The Competition.

I'm sitting here, Saturday morning, 8:25 a.m., having my awesome italian percolator coffee. The sun is out. Very nice. Birds are chirping and all. Spring? Yesss...

I was awake at 7:00 this morning. I went to bed really early last night and now I'm waiting for a decent time to start making noise in the kitchen. Don't want to wake the gamer up. He went to bed at 2 in the morning... I need to get cracking, though, because I am having three friends over for dinner tonight. Did I tell you I'm part of a cooking competition? Heehee. The whole thing is very informal, of course, it's just us five competing. Well, two of the group don't cook. So it's three of us, really.

We've got themes, criteria, and friendly pressure from the other two cooks. When the night of the dinner arrives, it's all business. The cook/host gets grades on the 10 criteria evaluated. My eggheadedness has made me lose the evaluation sheet, unfortunately, but I do remember some of the criteria by heart. There are, for example, points attributed for Aroma. That's when you walk in the house when you get there and it smells good. Your mouth waters (or not). Then there is Costume. Aprons do fine. They've been a trend in the last two dinners.

Other criteria include Produits du terroir, Accord des vins, Présentation, Thème....can't remember the others. Oh! There's also Utilisation de termes culinaires. So you have to say, with a knowing look on your face, like it's part of your everyday vocabulary, things like: "Alors pendant que je déglaçais (*ching!*) avec le vin, j'ai blanchi (*ching!*) les poireaux et les ai réservés (*ching!*) avant de verser la crème et de la porter à ébullition (*ching!*). J'ai ensuite baissé le feu et fait réduire de moitié (*ching ching ching!*) avant de disposer (*ching!*) les suprêmes (*ching!*) dans les assiettes préalablement réchauffées, de napper (*ching!*) de sauce et de servir." You get the point. The chings are my points going up. I am through the roof, I kid you not. The "réduire de moitié" part is very popular. We use it every dinner.

Before I reveal what I will be serving tonight, I have to give many thanks to my two angels who helped me with recipes and ideas. Moua moua moua to you both. So tonight, provided I find the ingredients I could not find last night, my guests will be enjoying, as an entrée, little phyllo dough barquettes filled with fine slices of tomato and fresh basil, cooked au gratin *ching!* with Brie. As a main course, veau gorgonzola with pepe e cacio pasta (pepper and cheese) and grilled asparagus, zucchini and red pepper. And as a dessert, two cheesecake medallions with raspberry coulis and fresh mint leaves. You've guessed it, my theme is cheese.

How many plates do I add to the table?

On What it Means to be Alive.

Dear Friends and Throng of Readers, bear with me.

I am writing to you today in my capacity as a live person.

I have recently discovered I am fully committed to being alive. It somehow feels like a complete breakthrough, although I am not really aware of the reasons why. Yet. It'll come, I am sure. I'm just a little slow.

Four beings have died in the past six months. Four beings of light, four persons who were loved by many people. The first person passed away in September and it was a shock, but not unexpected. He left children, grand children, and great-grandchildren. The second person was not born in October. She left a huge gap and is still loved and thought of daily. She never got to smile or feel a kiss on her cheek. The third person took her life at the end of February and filled a church with people wanting to flap their arms like birds and thank her for the images she has left us of liberty. The fourth person went to join the first person on March 1st, wearing her skirt with birds on it and a rose on her lapel.

I now think back on each of these people and what they have given me and feel grateful for a lot of things I did not feel grateful for a couple of years ago. Someone recently told me the events we witness (somehow that does not feel like a strong enough term) before our forties shape us and make us the people we are for the rest of our lives.

So (and I fully endorse the cheesiness this entails) thank you to all the people in my life who are there. Friends who are near, friends who are too far, family who means the world to me, colleagues who have become friends, and people I've never seen who send me little angel medals in the mail. And also thank you to the people who are not there. I am going to thank you in person when the time is just right, because it is important. When you need me, I'm right here. And I've got a huge smile on my face and arms wide open.

Okay, I'm done now. I'll be back before the month is over this time, I promise.