Friends, Food, and Zombies

We had a small, casual dinner party on Saturday, with our friends J & R. The kids decided to pick flowers from the garden to fancy up the table. 

 It was a simple meal. They brought the chicken and we made a broccoli chopped salad and cheesy onion bread. Mainly, it was a good excuse to get together with friends and only have to cook half the food. Win win.

 Also, I made a peach and raspberry clafouti. Although I do not particularly like to bake, nor do I have much of a sweet-tooth, I do enjoy making the occasional dessert, if it doesn't involve a lot of chemistry. After all, clafouti is like quiche, only with fruit and vanilla. Our friend, J., had made us her world-famous strawberry-rhubarb sauce, which was a perfect topping for the dessert.

Here are some pretty photos of the intense labor involved in making this dessert:

While I was in the cooking mode, I made a  smoked salmon, potato & dill casserole for Sunday morning. Since I love our friends, I made them their own to take home and bake the next day. This was a great recipe.

Topped with sour cream and dill, it was fabulous. I realize that I'm bragging, but it's my blog, so it's fair game.

You know you have good friends, when the evening ends with them playing kickball with your kids and then reading them stories by moonlight. They pretty much rock as people. They are the kind of friends who make you feel at peace with who you are. I would totally live in a commune with them. And there would be free range chickens and maybe a few goats for milking. OK, back to the story.

Fiona picked the teams

On Sunday, we decided to ignore all the crap we had to get done and headed to Fox Island for a two-hour getaway.

 Cyd ate an entire container of cherry tomatoes, seasoned with a teaspoon of sand.

And here we are, on Sunday evening.

 The kosher dogs, s'mores and leftover picnic salad were perfect for dinner.

And now, a few words about zombies.

I was bored a few nights ago. Bored with my book. Bored with life. Bored. So I turned on the TV. Netflix is the antidote to boredom. I started out with the usual suspects. But I was still bored. And then, "The Walking Dead" showed up in the queue. I've heard about this show and its growing cult following. What the hell.

Laura was doing paperwork and looked up occasionally. There were a lot of people getting shot. There were disgusting looking zombies walking, as zombies do.

Laura: "What on earth?" she asked as some random zombie was getting shot in the head.

Me: "It's a show about zombies. I'm watching it for media research." I'm the only media buyer in the entire world who not only doesn't subscribe to cable, but doesn't watch television in any significant way. 

The show is pretty compelling. They're dead. They're angry. They're scary. There was a little boy with his father, just trying to survive in this crazy, surreal world of the dead. There was death, there was drama! And there was a lot of gruesome bashing of human skulls.

Laura: 'WTF, Tessa Jo?"

Me: "IT'S RESEARCH. FOR MY WORK!"

And then we both became entranced in zombie world. And I may or may not have shed a tear when the little boy wept because his zombie mother was at the door and he couldn't let her in. BECAUSE SHE WAS A ZOMBIE! AND SHE WOULD RATHER EAT HIS BRAIN THAN READ HIM A BEDTIME STORY. There are a lot of capital letters in the world of the dead.

After our dinner guests left on Saturday night, we both agreed: "The Walking Dead: Episode 2". I fell asleep on the couch right after some poor bastard got bludgeoned to death. I'm sure it gets better as you learn to love the zombies and the people trying to stay alive. But I don't have that kind of time.

I used to love watching The Twilight Zone with my brothers, when I was young. And then there was "The X-Files", which Laura and I watched religiously every Sunday night, during our early years. Oh, how I miss my Scully. Maybe I'm in a different place now.  

I like pondering the mysteries of the universe and the possibilities of the unknown. But I'm not big on people getting axed to death, so I'll have to pass on this show. But I'm totally going to check out what kind of ratings this gets for Adults 18-49.

Peace.