Happy Cinco de Mayo, Louise

Whoo-hoo: May 5, pretty much meaningless to Mexicans as their independence is in September but a fun made-up American holiday nonetheless. Aah, thanks Corona!

Good grief.

I met an extraordinary woman yesterday named Louise- w ran into each other outside the CVS as she came up to admire Percy and Oliver. Beautiful woman, Chanel bag, truly lovely in every way. She was born and raised in D.C. (you definitely don’t meet many nonagenarians in this category), and in 1947, she and her husband returned here (he was a dentistry resident at Walter Reed after the war). They moved to 48th between Quebec and Rodman, the neighborhood of Spring Valley, where we live now, and bought a large home on a big parcel of land for $37,500 and $50.00 down. Dios mio, I wish that’s what we’d paid. Anyway, they raised two daughters here, one of whom attended the same school as does Jack. One daughter was good friends with Tricia Nixon, both attended great colleges. One died at 52 and I didn’t ask but believe Louise to be widowed.

As we parted ways, she said I’d made her day, and I said, No, ma’am, you’ve made mine. Take care. And she said, “I’m 93 years old if you can believe it.” What a woman. I sure hope to run into her again!

Wow!

I cannot even tell you how incredibly good coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, milk, and Cognac all stirred together over a mild heat are. You just close your eyes, lick your lips and savor every bit. And then, that goes ON a six-egg, slightly-vanilla cake. Then, you whip cream, cinnamon and puréed mango together and spread atop all that insane yumminess, and then, for good measure, you put more puréed mango.  And then you wait a day while it all melds together even more. Aah- I cannot wait!!!!!!!!!!!

When you need a NO-EFFORT dinner but don't want take-out

I am not a big fan of take-out for several reasons: there aren’t that many good options around us, it’s expensive, and it’s rarely real good for you. So, when I can’t cook or will be working on something else, like the cake tonight, I like to have something at the ready (read: in the freezer) that will be satisfying and good (NOT a frozen dinner).

One of my favorite go-to meals is Whole Foods’ Turkey and White Bean Chili and cheddar-herb biscuits. I buy both fresh, freeze immediately and then thaw the day I want them. The coupon-lover in me takes advantage of WF’s Buy One, Get One Free soup day each week so I get two family size chilis for one. Fab! Add a glass of red wine, and you have a lovely meal.

As an aside, the Senate Bean soup is NOT good. You just cannot add an abundance of dried oregano to anything and have it go well.