Over-Brimming Love. And Other Delicious Tales.

I'm talking about the surest way into your friends' deepest, most cherished part of their hearts (through their aortic valve if you will ;) -hosting a lovely laid-back dinner party. And none of that pot-luck business. I mean, the pot-luck thing is cool and can certainly be done much more frequently, but one really ought to do it properly at least once a year (or more, if one is not a med student or any other kind of student / professional who studies / works more than a 40 hour week).

I know. Where have I been right. This update is so overdue. Anyway, here I am. The sex unit is long gone, as are the glorious winter holidays, and I am now in the midst of our GI / Endocrinology unit. It's all fine. I believe since today and my last post I have felt numerous urges to write, but once it passes by, the moment's gone and I can't even remember what those moments were, except that the early days of January -those Monday-of-the-year blues -really had me generally disenchanted. But things are looking up. They better anyway right -I'm almost 24 and at the peak of my prime...

This weekend I hosted my very first dinner party for 9 med-school friends. It went really well. Under the supervision and guidance of my mother I cooked up the following:

1. Hors D'Oeuvres: my specialty Mexican salad (chopped de-seeded tomatoes, green peppers and red onion, kidney beans, tex mex cheese, zesty Italian salad dressing and corn chips -you gotta add these in last otherwise they get soggy and that's no fun!), and olive-sundried tomato tapenade shrimp vol-au-vents. that's right. yummy.

2. Plats Principals: East-African Indian-style chicken biryani, saffron basmati rice, and spinach curry.

3. Desserts: Mango moose topped with strawberries, fresh mango, blueberries, kiwi, with little chocolate waffers and pomegranate on the side, and little swiss chocolates from France.

4. Breuvages: Homemade non-alcoholic punch (orange juice, grapefruit juice, lemonade, gingerale, marachino cheeries and mint flakes), and real chai (like in the big pot -so not hard by the way -for tea for 10 all you have to do is put 4 cups of milk and 6 cups of water in a pot, add saffron, whole cardamom, a couple of cinnamon sticks and a tsp or so of crushed cardamom, bring it all to a boil on low heat, then add in about 4 tea bags and once that's boiling / the right colour, it's all ready to serve!).

It was a huge success. Also there is probably no high on earth (that I have yet experienced... there probably will be a better high once, uh, ahem, that special someone comes along... ;) like the high of cooking for and feeding the people you love. Like 3 hours after everyone had left I was still totally wired (I had been up early, cooked all morning and part of the afternoon, then spent the rest of the day 'setting up' and I had cleaned the whole house top to bottom the night before, so maybe this was an exhausted second-wind -this is a possibility too I suppose, but I felt such overwhelming, over-brimming love afterwards, that I feel this is the secret non-altruistic side of generosity =).

Anyway, back to real life and real studying now for my midterm next Monday -and this week's lookin' pretty hectic with various sorts of commitments. Also, I have a little internal drama going on, but I refuse to post this on my blog. And by internal, I literally mean 'in my head' so don't get too excited. The goal is to keep it there, let the fire burn out and then move right along with normal, focused, undistracted life. I'm not denying or suppressing it -we know that always backfires. But you know, trying to stay cool and calm. I am whole and happy and really, one ought to be satisfied with the over-brimming love of friendship for now methinks.