It was the late 80’s and new words crept into our vocabularies- corporate takeovers, out placement, downsizing. In the blink of an eye, my husband’s 18 year career with a major food corporation came to an end due to a corporate takeover. You go through a whole range of emotions, but you know you have to move on. Of course, when new employment was found, it meant another relocation. So, the ladies bid me farewell, gave me a new cookbook,  and invited me to come back as I was only 3 hours away.

I was reluctant to let these wonderful ladies go. I was 44 years old and this was the first time in my life that I had enjoyed being with a group of ladies so much. So, I took Madlyn up on her offer to stay with her and cook lunch at her house. Now our group was divided in to two camps. Those who did a trial run on their recipes and those who did not. I was a member of the latter. I feel pretty confident about reading that list of ingredients and thinking that it sounds good. And, we usually discussed the recipes after lunch noting any changes we would make when preparing it again.

Now I don’t know about you, but I always find it a little difficult to cook in someone else’s kitchen no matter how well stocked and designed. One of the sides I planned was Basic Risotto. I had never prepared this before but it was “basic“, right? The ladies arrived and I was already stirring. And stirring, and stirring, and stirring. How about another glass of wine while I keep stirring? I think lunch ended up being about an hour late that day. No complaints from the ladies who were gracious as ever. Did I change my ways and test my recipes after that? Of course not!

In the end what really mattered was that we were together. My recipe will not be included since it was not to my standard.

Robyn