Busy days at the cottage

 

Kristine Hall, me, and Stephanie Raffelock
It’s been wonderfully busyaround here the last couple of days. Today I had the fun of serving lunch toAustin author Stephanie Raffelock (Creatix Rising: Unlocking the Power ofMidlife Women and A Delightful Little Book on Aging) and KristineHall, publisher of the online weekly newsletter all about Texas books, authors,and writing, “Lone Star Literary Life.” I had met both before, briefly and onetime each, but we have ongoing email relationships. And I knew all along thatStephanie and Kristine also had an online relationship. So while Stephanie wasin the Metroplex, it only seemed logical to get us together.

Besides, it gave me a niceopportunity to cook for guests. I had explained to Stephanie that no, I did notwant her to take me to lunch. It’s easier for me to stay in the cottage andcook. So I fixed Coronation Chicken Salad—you can pretty much figure that oneout. Developed in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, it reflects the heavyinfluence of the flavors of India on British cooking: curry, mango chutney,dried fruit, and sliced almonds. There is debate over whether it should havediced, dried apricots or raisins—I went with raisins, because cutting up driedfruit is a pain. Watch for the recipe on next week’s Gourmet on a Hot Plate(Thursday). I admit it was a bit of work: I cooked chicken breasts on Wednesdayand cooled and diced them; Thursday I made the salad, so today all thatremained was to serve it in lettuce cups, with a side of mixed berries. It wasa hit—well, at least they cleaned their plates.Coronation chicken salad

We talked of books andpolitics and food and aging and books again and Substack and it was allwonderful. We laughed a lot, were serious at times, and Sophie was in heavenbecause Stephanie played with her. Lunch went by way too quickly, and I’m wishingthey’d come back once a week.

Last night I had dinner withlong time friends Subie, Carol, and Kathie. We were celebrating two birthdaysbut more than that we were relishing the opportunity to be together. Like lunchtoday, it was laughter and stories, a bit of politics, a bit of life in theresidential community where two of them live and the third spends a lot of timewith her special friend. Our waiter, Matt, was young but patient with four oldladies who changed their minds a lot, tried to joke with him, and droppedthings on the floor. I noticed that when we first were seated, there was somuch background noise I resigned myself to missing much of the conversation. ButI played with the settings on my hearing aids and ended up hearing everythingperfectly and being able to participate easily in the conversation.

We had a good laugh over oneof our number who asked the waiter what Dukes was—we three immediately, said, “Mayonnaise!”and she said, “I hate mayonnaise.” She ended up with the lobster roll which hadmedium mayo and loved it. I had oysters Rockefeller, which were really good. Ilonged for the half dozen oysters on the half shell, but I heard they were $25 andyet not enough sustenance for an entrée, so I resisted. A lovely evening, andwe resolved to do it more often. And sometime I’m going to go back and havethose raw oysters. For some reason, the oysters at this restaurant are all tinyand delicate, perhaps more palatable than big fat ones.

So tonight Soph and I are beinglazy. I’m going to relish the last couple of days and sink into some pleasurereading. Looking forward to a long weekend.Obedient Sophie when Stephanie said, "Sit."