Loads of music and an impromptu dinner

You can invite only very good friends over for dinner when you have not much food and no time to cook.  In the early afternoon today I called a neighborhood couple on the off chance they didn’t have dinner plans, knowing I wasn’t even getting home until at least 6:30 pm.

It was the day for piano group, meaning I had to do some last minute practicing with others and by myself and show up at 5:00 to play in our “Works in Progress” group.  Deborah came over this morning to run through our rather lengthy piece.  And I went into DC a little early to meet up with the cellist.  So that left a window of time from around 1:00 to 4:00 for whatever cooking I was going to accomplish.

I had 10 apples or so from the CSA that hadn’t been committed to apple sauce yet.  I didn’t have enough butter for a pie, but I did have some vegetable shortening.  So I threw together the dough for pie crust and let it sit in the refrigerator while I made a batch of ratatouille.

Then it was back to apples, which got extended a bit with a white peach from Costco.  It looked like a mountain of fruit as I dumped it into the crust that had not caused me a moment’s consternation.  I rolled out the top crust, opting for vents instead of a lattice top.

While the pie baked, I finished practicing.  Then it was off to play.  Playing 3 rather difficult pieces took the energy right out of me.  There were a few rough edges, but then what work in progress doesn’t have glitches?  I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin.  As I sipped my post-concert wine, I suddenly glanced at my watch to find 6:10 with my dinner guests coming at 7:00.  

I zoomed home to put the pasta on to boil and get out appetizers of sorts.  Grilled salmon completed the menu.

We enjoyed the cool fall-like evening out on the deck as I let myself unwind from far too much to cram into any day.  It was just right to be relaxing with good friends and eating food that was not the result of careful planning, but whatever happened to be on hand.  You can get away with a lot when it’s friends who are more like family.