Last weekend I went to my friend Jamie's to prepare 7 lasagnas for the family wedding dinner, and my friend Erin showed up to help. We spent the day in Jamie's perfectly gorgeous, well set up, and inviting kitchen.
The week prior had been very trying on many levels. I had had a supposedly minor procedure to have a cyst on my eyelid taken care of, and ended up with a pretty massive, long lingering black eye afterwards. I looked like a serious victim of domestic violence. The day after the procedure, the honey and I had planned to go to SF City Hall to get our marriage license, but somehow it would have felt strange to show up there looking like I'd just been beaten!
And then, there was the obligatory pre-marital argument that turned into a major blowout, the kind of blowout that has one or both parties threatening to cancel the wedding, divide the possessions and just bail on this whole thing. Fortunately, that one ended in forgiveness, commitment in tact.
But the bad feelings were hard to shake, and by the time Sunday morning rolled around, I was feeling pretty wrecked and emotionally hungover. I would have spent the day in bed in the fetal position if I hadn't already signed up to do this, but there was no turning back. And spending the day with sweet, generous friends in a warm & inviting kitchen, cooking food with and for people I love turned out to be just the remedy to everything ailing me.
As an extra special, most kind and utterly generous gift, Jamie not only did all the shopping, but paid for everything - that would be something like twelve pounds of local asparagus and six pounds of fancy imported gruyere and parmesan from The Cheeseboard, not to mention many, many boxes of noodles and many, many cans of organic fire roasted tomatoes. It really was a perfect way to spend a day, and feels so good to have that task completed. Jamie was also kind enough to lend us his freezer to store all the lasagnas until the big day.
As if all of that wasn't enough, he served us a world-class lunch featuring meltingly tender Rancho Gordo yellow-eye beans and fresh cod slathered in miso and baked in tin foil, all served over mixed baby greens. All of it was just the remedy to soothe my soul, and a reminder once again of how fortunate I am.
As if all of that wasn't enough, he served us a world-class lunch featuring meltingly tender Rancho Gordo yellow-eye beans and fresh cod slathered in miso and baked in tin foil, all served over mixed baby greens. All of it was just the remedy to soothe my soul, and a reminder once again of how fortunate I am.
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