eating again...............

again, typing and munching........

getting to be a habit........

although unlike the last time, this is a two-handed type, because the food i'm eating can be put down while i chew....and type........

ok, if you must know, i'm noshing on a piece of mandel bread, leftover, but frozen...(until just now), after a dinner party the other night. which brings me to a funny story.......

husband and i are very popular. oh, not like some. if gay marriage ever comes to south florida (you know, right after hell does that freeze thing?), we'd have a wedding event. we'd invite a bunch of our friends and make a big party. but not, say, like chelsea clinton and the sacred 500, which is, right now, such a secret that the people on world news tonight with diane sawyer, at the end of the 5 minute report from the town where it's to be held, said they weren't even sure it was happening there, interviewing townspeople, checking bookings in hotel rooms, and they still deny knowlege for sure, even after taking in vain the names of oprah winfrey, steven spielberg, the obamas, and of course barbra streisand.

that's popular.

i don't even know 500 people which is a good thing, because i can't afford to feed 500 people, so sometimes the universe conspires and you come out a winner.

so, as popular as we are, we invite people to dinner, and in turn get invited to dine. (and i'm thinking it's more than most people, but i could be wrong).

so the other night, in honor of one of our "couple" friends leaving for p'town to run their inn for the summer, we had a kind of a farewell event, and asked them to dinner, along with another gay couple that we love. husband got all creative and authentic and did a pasta thing, which is surely among his strong suits. it was spaghetti carbonara, NO CREAM INVOLVED. as i said, the real deal, bacon and eggs and shallots. talk about yum. there was also salad, and amazing bread from the amazing bakery in our 'hood. for dessert, we kind of cheated and just did some spumoni ice cream and biscotti.

digress............

who remembers real spumoni? well, i'm thinking certainly not the people in utah, or west virginia or indiana. no, this would be a new york, new jersey, philly experience. i'm talkin' the good crap, like from little italy in new york, or, of course, next to any cheesesteak joint in downtown philly......you get the picture. the good stuff that once you wander from the 'hood, is gone. (stays in your memory forever, whenever the word spumoni comes up,) but it's a local phenom. until now. edy's, (yes, clutch the pearls, the very edy's, available right here in publix) is making a spumoni now. it won't put the mob in jersey city out of business, but it will definitely touch you right on that spot that you remember.)

that's cheat #1......

and then there's noni's biscotti. readily available at publix, sam's, costco, bj's, and if you're not going to make them yourself, it works.

and that's cheat #2......

back..............

so that was dessert. store bought, very good, spumoni, and store bought, pretty good, biscotti.
i'm thinking, following the authentic carbonara, we're good.

digress again........sorry......

our friends, the various "couples", and we, have dispensed with "door prizes". you get invited, you come eat, and please don't bring me the bottle of wine, that i have to hold for 2 months before i give it back to you, when it's your turn. (i had a bottle of wine once for 9 years. never drank it. it just went back and forth from dinner party to dinner party.) we finally put a stop to that foolishness. it's totally unneccesary. we're all friends. so, tonight, no gifts were expected.

back...........

the first couple arrives with a shopping bag. WTF?? turns out, it's a container of pickles, some cream cheese, a jar of jelly, a head of lettuce and a lonely tomato. (they're leaving, remember? to go to cape cod? and they're emptying their fridge into mine. i'm not sure if they're saying, here this is for you, or hold this til we get back in 3 months, i don't want to run my fridge all summer). ah, friends.

now the second couple arrives, also with a package, and i'm like, oh shit, they've all gone either senile or nostalgic and i'm somehow in the middle wondering what kind of wine is in the bag? turns out, couple number 2 is just back from a trip, where an ancient recipe was bestowed upon them, and immediatly upon their return home, the one that cooks, dove in and tried it.

as fate would have it, the recipe was for mandel bread, which as you all know, is jewish biscotti. (maybe biscotti is italian mandel bread?.......whatever). what are the odds of this, people? i buy biscotti, and he bakes mandel bread. now, my politeness comes to the fore, and although having admitted to buying the biscotti, i make a point of saying, biscotti, schmiscotti. we'll put that away and eat the home-made goodies. and as it turns out, there's a reason that this is an ancient recipe. it's a keeper. these, you can't buy at publix or bj's or costco. no, no, no. you need a bubbe to make these. (that's yiddish for grandmother), or you need to pass the ancient recipe into someone's capable hands, and hope for the best. and that's just what we got. (to be completely disrespectful and blasphemous, these were better than my bubbe's). i'd go on and on about the nuance of the fresh orange rind, enrobing the nuts and cranberries, all caught up in a double baked bisquit with it's crunchy texture, but i won't, because after a while, you'd hate me, because there's one in my hand and not yours.

which is how this all began. with that majical cookie in one hand.........

ah, friends......................