The Big Drip

Finally, A Dinner With Neighbors

8:12

It's 8:30 and the ice fishermen are out despite the fact yesterday much of the surface snow melted so I now look out at a gray frozen lake.  It's windy and 28º as the temperature will drop during the day, putting a stop to the big melt.

Friday was another good but busy day as we were having neighbors, John and Maryanne over for dinner so Evie spent a good part of the morning, prepping our dinner, Peruvian chicken and dessert, an apple galette.  I was my usual helpful self and went out to ski in the neighborhood around 10:30, hoping there would be a trail of some sort in the woods.  I was wrong and after plowing through a foot and a half of snow I bagged it and skied down to the lake and went for a pleasant ski on the lake despite a gusty wind from the south. When I walked in, the house smelled great, as Evie had just pulled the galette out of the oven and most of her prepping was done.

Lunch was easy, just heating up the spaghetti noodles and chili.  I watched my show and then spent a good part of the afternoon reading, finishing up my book, Point Of Impact, as good old boy Bob Lee Swagger managed to outshoot hundreds of mercenaries and outwit the CIA.  What a guy. During the afternoon, Evie put the finishing touches on the house and dinner and we were both showered and gussied up by 5:00, able to relax until 6:00 when our neighbors arrived at our comfortable, cozy home, warm and welcoming, with the fireplace roaring. 

"A Clean Well-Lighted Place," Hemingway

We sat around until 7:00, enjoying our libations and appetizer, roasted rosemary cashews, from Ina Garten, introduced to us by our nephew Patrick. Once the chicken and potatoes were ready, we sat down and enjoyed not only the chicken and potatoes with leeks but our guests brought cranberry muffins and a fruit salad so we had a variety of tastes.  The potatoes and leeks, with cream and gruyere was the hit as everyone had seconds. We had our apple galette with ice cream in the living room and they stayed until 9:45.  It was a fun evening since we had not really gotten together with them since Covid began.  We ended the night in the kitchen, doing the dishes and talking about what a fun evening we had with Maryanne and John.