I said to a friend tonight that I
thought I was increasingly becoming a recluse. He asked if I liked to have
people in my home, and I enthusiastically answered yes. Did I like being
alone? No, sometimes I get bored. “Then you’re not a recluse,” he intoned.
I tried to get Subie and
Phil to stay for supper but they wouldn’t, so the five of us ate on the deck. I
fixed a super chicken dish I think I found in a NYTimes cooking column: spray a
roasting pan with oil of some kind, cover the bottom with onion slices and
sliced shallots, put chicken thighs on top. Season with salt and pepper and
slide into a hot oven (I did 450 and it still took about an hour and a half). Layer
croutons in a serving dish and arrange chicken on top and dump the roasting pan
on top of it all. My only complaint--the croutons didn’t become as soggy as I
expected. I served it with Christians’ green beans—cook some bacon and retain
the grease, drain bacon and crumble. Dump green beans into grease, douse
liberally with cider vinegar and, when serving, crumble in the bacon. That and
one of Jordan’s good blue cheese salads was dinner. So good.
So my problem is not being a recluse
but the anxiety/mobility that makes it difficult for me to leave my house—been
there, done that some forty years ago so I know I can overcome it again.
Meanwhile my reclusiveness
was interrupted tonight by Subie and Phil, good friends just back from a long
trip to Argentina. They called to ask if they could come for wine. Of course
they could. Then Jordan and Jacob arrived, followed by Christian with
much-needed dog food, and finally David who doesn’t come for visits often
enough. David was Jordan’s first boyfriend, is now a close friend of both
Christian and Jordan, and in his SuperDave cape takes Jacob to TCU ball games.
He’s family around here.
I tried to get Subie and
Phil to stay for supper but they wouldn’t, so the five of us ate on the deck. I
fixed a super chicken dish I think I found in a NYTimes cooking column: spray a
roasting pan with oil of some kind, cover the bottom with onion slices and
sliced shallots, put chicken thighs on top. Season with salt and pepper and
slide into a hot oven (I did 450 and it still took about an hour and a half). Layer
croutons in a serving dish and arrange chicken on top and dump the roasting pan
on top of it all. My only complaint--the croutons didn’t become as soggy as I
expected. I served it with Christians’ green beans—cook some bacon and retain
the grease, drain bacon and crumble. Dump green beans into grease, douse
liberally with cider vinegar and, when serving, crumble in the bacon. That and
one of Jordan’s good blue cheese salads was dinner. So good.
High old time of visiting and friends.
Tomorrow I work. And maybe I won't be a recluse
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