wendy & lindsay

Our friends Lindsay and Wendy invited Parki, Jeff and me for dinner and a movie last night. We met Lindsay and Wendy through Parki and have Sunday brunch with them every so often. Jeff got to know them better while I was living in Philly. I recently added their names to my Cast of Characters list. By the way, I'd be grateful if anyone could tell me why that capital "S" is being displayed just below the intro on that page...I haven't been able to track it down in HTML and it's driving me nuts. (Later note: Thanks to Jim Poltrone for solving this mystery! I had an extra "s" between two of the table rows)





Dinner was Indian in theme, based on recipes from one of the Naked Chef cookbooks. It was unbelievably yummy! I'm serious...much better than the fare you usually get in restaurants. It makes my mouth water just to look at the photos I took last night again. Are any of you out there familiar with the Naked Chef? I've heard of him, but that's about it. I browsed through some of the Naked Chef cookbooks that Wendy and Lindsay had on their shelf, but there didn't seem to be any shots of the chef actually being naked (er...not that I was hoping to find a naked chef shot, of course...I really do like reading through cookbooks! honest! I'd better shut up now).

I finally asked Lindsay and Wendy, who told me that the Naked Chef name came from the fact that Jamie Oliver liked simplicity in his recipes, and that he preferred to work with fresh ingredients. Ah ok. I can't help but think that the name is also a brilliant marketing tool...it certainly immediately helps set the guy apart from the reams of other television chef personalities out there.



Lots of chopping in dinner preparations. From my (very) limited experience with Indian cooking, this seems to be standard. The results are usually well worth it, but it's time-consuming. I volunteered to help and was given the task of chopping tomatoes for the chicken curry dish. I also chopped curry leaves. I had never seen fresh curry leaves before! Lindsay and Wendy also prepared a special rice dish and a yogurt sauce.

Meanwhile, their 8-month-old cat was zooming all over the place, making sure we were kept entertained as we waited for dinner. Do cats teethe like babies do? Dexter certainly seemed to be, or at least he was pretty anxious to chew on anything he could possibly get his fangs into (plants, wine bottles, fingers, feet). He also grew very fond of Parki during the evening.

It was highly amusing watching Parki's love-hate relationship with the cat; I had never suspected Parki was secretly a cat person at heart (a fact I'm sure he would vehemently deny, even now). Dexter singled him out for feline love early on, rubbing against him, jumping up in his lap, begging for attention. Parki obliged. When Dexter grew too enthusiastic and started gnawing on on his hand, however, Parki kicked the cat off his lap, declared that Dexter had outworn his welcome and would get no more attention.

A few minutes later, Dexter went into "LOVE ME PLEEEEASE" cat-mode again. It was fun to watch Parki's resolve crumble so easily, haha! I think I'll leave an orphaned kitten in a basket on his doorstep and see what happens.





Lindsay made lemon meringue pie for dessert. I'm not generally a huge pie fan, but have always had a weakness for lemon meringue pie. And coconut cream. And homemade apple, if the crust is homemade. Lindsay's pie was delicious, and I helped myself to a second piece just before we left.

I envy people that can make good pie crust. I did try once, a long time ago, but it was a miserable failure. I clearly remember serving my first homemade pie to my sister-in-law, one of the first times I had met her. I warned her the crust might be tough. "Oh no, I'm sure it's fine," said Larkin, trying valiantly to cut a piece with her fork without making it obvious that she had to make an effort. Then her fork bent. "Well...maybe it's a -little- tough..."

She couldn't keep up the straight face, though, and then we both started laughing. Larkin and I got along fine after that. :-)

But I digress.





Dinner, as I mentioned earlier, was splendiferous.

We watched "The French Connection" after dessert, but by then it was pretty late. Well, maybe it wasn't THAT late, but I'm saying it was pretty late as an excuse for the fact that I dozed off about ten minutes into the movie. Jeff tried taking a picture of me with my camera (I'm sure my mouth was hanging open or I was drooling), but fortunately the whirring sound of the camera focussing woke me up.

Many thanks to Wendy and Lindsay for a wonderful dinner and fun evening!

I'm excited about today. After uploading this Blathering, I am going to spend the entire day working on my novel (which I have been sadly neglecting lately). I'm in antisocial/mole mode today...not answering the phone, not doing errands, not seeing friends. Jeff will be doing work at his office.

Hope you all have a good weekend, everyone!

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Wendy cooks.
	Dexter lounging in what is obviously one of his favourite positions.
	The curry dish (I'll have to ask Wendy and Lindsay for the actual recipe title, which I'm sure is much more impressive-sounding than "the curry dish"). VERY yummy. Notice the expertly-chopped tomatoes.
	While Wendy adds the finishing touches to the curry, Lindsay works on dessert...homemade lemon meringue pie, yum.
	Reaping the rewards. From left to right: Jeff, Lindsay, Parki, Wendy.
	Fridge poetry by Parki: incubate these moments / crush a diamond with your skin / drive through the white moon / ask for time for love & bitter recalling / as yet my next delirious whisper is pleasing
	Fridge poetry by Jeff: I must club my gorgeous puppy / into a bloody mist. We were pretty amused by the contrast between this and Parki's poem. :-)