Lovely morning, compost salad, dinner for the grands

El, Michele and Mom treated me to a wonderful anniversary dinner last night - shrimp risotto, seared turkey breast with sage, asparagus, lots of wine and champagne - which we capped off with that scrumptious pie. There were only 2 slivers left because I promised the boys I'd save them some. We sat outside, enjoying each other's company and laughter, and T made it home just as we were wrapping up. This morning, Mom, El and I went to Pilates and then to one of my dearest pals (a woman I met in this very Pilates class) house (with our Pilates teacher, also a great pal) for tea, treats and more fun. It is just the best to sit around laughing with a cool and beloved group of women, you know? Awesome. Then to the market and then home as I needed to get dinner ready for my sweet nonagenarians. Tonight they'll enjoy a zucchini, yogurt and beef casserole, roasted asparagus and a sweet pumpkin cheesecake for two. Doesn't this look yummy?

While it cooked, I made a good old compost salad. They never get old and I love that it enables me to clean out my crisper drawers. Oh dear, I'm about to be late to get Ol. More later.

The aftermath of a good party

Now, don't get me wrong. Last night was superb, and in going to bed just before 1:00am, I called it a day (a morning?) hours before Elia and Mom. But I am really.so.seriously. tired today. Wow. It was with enormous gratitude that I brought the boys to school for a "long" day (those on which Ol stays until 2:15), and other than lunch out, us adults spent much of that time draped Dali-like over various couches and beds throughout the house.

Even the pets seemed soggy. And that's something.

I did spy these little tomatoes and am thrilling with visions of sweet summer tomatoes, plucked and enjoyed before the sun's warmth fades from their skins. It's coming...

If I want a rhubarb pie badly enough, will it appear?

A grand success

Last night's party was a grand affair! It is always so wonderful to have your favorite friends and family together, surrounded by a pervasive aura of love and happiness, music, great food and drink, uproarious laughter and endless talk which refuse to let silence enter. El and her wonderful husband created a fantastic slideshow of photographs of Mom and Dad from the past 40+ years as well as a number of loving notes fam and friends had sent in. In an old moving box I recently managed to unpack, I found three dinner plates from the china Mom and Dad received as wedding gifts. Last night, they ate from those. I'd had a local florist recreate a less-detailed version of Mom's wedding bouquet which she carried around sportingly for a while. Dad wore a boutonniere, champagne and wine flowed, and never before have I seen such a spread of food be decimated so quickly. Hear, hear!! Leftovers of any degree there were not.

We plowed through seven pounds of beef tenderloin, a vat of mint-pistachio pesto, two dozen rolls, the beet-horseradish salad, an asparagus-mint salad, a strawberry cheesecake, a lemon meringue pie and a chocolate-almond cake. Not a crumb remained. Easiest clean-up ever!