Happy New Year

Saturday January 1, 2011 Day 185

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2011 is better to you than 2010 was, however 2010 treated you.

It continues to be cool and cloudy. We went for a walk this morning and found a few bakery shops open, but most everything else is shuttered - even the restaurants. There were not even any buses running. This concerned us because we were due to take the bus to chez Anne. But shortly after noon, I heard what I thought was a bus. I poked my head out and saw a Number 15 bus go by - exactly the number we would need. Evidently the buses didn’t run on Christmas morning or New Year’s morning, but started up at noon.

Roger went out to see if there were any chess players (there weren’t), while I spent the afternoon preparing the pork loin, barbeque sauce, and squash soup. I realized that we hadn’t planned very well - we had nothing to go with the meat except for some pasta - not even any vegetables. We only had a few frozen peas - pretty tasty, but there weren’t enough for three. I decided that we would settle for some really, REALLY good pasta shells that we happened to have on hand. They are quiet delicious, but they are not usually what we serve with slow-roasted pork loin; however, they would have to do. Roger came home, we spent some time on the computers, then left at 6:00 to go to Anne’s.

We had a lovely time at Anne’s. She served champagne and smoked salmon and fois gras and some really good guacamole, then we moved to the table where it was our turn to dish out the soup. Then we served the pork loin with the homemade barbeque sauce, which was excellent this time. Bingo! Everything was delicious, and we ended the evening with a buche noel, or yule log, then Anne drove us home in her little yellow car. It was a delightful start to 2011.