SARDINES FOR BREAKFAST, DINNER FOR FAREWELL

April has been lovely here, but now the winds have picked up and treated us to rain-less windstorms, both mistral and sirocco type ones. The other day, our friend Emilio showed up at the door, showed us a skewer of sardines and demanded,” Get a plate. These were swimming a little while ago.” So we put the sardines onto a plate, thanked him, and Steve said, “They’re all yours, kid!” He does not “do” fish with bones. So yeah, I had a slab of bread, coffee, and sardines for breakfast instead of cereal and bananas.
Jack, Marianna, and Veronica came for a sunny (fortunately windless) outdoor farewell dinner. They’ll return to Montreal, but may get away in August to meet us in Niagara Falls. We will miss them from our stop-off in San Cataldo, and wish them well with their import export business. In the meantime, we have stocks of our favorite little bottles that Jack brings, including pates, sauces, toppings, and such exotics as eggplant marmalade, salted new cheese in oil, and pistachio, hazelnut, and almond crèmes. And of course, we will miss the test kitchen status that we had, for Jack was trying new products right until the last day. Dessert was make-your-own cream puffs, trying out for him two different kinds of crème fillings.