Ben & Jen Shepard

For Valentine’s Day this year we went up to the Adirondacks with some friends of ours, Pete and Kerrie.  Pete has been Ben’s best friend for something like 22 years (a 22 years full of great stories about the adventures and mishaps of boys growing up) and he was the Best Man in our wedding.  His wife, Kerrie is one of the sweetest people that you will ever know and they have an adorable little boy, Logan.  Kerrie’s parents manage a lodge and conference center and when there are no groups using the place, we can sometimes go up and enjoy the beautiful Adirondack mountains.  There are two lakes and a nine hole golf course of the premises and a fleet of snow mobiles.  The Lodge itself is several hundred years old, three stories and sits overlooking the lake.  It’s absolutely beautiful.

The guys had been planning a special dinner for us ladies for weeks.  They pampered us with a cozy couple of hours on the couch watching a movie and brought us delicious appetizers and wine while we luxuriated, winter-style, next to the blazing fireplace.  While we watched the movie, they cooked us a delicious dinner in the Lodge’s restaurant-style kitchen.  I think Ben was in heaven with all that space in which to cook and the professional appliances to play with.  In the dinning room they lit candles and put a dozen roses by each of our plates on the huge wooden table.  When we sat down, there were lots of toasts to good friends and good wives and we dug in!  As if all this wasn’t enough, the boys served homemade ice cream sundaes for dessert.  And they wouldn’t let us help clean up!  It was such a treat and I realized again how great my husband is!

There was only one thing that put any sort of damper on the weekend: Charlie.  According to many stories I’ve heard, the Lodge is haunted.  Now, whatever you believe about ghosts, demons or the spirit world, there is something creepy about a humongous, very old twelve-bedroom lodge tucked away in a very remote location in the woods.  At night.  Sounds like the perfect setting for The Shinning, if you ask me.  The story goes that Charlie was a caretaker of the place a long long time ago and he died in the woods from a heart attack.  Now, supposedly, he hangs out on the third floor and has been seen and heard by several people.  I admit, I was a little freaked out.  I didn’t sleep well at all the first night (we were on the second floor).  The Lodge makes many weird noises because it’s so old.  I still don’t understand why they only happen at night, though.  Also, it was also stiflingly hot that I couldn’t even stand “hiding” under the sheets.  But the second night, after a long day of snow mobiling, goofing off, a romantic dinner and a couple movies, I slept like a baby.  Just don’t leave me alone in any room for too long…

Saturday night we went over to our friends Brigitte and Kevin’s house for dinner.  Our menu consisted entirely of middle eastern fare and involved some cooking techniques that certain cultures have been using for a thousand years.  It was an interesting experience in food history.  But looking back, I realize that it was also a celebration of friends history, which always pairs well with a great meal and good wine.

I have known Brigitte since my sophomore year in college.  I can remember my first impressions of her as we introduced ourselves as new roommates.  I distinctly recall noticing her laugh, easy and contagious.  The more I got to know her the more I discovered her tendencies toward chaos rather than order and the unconventional rather than the socially acceptable.  They showed themselves in her messy dorm room and in essays she wrote for her Creative Writing class.  But there was always an artful, whimsical curiosity when these things manifested themselves.  She seemed to always be exploring the world.  And instead of clashing with my more reserved, cautious nature, her friendship complemented and broadened me.  I think we have rubbed off on each other some in the years we’ve changed into adults.  She has helped me become more open minded and laugh more easily at myself and at the world.  I think maybe I have helped her be more purposeful, or at least see the value in a tidy house.

For dinner, Ben and I brought over a few ingredients but Brigitte and Kevin did most of the cooking.  Our table was set with tabbouleh, couscous and laban, which is essentially a thick sweet yogurt, a staple in Lebanese cooking.  There was also falafel, which I first had in Amsterdam, Holland while I was there with my youth group in 2000.  We stuffed pita bread with the laban, which holds everything together (like the sour cream in a taco), tabbouleh and falafel, then dipped it in the couscous.  Delicious!  To top it off, Brigitte made Turkish Coffee, a process which I, a devout coffee lover, found fascinating.  It tasted much more bitter than regular coffee, but with a little sugar it took on a rich depth that went perfectly with dessert.  The cake was Semolian…get this…Sfoof cake.  Sfoof.  You know you want to say it again.  Sfoof cake can be sweet or less so depending on how much sugar you add.  It’s bright yellow due to the turmeric and the texture is something like cornbread.  A lovely ending to a lovely meal.

We have always enjoyed cooking together, Brigitte and I, especially for our friends.  We’re both Italian, so it comes naturally.  Saturday night’s dinner seemed to me like pulling some old portion of our college life out of the shadowy cupboard and into the present to be enjoyed.  To celebrate not just how things used to be, but the familiar comfort that they have always been this way.