The truth is, I'm not sure I can remember the last ten movies I have seen, let alone come up with a ten best list for the year or the decade. No kidding. Sometimes, I remember that I saw a movie two weeks ago but I can't remember what it was. I have to rack my brains. It's a little scary, but I try and not let these huge lapses bother me too much. When I start forgetting my name and leaving coffee pots on a burning stove to melt down and cause a fire, then I'll start to worry. I'm not saying these things have never happened. But if they have, I have forgotten.
Maybe I should try and come up with a list of the ten most memorable things I did in 2009, or the ten things I did that I remember the most vividly. I'm going to work on that and report back.
In the meantime, a few photos from last night's Moroccan dinner. It was fabulous. My flight got in at 1:40 (35 minutes early) and I hit the ground running, as they say. Nawal and I had a brief conference about what needed to be done between now and 8 pm(everything) and who would do what. Since there were now 15 of us, we thought a little more lamb was needed for the tagine. That's how we discovered at about 3:30 pm that the butcher at The Swinery had forgotten our order. After screaming and cursing for about ten seconds, I went up to Metropolitan Market and found a superb, supremely expensive gigot d'agneau . The rest was easy. I even bought flowers to go with the Salvadorean fair-trade hand-made tablecloth I found in San Francisco, and a bunch of bright red cotton "buffet napkins" that were on sale for a ridiculously low price. I had to look about five times to believe it. Metropolitan selling homewares for Costco prices?
Nawal got the tagine going while we set up two long tables in our entryway/library. I only had the one tablecloth, however. So I did what anyone would do. I asked myself what Martha Stewart or Rachel Ray would do. Since I know nothing about either one, except for their names, this was a tough challenge. But the answer came to me when I walked into my office and saw an unused roll of wrapping paper. I would like to be able to report that I took used wrapping paper and recycled it, but that would be a lie. Anyway, Walt wrapped one of the tables with it. The rest was easy. Candles and colorful dishes for all the goodies. Almonds, olives, dates, walnuts, cornichons... plus Moroccan lentils,green peppers and tomatos, rice and corn salad, and a festive salad for the season (arugula, shaved fennel, pomagranate seeds and avocado). As appetizers, we served an assortment of cheeses and a venison pâté. Dessert was the dates and walnuts, plus clementines, chocolates and some cardamom cookies that one of the guests had made.
I had about fifteen minutes to spare for my shower. After the shower, I discovered that my make-up bag must have fallen out of my carry-on luggage that I stowed under the seat in front of me as a courtesy to my fellow passengers. I had nothing but some old lip-liner, some even older mascara and some tinted moisturizer. The upside is that it took me no time to get ready for the party!
The champagne, wine and beer flowed freely. Happy New Year!
Top to bottom: Most of us around the tables
The wrapped table, with flowers
Walt pours the champagne in anticipation of midnight
Nawal in her Moroccan robe and me
Azy, crazy on chapmagne
No party is complete without Neko
