As we have done for many years now, we braved the traffic of the L.A. Basin to spend Midwinter's Eve and Midwinter Day with our dearest and oldest friend. When I say "oldest" I am not simply referring to the number of years I've known her; she turned 98 this trip! We helped her celebrate in two birthday parties on two evenings, with other friends joining us for food, music and visiting. There was a lot of visiting, one-on-one, during the intervening day. There were also walks, admiring the flowers and enjoying the warm sun, and there were naps.
Although our friend is in remarkably good health, she hasn't as much energy as she once did and the household routine has changed to reflect that fact. Where once I might have cooked at least one dinner, complete with bread, dinners are generally prepared in advance by the housekeeper. These birthday dinners were selected by the Birthday Woman and prepared by her daughter, and they were good. One night it was salmon with steamed vegetables and potatoes; the other night was some delectable chicken dish with appropriate vegetables and rice. I'm sure I'm forgetting something of the main courses and sides. Does it all sound too healthful for birthday celebrations? Well yes -- but that all went out the window with the birthday cakes: huge ice cream cakes with frosting and flowers. A different cake for each night. And hot chocolate or hot cider, according to the eaters' wishes. Each night we dined happily, told stories, then brought out the guitars for an evening of song...beginning with the requisite birthday song, of course.
Breakfast during our visit was left up to us. Lunch brings me to my food pictures, and a small lamentation of change. Wolfe's Market was the small but excellent market closest to my college when I was a student there. Truth to tell, it was generally too expensive for me at the time, and my tastes ran more to Mystic Mint cookies (which involved walking another mile to the Albertson's with my best friend) than fine roast chicken. We had dorm food, and that was good enough. Over the years of coming back to visit I became acquainted with the high quality of Wolfe's produce, meat, breads and cheeses. Their deli counter was a delight.
Well, Wolfe's is now only a deli. It's a delightful deli, but the market portion has been walled off to make a restaurant. We understand that the owner-family (2nd or 3rd generation) had to make difficult business decisions and that the market had been losing money for nearly a decade. It's the passing of an era.
But! It's a great deli!
Our lunches were sandwiches made to order and then brought home to eat. They were generous and delicious. On the second day of visiting, I tagged along on a vain attempt to contribute money to the cause. (I was foiled on that; our hostess simply told the staff to add the order to her account.) What I did do was snap photos and purchase foods for our meals once we moved on to our next stop.
I bought fruit salad, a vegetable salad with spinach, feta cheese, tomatoes and I-forget-what-else, and a sour cream potato salad that for me is the Platonic Ideal of potato salads. Next time I visit, I'm buying more of that. A LOT more. I also purchased enchiladas to share for the following night's dinner: one chicken, one green chile and pork. Somehow, I seem not to have gotten pictures of them.
We left the next day, headed out of The Basin and up the California coast. I commented both on the way in and on the way out at how light and easy the traffic was, and what a blessing it was to have sunny weather. "Don't say that!" said my darling. I thought he was afraid I'd be jinxing the trip, since this seemed ideal to me:
But no. It seems he prefers this sort of traffic and weather (photo from 2 years ago)...
...because everything is traveling more slowly. In traffic like that, I want to hide my eyes and hope we get through without incident. To him, it's better than sailing along at 55 mph with all the traffic flowing around us. Go figure.
