Dinner Party

Daisies from the party

Last night was our pod dinner party, summer edition. I spent all day preparing for it, cleaning the house, shopping for the food, cooking. The menu:

Appetizers: caprese salad (mozzarella with tomatoes and basil from our garden), crusty bread with roasted garlic, and yellow teardrop tomatoes from our garden.

Main: Chicken with roasted garlic cream sauce, rosemary red-skinned potatoes, green beans with lemon and almonds.

Dessert: chocolate torte, recipe compliments of my wonderful mother-in-law.

Jesse came home early from work to help me move some heavy things out of the dining room and to return two of the dining room chairs he’d borrowed for something in his office. On the way home, I had him pick up a few things from the store I’d forgotten. He saved the day! Then, he spent the evening holed up in his office while us ladies gabbed nonstop and laughed uproariously, sipping green tea Ginger Ale out of champagne flutes.

I gave the girls an optional “assignment” if they wanted to further develop their leadership skills on top of what we’re doing in our pod meetings. They teased me unremittingly for how teacher-ish it was of me, and I grinned. Then I forgot to tell them my good news—I’ve been given three Intro to Lit classes at UNCW for the fall!

Sometime after 9:00, the girls left and I washed the dishes and Jesse ventured out of the office for the slice of torte I’d saved him. He gave me a sweet card congratulating me on my new job. After the china was put up and the serving platters dried, I ran myself a bubble bath and started Anna Karenina and felt very very happy.