First Friday of 2007....

.... And it's been a great one. This afternoon, I spoke with my friend up in NY who is (finally!) able to speak again, after undergoing the radiation treatments for the tumor in her throat. So nice to pick up the phone and hear her voice... and it was her voice. I thought she sounded just the same as always. We talked for an hour, till I had to get myself ready to go out for dinner.

My husband and I went to Babbo Bruno's tonight for dinner... we hadn't been there since his birthday in mid-December. Interesting items on the menu tonight--- Lobster Risotto being one of them, and that's what I ordered. Big chunks of Australian lobster on top of the risotto, with smaller bits and pieces mixed into the cheese-risotto. Very filling, so I just ate half of it, although I probably could've just sat there and ate slowly and finished everything. The rest of it is in the fridge... I'll have it for lunch tomorrow, or better still-- for lunch on Sunday, being that we're having company tomorrow night.

As I type, my husband is in the kitchen making his oyster stuffing. We're having friends over tomorrow for dinner and Scrabble.... I'm making chicken cutlets, my husband is making the stuffing, and our friends are bringing something to go with the chicken. I told my husband that I'd clean up the kitchen when he was through... that's my standing offer-- if he cooks, I clean up. Which I'd rather do than cook, unless I get the cooking bug, which does come and go from time to time. Especially around the holidays and party-times.

I baked an apple cake today (for tomorrow night's dessert) using a recipe from our neighbor up at the lake cottage. She made it for us while we were up there last week.... delicious cake with chunks of apples throughout the cake. I asked her for the recipe and she wrote it out for me. My cake today was lighter in color than her cake was....... I checked the recipe... I think she used brown sugar in her cake, but she didn't write that down on the recipe card so I used regular sugar. Next time I make it, I'll just try the brown sugar and see what happens. She's an older lady, and this recipe has been in her family for years, so I'm sure she just didn't even think to mention the brown sugar.

This day has sped by so quickly...... I've been up since before six this morning.... went out to a few yard sales, not looking for anything special, just going out because I enjoy looking at the sales and you just never know what you can find. If I get up early tomorrow, I'll go to the sales in the morning... then I'll be getting everything ready for tomorrow night's dinner with R and C. Just a casual dinner, but I've made placecards for the dining room table... with tiny stick-on "Scrabble" letters to spell out each name. Being that they're coming over here for a Scrabble game after dinner, they'll enjoy the placecards.

The noises from the kitchen have stopped..... guess it's time for me to clean up the counters. After having such a large kitchen up at the lake, with so much counter-space, we get frustrated with our smaller kitchen in this house. But not frustrated enough to change the kitchen here.... I don't want to go through that kind of remodeling.