing and a wonderful brightener in my already bright life. Life is not only good, it's sometimes just plain wonderful.