Fun, food and good friends

If you can get a nine-year-old boy to go back for third helpings, you know you’ve accomplished something. With Jordan out of town, I cooked for Jacob and Christian tonight—mostly it was a Christian-centric meal. I fixed “his” green beans—cook about four slices of bacon in a skillet and set aside to drain and crisp; sauté a few scallions in the bacon grease; drain a large can of regular cut green beans and dump into the skillet. Add cider vinegar to taste. Christian adores them! Then I fixed frozen sweet corn with butter, salt and pepper, and steamed turkey kielbasa. Father and son ate like they hadn’t eaten in a week.  Our sweet and patient vegetarian friend who joined us didn’t fare so well, though she ate the green beans ad picked out the bacon pieces. Still she said she could taste the flavor—though it didn’t seem to bother her (I love flexible vegetarians). I gave her my leftover black beans from dinner at the Tavern last night and she agreed with me—they are absolutely the best black beans ever.

I’ve had a couple of great food days. Yesterday, Melinda (production manager at TCU Press) and I went to Nonna Tata. We always carry our individual small bottles of wine—red for her and white for me—and we both always order the same thing: chicken piccata for her with pasta, and braseola (the beef version of prosciutto) for me-it comes with greens and shaved grana cheese, all dressed in a light lemon vinaigrette plus a good vinegar potato salad.

I guess I was too full from lunch to appreciate dinner but it was the regular night for Betty and me to go to dinner. Linda, my longtime friend (would you believe 40 years) came in from Granbury to join us, and we had a lovely time-not catching up but just talking about the present, telling good stories, and laughing a lot.  My niece and her family happened to be in the restaurant (the Tavern) and came over to our table--I got wonderful hugs from her and from her youngest daughter who doesn’t know me very well. But she studied me for a moment and then threw her arms around my neck. Talk about a special moment.

So if I haven’t gotten much work done the last couple of days, it’s been delightful. And the evening with Betty and Linda reminded me of my friend Barbara. When we got together we always talked about the past, until her husband in frustration would say, “Why can’t you talk about the present?” Indeed, he was right, and last night we did talk about the present—everything from family to politics to current fashions. Our lives are rich and full.

Finding a new restaurant

I always joke that I travel on my stomach. Finding new restaurants in strange cities is one of my life's great delights. Tonight I didn't have to go far. Friends took me to dinner at Celaborelle, a Phoenician buffet not a mile from my house. I have to add that it is in a neighborhood where I wouldn't normally think of going. But it was a fascinating experience.
The restaurant is in an old house that reminds you that Hemphill Avenue was once a street of grand homes. This one seems to have been maintained intact, with dark woodwork, hardwood floors, a tiled fireplace angled into what was probably the parlor. The front door sits at an angle, so that the whole house avoids that square as a box appearance. A tantalizing staircase leading to the second floor had me curious, but I'm told if the restaurant is crowded at lunch diners can eat upstairs (they currently aren't serving lunch). Apparently there used to be a lunch buffet but a web site says that's suspended until they get more staff. Celaborelle changes from time to time, and occasionally closes for long periods so the owners can visit Lebanon.
Dinner is casual at best. You order from a huge whiteboard that is crowded with so many items I couldn't take them all in. I chose lamb shish kebabs because the lamb was recommended and because I'd gone there craving lamb. One of our party ordered beef kabobs, and the third the vegetarian meal which turn out to be such an enormous banquet that we could only laugh. The wait lady kept bringing dish after dish--lentil soup, hummus, spicy mushrooms, spinach pie. For an appetizer we had some of the best tabouli I've ever eaten and baba ganoush (eggplant dip)--huge servings of both.
Dinner is not a hurried affair here since everything is cooked from scratch when you order it; it comes out of the kitchen in bits and pieces. By the time my lamb arrived I was already full of the appetizers and bits of Steve's vegetarian meal--a taste of soup, a piece of the spinach pie (absolutely delicious). My lamb kebobs were piled on a huge serving of rice scattered with grilled vegetables, but the kebabs themselves were pure lamb in a marvelous marinade--two skewers loaded with eight good-sized chunks of lamb each. I brought home enough to feed me for a week.
We lingered over dinner for over two hours and enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks much to Della and Steve for giving me a whole new dining experience--and the great pleasure of their company. What a delightful evening.