I hadn't cooked corned beef in several years. In fact, until
Nancianne decided to have her head shaved in front of the Irish pub, my plan had been to
have some corned beef and cabbage there, but I didn't want to go twice in the
same week.
But Jeri came to town last night (Friday, the 16th) and wanted to get
together with as many in the family as she could. As it turned out, Alice Nan
realized it too late to drive up from Santa Barbara, Tom et al. were not able to come all
that way, Ned and Marta are moving this weekend, and that left just Walt & me, and
Norm & Olivia to come to my mother's for dinner. I volunteered to cook and
naturally what else would be as good to serve on St. Patrick's Day as corned beef &
cabbage -- the whole shebang, including potatoes and carrots too.
If I say so, it wasn't half bad, either.
Olivia, who had agreed to bring hors d'oeuvres, found some Irish
cheddar which she brought for crackers, and some hot "lobster kisses."
It was a fun evening. Jeri regaled us with tales of her very
bad, horrible week (including, but not limited to: a fire, exploding manhole covers,
an electric blackout, trying to give students an exam by the light of their cell phones,
fire alarms going off, and a 2 hour delayed flight, getting her into San Francisco right after
the last shuttle left the airport.
But she made it and that's the important part. She got
to my mother's around 2:30 a.m., so was a little sleepy, but not too sleepy to enjoy
chatting with all of us, especially Uncle Norm.
Tom sent a couple of videos of the girls to keep us entertained.
Lacie apparently has a new tooth, which we couldn't see, but which we
heard Mommy talking about while we watched Lacie just being cute.
My mother loves to entertain, but I did wonder many times throughout
the night if she should any more. It seemed to cause her such angst not to
be able to wait on people. But her back pain was so bad, she had to spend her time
in her chair, and then said repeatedly that she was embarrassed because she was afraid
people would think her "lazy"!!! At one point after trying to tear her
hair out (literally), she told me I would have to go into the kitchen, which was FULL of
people all taking care of themselves, to help them because she just couldn't get up.
I wish she could learn to sit back and relax and let people wait on her, as she has
done to them all her life, but she simply canNOT sit still and watch other people
work, and she considers her back pain a weakness which somehow is a negative reflection on
her character.
She also cannot stand it if you leave any food behind for her.
Jeri had gone to the store to buy salad ingredients and also bought 4 bananas for herself
to eat while she is staying with my mother, and my mother packed them all up for me to
take home because she didn't want them cluttering up her almost empty refrigerator.
I put them back in the fridge and explained that they were for Jeri. She
grudgingly agreed to let them stay. She also carefully packed up less than 1 cup of
salad leftover from dinner, rather than assume Jeri might eat it the next day.
But those were things that I know nobody noticed but me.
Everyone had a great time visiting. My mother had been kind of subdued through most
of the evening until Walt's brother sat down to talk with her and then she came to life
and began sparkling, the way she does whenever any man (of any age!) settles in to have a
conversation with her.
She may be almost 93, but she's still a shameless flirt!
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