A Good Weekend

In spite of Matt being sick since Friday afternoon with cold-like symptoms, I managed to have a very good weekend, surrounded by people I love dearly.

I spent the entirety of Friday morning assembling a small tea-for-two.  The woman who was a student-teacher during my senior year of high school, who has become a dear friend over the intervening seventeen years, was coming to Pittsburgh for a day of pampering: a massage and facial.  I asked her to drop by our house while she was in town.

We drank lovely Oolong tea from Ten Ren in San Francisco in my mother's 1969 Noritake china.  I baked cream scones, which were accompanied by Devonshire cream, blackcurrant preserves, Scottish lemon curd, and butter.  I also served chocolates and fresh fruit.  Just a small setting, which turned out to be a bit more celebratory when I found out that Saturday was actually her birthday.  How fortuitous that we were able to get together and end up celebrating both her day and our friendship.

Matt slept in the guest room, so I let him have a lay-in on Saturday morning when I woke to begin my next task: a dinner for six on Saturday night.  I've had a turkey in the basement freezer since November, which had been intended for my mother's and my Thanksgiving day meal.  However, she wasn't feeling well at the time, so I remained in Pittsburgh and the two of us went to friends' that day and I went to visit my mother early the next week.

But the turkey was becoming a pressing matter and it seemed there was no time like the present to gather dear friends and feast.  I prepared the turkey; a side of stuffing (so, technically, dressing) of French bread, mushrooms, onions, and celery; mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce with apples and blueberries.  Matt felt well enough to make roasted broccoli.  One couple brought lovely green beans and the other, who happen to own a Dairy Queen, made two dear little ice cream cakes for dessert.  One was cherry-chocolate flavored and the other was turtle.  Both have leftovers in the freezer that I'm doing my level-best to ignore!

It always feels good to set the table and use all of the lovely things I own to make a pretty setting.  I had an optic black and white floral tablecloth on and used kelly green Ikat napkins that I bought the day I interviewed with Sur La Table some four years ago.  It's was all very vivid for midwinter, but it was toned down by candlelight and the cool light of our chandelier.

We served buffet-style from the island and tucked in.  We drank beautiful 2007 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon from Sharp's Hill in Paso Robles and a 2012 Pinot Noir from Wente in Arroyo Seco, Monterey County, CA.  As the night progressed, I pulled a 2009 Amarone della Valpolicella by Ca'Ferreri.

As we adjourned to the living room, I set out chocolates and cookies, which were accompanied by coffee and bourbon.  Matt's spring had wound down and he bade adieu to our guests and retired upstairs to read and go to sleep.  Everyone departed within a half-hour, leaving me time to get the cleaning up started.  (I still have to hand-wash the stemware, but that'll get done.  Sometime.)

Sunday was a cold, rainy day that just begged for hot tea and fresh scones.  I never left the house at all, except to step outside and retrive a runaway lid to the recycling can as the winds ripped over Stanton Hill.

Matt's home sick, but is logged in from the office upstairs, trying to do what he can.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, all depending), the company is still in storm mode from last night's powerful winds, so he's not able to get much done since all changes to the system are locked down.

I went to the Post Office to get stamps and send Valentine's Day cards and then to Whole Foods this morning.  Gym this afternoon.  Applying for at least one job.  Etc., etc.

Keeping busy keeps me sane and this was a happily busy weekend filled with friends and food.