What are friends for?!

Distracting me of course! I had "important" plans last night. I was going to finish cleaning my house, which still isn't quite put back together again after putting away Christmas. I was going to take pictures and list a few beads on ebay. I was going to actually make some beads, something I have not been doing enough of lately. I got home from work and the house was quiet. I picked up the two remaining Christmas decorations, the ones I "missed" while putting the rest away, carried them upstairs and put them away. I peered at the vacuum standing in the middle of bedroom. I left it there as a reminder that by god I was go get the house clean before the 3 day weekend. Then I took a misstep - I walked into my studio and lit the torch. What the heck, I'll make a few beads before I do my cleaning. That is always easy to rationalize because I can view it as a safety issue. I can always vacuum later when I'm tired, but perhaps lighting a torch and playing with molten glass is best done when I'm not exhausted. So what the heck, melt first, clean later.

While working on my second bead the phone rings (don't ask my why there is a phone with caller ID on the shelf above my torch). It's my friend Tori, and her question is "Have you had dinner yet?" She was "throwing together" a Torta Rustica, and invited me to come eat with them. Besides being a wonderful friend she is a great cook, so that was an offer I couldn't refuse. Extinguish the torch, grab a bottle of wine from the rack, and off I went. So much for my best laid plans for the evening.

As I said, Tori is a marvellous cook. Everything she makes tastes a like a gourmet meal. Torta Rustica is sort of pie-like, a pizza type dough draped in to a deep springform pan, layered with a myriad of marvelous meats, cheeses and vegetables, topped with another layer of dough, and baked. My first comment was, "Geez, I can't believe you're making this on Thursday night"as it is not a trivial dish to throw together. Her response was that they "needed to use up the prosciutto before it went bad". At $15/lb I guess that makes sense. These are the kind of friends to have, the ones where a bit of aging deli meat spawns an impromptu dinner party. Friends, great food, good wine and laughter, there's no better way to spend the evening!