A Wealth of Friends

Is that what a whole bunch of them would be called? Should be!

So here's a list of friend-activities of late. Always nice to note these.

The weekend before we went to Jim's parents' we had two friends over for dinner. *thinks* Friday January 15th, it was. Julia (JuliaPrime) and Peter (BostonWillowFan) arrived just after seven and we chit-chatted while Jim cooked dinner. He made Burmese curry with prawns and scallops, chinese hot pepper green beans with fermented black beans, and rice. Super amazing yummy [/drool]. Julia brought an assortment of Japanese sweets for us to all share after dinner - they were amazing! Very nice evening.

And after returning from Upstate, Jim and I had an evening on Julia's side of the river. On tuesday, January 25th we took the Path train over (under) to Hoboken and met up with Julia to walk along the river and see the tip to top of Manhattan across the river. Then we went for dinner at Wolfgang Puck's where Julia's husband, Bob, joined us. We sat and ate and chatted for quite a bit before taking one last stroll along the river and then the Path train back to 'our' side.

That following friday night Jim's friend Cindy and her new guy came over for dinner. Jim made Shrimp Scampi dish, tomato and zucchini thingy, and rice. Cindy brough pie and we also had mango sorbet. Another very nice evening of food and chatting.

This past monday night, Jim and I met up with Julia and Bob for Thai food (at a place on 8th) and all had a variety of dishes. Jim went for a shrimp and scallop hot dish, Julia for a Panang Avocado, Bob had spring rolls and a salad with thai sausage, and I had the classic Pad Thai. Sadly, I was not happy with my Pad Thai. It was too *meh* and somewhat greasy. But everyone else really enjoyed theirs - and Julia brough a special drink for me to try that is called Pozole (sp?) which is made from cornmeal and sweet. Reminded me of that perfect mix of cream of wheat with milk with brown sugar. But in a cup. SOOOO YUMMY!

After dinner Julia, Jim and I went to see Kinsey. I really enjoyed the movie. This was my and Jim's first movie we've gone to together. Strange but true. We figured that out in the theatre. And spent a fair bit of time convinced it couldn't be. But truth be known we've only just planned on going to the movies a whole lot. And then just gone with our netflix of the week. Who knew?

The following day we met up with Carey and Andrea (Jim's friends) for lunch at Zen Palace up at Broadway and 76th (or so). Jim and I both had the Hot and Sour soup to start, Jim had these tasty sesamie meatless-thingy with brown rice and broccoli, Carey had Tofu Supreme (which was a chinese style dish also with brown rice and veggies) and Andrea had an eggplant dish also chinese style. Hers was very striking with two whole eggplants across the plate covered in this SUPER YUMMY tangy sauce and veggies. I went for a bit more low key with a veggie sandwhich and yam fries - but good god that sandwhich was amazing. So much so I'm actually getting hungry right now thinking about it. It was on a very good brown bread, with sprouts and tomatoes and shredded carrot and a meatless loaf of some kind - and some spread on it like hummus but slightly sweeter. And the fries were to die for. After lunch Jim and I walked over to the Museum of Natural History and spent about two and a half hours there. We only made it through half so we plan on going back again soon.

And now here we are - tomorrow Jim and I are going down to DC to visit with Steve and Liz and Ford. We'll be there until monday. And based on the above, we will probably have lots of amazing food while visiting with friends. How lucky can we get!!