Journal Entries for Week 33

In the book I talk extensively about my extended family's extraordinary generosity, and how it frequently expresses itself through food.

Here's an example: on Saturday, a companion and I drove up to Madison, Conn., to have dinner with Uncle Mario and Aunt Carolyn. In Madison there's a very modest weekend house that the extended family sometimes uses in the summer, and my uncle and aunt were supposed to be getting there AFTER us on Saturday. So I told them that for a change, I'd take care of dinner. Usually, they insist on feeding me.

I assured them I'd bring plenty of food. And I did. For four of us, I brought two roasted chickens, two pounds of baby back ribs, butternut squash, a mozzarella and tomato salad, chocolate chip cookies, macaroons and Jacques Torres chocolates.

But it turned out that their schedule had changed as the weekend approached. They got to Madison before us. And, well, they couldn't resist adding their own contributions to whatever sort of meal my companion and I had planned. For the cocktail hour, they served barbecued shrimp, baked brie, raw veggies with blue cheese dip, and several bowls of almonds. For dinner they grilled both salmon--and I mean a slab of salmon big enough for six--and mixed vegetables, and we had these ALONG with the chicken and the ribs and the squash and the mozzarella and tomato.

And for dessert they had bought quarts of three different kinds of ice cream, including chocolate peanut butter and butter pecan, and they made fresh whipped cream and warmed up some chopped almonds and warmed up some hot fudge they'd purchased--for sundaes. Because who doesn't love a sundae?

I type today with swollen fingers, and I'll be heading out momentarily for a run. A very long one, I hope!