Monday, November 17, 1997...Girlfriend for Dinner

Today Hester and Lydia got their report cards for the first quarter. Both little girls have grades in the upper 90%s and a couple of 100%s, too. Grades to be proud of.

Yesterday Esther, Keith's girlfriend, came for dinner. We had corn on the cob, steak (cooked on the electric grill with Larry’s special spice mix), fruit/jello salad with crumbled graham cracker crust, whipped cream, cream cheese, sour cream, and powdered sugar mixed in, and my Grandma Swiney’s spaghetti/tomato juice soup. After cooking the spaghetti and draining it, I pour in a big can of tomato juice, heat it up again, add a little bit of baking soda (to keep it from curdling) and salt, and pour in enough milk to turn it pink. That’s it.

The first time I made this concoction after Larry and I were married, he thought I was nuts. Where were the meatballs?!

Well, actually, the first time I made it, it was a disaster. I hadn’t bothered asking my mother for directions, and I was as unlearned about cooking as our friend's wife is about deer. I first boiled the milk, of all things, putting the spaghetti into that. Then, knowing nothing about the consequences of mixing milk with such a substance as tomato juice, I simply poured in the juice.

Wow, I'll betcha that was the lumpiest curds and whey ever created. Inedible pink cottage cheese. Bleah.

But, after I learned to do it right, Larry discovered he actually liked it. Esther had never had such a thing before, and she, being a proper young lady, was having trouble keeping the spaghetti on her fork or spoon.

Joseph helpfully informed her, “There’s nothing to it. We use really long spaghetti, so we only need to cook as many strands as there are people. So, all you need to do is to find the end, get it in your mouth, and slurp it down. Then all that’ll be left in your bowl is the tomato soup, and you can just drink that!”

“’Course,” his brother Teddy added, “you might want to tuck your napkin around your neck before you start, and you might want to borrow one of the girls’ shower caps to protect your hair, ’cuz the end of that spaghetti strand really slaps around.”

Esther made a face. “Oh, you guys,” she retorted.

And now I’d better go feed Victoria and then fix some supper for this hungry tribe.

Oh... Larry just came in and informed me that he put a new radio and cassette player in the Suburban, and we need to go take a ride after supper and try it out. A ride? Sure! I’m always game for ride.....a ride usually means a stop at Cousin’s Corner for a large mug full of steaming hot Amaretto Cappuccino!--just what the doctor ordered.