(This was the meeting that really happened in February but I’m keeping in order of the printed calendar.)
(Book #74) Lynn hosted this meeting with her usual aplomb. She offered several great wines including a light option, and two delicious appetizers. One was a salmon spread and the other was Don’s Tuesday Night Balcony Salad of lobster, mango and avocado. For dinner, she served pork roast wrapped in bacon, potatoes with cream cheese, sauteed asparagus, a Napa cabbage salad and fish for anyone not wanting to eat meat for religious reasons. Her layered dessert started with thin chocolate chip cookies topped with marscapone cheese, whipped cream and maybe some other things that made it taste heavenly.
Our discussion of the book focused significantly on the Spectrum disorders. I was intrigued by the poster boy for Asperger’s Syndrome preparing for a lecture on the topic but not recognizing himself in the diagnosis. One of the girls said that a book about dating someone on the spectrum is the story of her life. From there we had quite a discussion about open marriage with no takers for trying it. Because Don created a 16-page questionnaire to help him find the perfect mate, I created one in my thank you to Lynn for a lovely evening.
To: Lynn Elliott
Subject: Perfect Hostess Questionaire
Please answer the following and submit:
1. When hosting an event in my home, my wine choices are
A. based on what I was given for Christmas a few years ago
B. plentiful but random – wine is wine – drink up!
C. presented in order by color, sweetness, appellation and vintage
D. chosen from the origin that relates to the theme of the event, are plentiful, and I try to have one that is lower in calories for those in
attendance who are generally overindulgers but happen to have started yet another diet.
E. kool-aid. I don’t serve wine, I like grape kool-aid. That’s how grapes should be used.
2. Appetizers include:
A. a good bag of chips. Who doesn’t like chips?
B. a frozen variety that you can microwave.
C. white bean soup shooters with bacon, sweet roasted grapes, cucumber sandwiches, crudo on the half shell, and an assortment of
cheeses displayed around an elaborate food sculpture – a peacock perhaps.
D. food items relevant to a theme such as “sustainable” salmon spread and the “Tuesday Night Balcony Salad” but made even more
delicious than the given recipe.
E. If God meant for us to eat tiny little bits of food on toothpicks, He would have given us all delicate little bird-like fingers – OK birds
don’t have fingers, but you know what I mean.
3. For the main course, I will make
A. a mess of my kitchen!
B Sloppy Joes – who doesn’t like Sloppy Joes?
C. roasted suckling pig on a spit in the fireplace, large turkey drumsticks, large baskets of fruit and sweetmeats.
D. a delicious pork roast wrapped in bacon, decadent potatoes with cream cheese, sautéed asparagus, a Napa cabbage salad, and a
fish main course for those observing a religious holiday.
E. reservations.
4. For dessert, we will have
A. bananas
B. ice cream with bananas
C. more wine.
D. an amazing thin chocolate chip cookie layered with marscapone cheese, whipped cream and other incredible things that will taste
like heaven even though it only took 10 minutes to make!
E. to wait. I didn’t make dessert.
5. Dinner conversation will include
A. one of the guests admitting that a book about dating someone on the spectrum is the story of her life.
B. throwing shade at the idea of an “open marriage”
C. regular surprise that the book was set in Australia and not California or Canada.
D. ooohs and aahs about the deliciousness of the food
E. one of the guests finally realizing it was her book left at the last meeting
F. all of the above and more.
Not to be hasty in determining the results, but I think it’s clear that we have found the Perfect Hostess and we THANK you, Lynn, from the bottom of our imperfect hearts.