Dinner

Our friend Jan called this evening just as I got off the phone with sister Lisa, and was about to take out the Fur Ball. Jan is a “dog person” currently without a dog but with a cool cat. So she got out to meet some “dog people” and their pups.

Zoe is so smart and lazy that she hangs out in the backfield and waits for a ball to be thrown. The pups are clueless and just want the big exciting run, but Zoe is there waiting for it to come down, gulp. So the conversation went something like: “most of these dogs are rescues. this is Willow. Oh, you’ll see Wilma in the doggie cart attached to the bicycle going by – she just had surgery on her knee so can’t run right now.”

Mom is doing worse and this may be the end, but we say that every day. I have everything to make her Chicken Saltimbocca, which I’ll make tomorrow night. Today I was running serious errands and talking to family on the phone. So I had to warm up some brisket (still have 1/2 brisket left after two dinners), make potatoes, saute some arugula that Jim wouldn’t eat and also some cherry tomatoes that we both ate.

Tomorrow I’ll also probably make the spaghetti squash a la my siblings, cooking helps me keep in touch with everyone when I’m so far away. Especially Mom. I changed the water on her gerbera daisies today. Also got from new neighbor Tom , with whom we ate dinner last night, two empty bottles of Bernard Czech lager with proper bottle-stop, that I will decoupage and use for daisies, Mom’s favorite flower. Well, gerberas are up there with glads, too, but they’ll be too big unless I cut off the bottle top and stop.

We’re not doing a traditional service, but something Mom wanted. Most of her life she did everything that was expected of her by others whether it be her family, the Church or others. For a number of years, perhaps since she read Betty Friedan, she went back to college and got degrees because she is so intelligent.

I told you she got out of the “Betty Crocker” days and graduated to Gourmet. Her Christmas dinner is a legend in her time: perfect Prime Rib with gravy, roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and veg. Desserts include mincemeat tartlets, Scandinavian cookies, apple shortbreads, oatmeal cookies, Snickerdoodles and date squares.

If the four of us “kids” got together we might be able to make one of Mom’s historic meals. I thank her so much for introducing me, us, to great food and great dinners.

And we tend to stay away from trendy restaurants because we actually cook better! Not better chefs, but better cooks and we get to stay home and tell jokes and hang out. OK, if there is one thing I’d do with Mom’s “estate” when she leaves us, I’d sponsor getting her knives sharpened before they go in a box and storage.

Thanks again for sticking with me. You’re great! Dee