In the midst of these last few days, in preparing for my last days as a third year student, I will admit, that like many of my peers I became extremely stressed out! Terms and concepts like "Simulacrum", "subjegated knowledges", "The center is not the center" and people like Viola Desmond and Chief Elsie Knott all became a mass of jumbled words and ideas.
So on one of those stressed out days, instead of studying and reading and re-reading, I headed up Roncesvalles Avenue. I had picked up some bulk pecans and almonds and some cheeses, when I saw that the cheese shop also had some delicious looking fresh bread available as well. I rarely buy fresh breads but these ones were so sweet smelling that I had to pick up one of the French baguettes.
As I begun walking home, I realized why Matt and I so rarely buy baguettes. We can never finish them before they go stale. Even if we do make sandwiches for lunch the next day, we still end up with waste. And so I decided a small dinner party was in order.
First I called Matt at work. I had to clear it with him before he got home at 8pm, possibly tired. After I got the okay, I gave two of my couple friends a call. Once I got that okay, off to the Metro I went for the last few groceries.
The great thing about impromptu dinner parties is that you can use the fact that it's last minute as an excuse not to cook.
And I hardly cooked. Peppers and potatoes went into the oven for roasting to be turned into a pretty delicious potato salad later. Orzo pasta went into boiling water to later be made into a Mediterranean style pasta salad and cannelini beans went into a pan with rosemary and thyme to be made into a bean spread. That was literally it for my end in terms of cooking. Otherwise, I simply put out the bread, the Dijon mustard, the capers and dill pickles, the cheeses, the chorizo and the fire-roasted peppers.
Nothing could have been easier than this.
What I loved most was that I didn't care about matching plates and flatware. I didn't care that I had to sit on the step stool because we don't have enough chairs. I didn't care that we barely had space for our plates on the table, what with all of the accompaniments piled on it.
What I did however care about, was being there with my friends, each of us passing food back and forth to each other, sharing stories, listening to music, enjoying our meal.
