We Think We're From Maine...

A couple weekends ago, Jack and I visited our awesome friends Vera and Mr. Vera. They're the perfect yin and yang of friends; Mr. Vera is also a hospital administrator and Vera is also a cook. Jack and Vera up the ante every meal, increasing the stakes and culinary difficulty of the chosen meal.

[The calorie counts also increase as the culinary bar is jacked up toward "gourmet excellence."]

Mr. Vera and I talk shop while the 'ladies' cook!

So this weekend was tremendous. The weather was perfect and the meteor shower was forecast for that evening. Since it felt so summery, we decided on a clambake.

These prawn:



Plus these lobster:



And these home-grown potatoes:



With pounds of Old Bay, became this:



And the home-grown tomatoes:



Became a caprese salad and completed our alfresco tablescape:



We always turn on the "Ella and Louis" Pandora station and drink good wine, toasting to a greater friendship. Except this time, sprawled out on our sea of blankets in the orchard, staring up at the meteor shower, my glass of cabernet from dinner fell over and spilled into the grass. The rest of the party thought it was hilarious that the wine dumped near my hair that I had hastily clumped in a bun on the top of my head. It became a wine-soaked bun and Jack wouldn't let me go to bed that night until I washed my hair- lest I stain the white pillow cases!!

Clambake 2012 with accompanying meteor shower was a stunning success (especially with the awesome iPhone app called "Sky Viewer"). And no pillow cases were harmed in the making of those memories!