A new recipe and a good day

My day started with a chatterbox--Jacob talked nonstop from the time he got up until his parents came to get him at ten. The only brief moment of quiet was when he was absorbed in drawing on paper on my office floor. We read the paper together--that is, he put the section he had over the section I was reading and kept explaining it to me. I gave up and fixed him his "awful waffle." Then a trip to Central Market--I find I have already learned to economize. I spent less than $100 on food this week at two grocery stories, including wine and supplies for two company meals--it helped greatly that friends sent me a lovely fruit basket.
Tonight Jay and Susan came for dinner--Jay and I both read Food & Wine and we had agreed we'd love the pasta recipe with olive oil, tomatoes, capers, and anchovies. It called for black olives, which neither Jay nor I like--and I didn't consult Susan, just left them out. But I did add some squash--from my brother's garden--and a bit of grated grana cheese. Absolutely delicious. I thought you'd have to be careful and only serve this to people who eat anchovies, but you didn't really taste them. Capers do lovely things when they are fried, and you got more caper taste. The squash was a great addition.
Jay (he says I keep forgetting to mentioin he's my handsome neighbor) ended up taking over the cooking. He said after all it was his magazine and his recipe. I had the sauce made when they got here, and we had a glass of wine, then went to cut up fruit and boil pasta--that was when he took over, reminding me to add 1/3 cup pasta water to the recipe, draining the pasta, worrying over the temperature of the sauce, mixing it with the pasta and finally serving it. Susan kept laughing and saying, "Jay, it's not your kitchen," but I was glad to have him do it. I joked and asked if that included dishes but they both did pitch in and scrape dishees and load the dishwasher. So we had a good time, talking mostly about food and cooking.
This is a cooking weekend, and I'm enjoying it. More tomorrow.