Friends and food

I'm so excited.

Some dear friends are arriving later this afternoon from Baltimore and staying until Wednesday.

I've been pouring over my recipe books.  I have some wonderful chicken and lamb recipes but, you know, if you come to the Eastern Shore, you expect seafood. Besides, I checked my local seafood market yesterday and there are some really good deals - especially on shrimp and chick lobsters.

So, tonight, it will be Spicy Shrimp and Creamy Grits (from a wonderful recipe I got years ago from my friends in the Low Country of South Carolina) with some Portuguese Rice Pudding for dessert.

Tomorrow, we have another couple joining us for dinner so I'll make a Portuguese Paella (made with saffron rice, shrimp, scallops, crab, mussels, crab and a chick lobster along with some chicken and spicy Portuguese sausage) and a Pavlova for dessert. 

Portuguese Paella and Pavlova. I seem to be stuck on the P section of the cookbook for some reason.

I've tidied up the guest room and freshened up the guest bathroom. I've done the marketing for the next few days - dear God, saffron threads have gotten even more expensive, more so than the scallops or lobster! - and, within the next hour or so, will start being my own sous chef. I want to have as much prepared as I can so I am able to enjoy my friend's company.

If the weather behaves, we'll spend some time on Tuesday walking the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach and doing wonderful "touristy" things like eating a big container of Boardwalk Fries sprinkled with salt and malt vinegar all in one go and then munch on a box of Salt Water Taffy for dessert.

So healthy, right? We're walking. We're talking. We're laughing. We're eating. It all evens out.

We'll talk and talk and laugh and laugh as the ocean roars and the sea gulls cry. And, of course, we'll talk politics and tsk-tsk and tut-tut about the election process while making our various predictions about key elections, and, of course, we'd be able to solve all the problems of the world if our national and international leaders were able to listen in on our conversation.

Talking about the church will be unavoidable. On Tuesday night, there will be three priests and one Abbess in the room. I mean, what else do you expect? Given these three priests, however, it won't last long. It's not that we're not interested or that it's not important. It's just that there are other more important things to talk about.

We'll have all these conversations while munching on some freshly made guacamole and salsa one night and, the next evening, we'll enjoy some absolutely marvelous Stilton Cheese with Mango, smeared on some amazing French bread I made earlier this morning.

My friends will bring the libations with which we'll wash it all down.

Good food and friends just seem to go together, don't they?

Nothing delights me more than preparing a good meal for good friends. It's really not work when you're doing something you love for the people you love. Besides, the house smells wonderful for days.  All that garlic and onion and herbs and spices seem to make a house smell like home.

Good friends, good food, good conversation.

Can heaven be far from sight?