A Sister’s Visit with a Georgian Feast

What a weekend!  It was a nonstop fun fest from Friday until Sunday, when our three fantastic house guests my sisters Jenny Brown and Moo came for their annual visit.  I have a hard time describing just what exactly it is–is it energy?  Is it enthusiasm? Is it just this terrific high energy personality that lights up a room, X 3?  Yes that’s what it is.

When we invite these three to come up north and visit their only brother’s homestead, it’s an occasion that we celebrate.

So we invite the usual suspects, our close friends who now feel like our Western Mass family, Bill, and cousins Steve and Paul and Shady, and John and Toni and Joe and Susan and the stage was set.  But some years it shines brighter than others–and this one was such an occasion.

I decided to tilt the menu to my recently visited place–The Republic of Georgia.  So we made a mezze, covering the whole big long table with different dishes.  We made khachapuri, the cheese bread that every house in the country serves, and pureed pumpkin with almonds, and braised parmesan mushrooms, turkey

breast with dry rub spice, pesto noodles, Svetnagi beef stew, Delicata Squash Tbilisi, and Whately brussel sprouts.   Some times you have a party and it just works. People click, great conversations begin, and it goes on till late at night.

Then we decamped out to the firepit and enjoyed a roaring fire on the chilly  night of good quality hardwood that was too big to fit in our woodstove. Fire brings out the best in people.

When you sit by a roaring fire with a big group in chairs, it’s hard not to delve into fascinating conversation and interesting digressions.  We had music from my little bluetooth XVoom box, good tunes culled from Spotify, and then when my batteries ran out, John fired up his Neil Young, Phish selections.

I thought about how it is now possible to hand over a portable speaker to anyone at a party and then they become the DJ, they control the music. Hard to imagine this in the days of LP records or CDs.  They take out their phones, punch up their music playlists, and voila, they’re driving the music bus.

I am so lucky to have so many great friends who will show up at my parties. And lucky to have a good woman, Mary, by my side who cooked fantastic beef stew while I cooked the Georgian dishes and Jenny did wonders with the Delicata.