This afternoon I called daughter Cat with a quick question.  She answered it.

Me: What's Liza doing?

Cat: She's cleaning the kitchen.  Would you like to talk to her?

Me: Yeah.

Cat: Liza, you have a phone call.

Liza: Who is it?

Cat: It's Grandpa.  He wants to talk to you.

Liza: Tell him I'm busy doing something right now.  I'll call him back in a little while.

When I heard Liza say that, I screamed with laughter.

Me: What's she doing?

Cat: (Laughing as hard as I was)  She's wiping off the dining room table.

[More laughter from Cat and me.]

Cat: I guess you're going to have to wait.

Me: I guess so.

This is probably not that funny in my telling of it, but it was unbelievably funny as I pictured Liza with a damp rag wiping down their table.  Their dining room table is round, seats eight (ten in a pinch), and has a "Lazy Susan" in the middle.  Liza's great-grandfather built it by hand out of hard oak, and it's really quite a work of art.  When Liza's at our house, she spends much of her TV-watching time sitting in a child's rocking chair that her great-grandfather's father (Liza's great-great-grandfather) built by hand.  That rocking chair is so sturdy it'll probaby serve Liza's great-great-grandchildren, too.  Cat and Mike's dining room table will definitely serve many generations to come.  And Liza will make sure it's clean.  Do I see a future in the restaurant business for this kid?  And she still hasn't gotten back to me.

ED

Once a month Chef Mike of Liza's Kitchen does a cooking class and wine tasting.  We've never been before tonight because most of the time the namesake of the restaurant has been asleep in her room in our house.  Tonight we went, though, and we hosted six friends to celebrate our 36th wedding anniversay and Beth's 63rd birthday.  The menu todnight was a Low Country Boil--which means, basically, Charleston, SC down to Savannah, GA.  Catherine and Mike met and fell in love in a Low Country restaurant in Charleston,

Here's the deal.  Mike has a demonstration table set up in front of the crowd (30 or 40 people; I didn't count), and he does a demonstration of how to cook each dish on the four-course menu.  Then Catherine, my daughter and Mike's wife (who also happens to be a certified sommelier), talks about the wine.  Tonight Catherine announced that her parents were there and that she and Mike were a little more nervous about the performance than usual, but both of them did incredibly good jobs.  In fact, we all thought we were watching something on The Food Network.  They're both wonderful teachers.

After Mike demonstrated how to make the dish, they served it to us.  That food was so good, and the portion sizes were so perfect, that we left there content, happy, but not bloated.

The menu:

Amuse Bouche: Fried okra (stuffed with pimento cheese) and rice pirloo.  We just barely got a taste of this, but it was so good I wanted a whole platter of it.

First Course: She-crab Soup.  The wine was Domaine Chandon Rose'.  This soup was the best of its kind I've ever had, and I think I must have had the contents of two blue crabs in my small bowl.

Second Course: Fried Green Tomatoes with Goat Cheese and Hollandaise.  OMG!  It was so good.  The wine with this course was d'Arenberg Slump Jump White 2006.  This wine is from Australia, and it was my favorite of the evening.  It's a mixture of Reisling, Sauvingnon Blanc, Rousson, and  Marsanne.  I don't know what that means, but it was good.

Third Course: Shrimp and  Sausage Stone-round Grits.  This was the main couse, and it was good.  I ate all of mine, but it wasn't my favorite.  The wine was Kuehne Gerwurtraminer 2007 (Alsace, France). 

Fourth Course: Benne Seed Basket with fresh berries and Sabayon.  The wine was Pierre Rougan Muscat 2006 Beaume de Venise.  This dessert was fabulous.

It's approaching midnight, and I want to post this before the clock turns.

ED

Edit:  Several things cross my mind.

First, we had a fabulous time with our friends, both those we hosted and those who sat near us.  When your daughter is running something like that, she obviously knows your friends and can hook you up with them.

Second, I'm sure I won't be cooking anything I learned about tonight, but my son-in-law's stock rose to the heights in my mind tonight.  Don't misunderstand me.  I had the greatest respect for that man before tonight because he's extremely likeable, and because he loves my daughter and granddaughter the way I would want him to.  But tonight he became a skilled intellectual in my eyes.  Sure, I saw him cook test recipes in my kitchen when they lived with us before they opened Liza's Kitchen, but tonight I saw him at his best.  He's intelligent, articulate before a crowd of people, and a much better cook than I thought he was.

Third, Catherine was so poised and so at ease talking to that crowd tonight that I wondered where she came from.  She talked about wine regions in France with a good French pronunciation, but she also talked about wine from Australia and other places.  Five or six times her family members who were seated with us complimented us on raising such a wonderful woman.  Beth and I have no idea what we did to bring our two wonderful daughters into being.  We just don't know, but we thank God for the way they turned out.

ED

I've written about this before, but the Big 8 are four couples who have been close friends for something like 35 or 36 years.  That's the Big 8.  The Little 6 are our six children, and they grew up together.  The Very Little 5 are the grandchildren of the Big 8.  I'm pleased to announce tonight (or this morning, actually) that the Very Little 5 will soon be the Very Little 7.  That's right.  The Little 6 are expecting two babies in November and March, and we're all very excited about that.  That will bring our number to 28 (counting the spouses of the Little 6), and that's a pretty awesome crowd.  It's been a few years since we've all been together, but I predict they'll be parading those babies down to Florida within a year.  I absolutely can't wait to see them.

ED

These pictures are courtesy of my friend, Jim M.

I don't know how much of an incentive the name of this place might be.

I think this second one might be Liza's favorite.  She's been potty trained for almost a year, but instead of calling Number Two poo-poo, she calls it peu-peu.  I'm sure her parents don't say that, and I don't know where she got it.  Maybe she's eaten at this Chinese restaurant unbeknown to us and just got the pronunciation wrong. 

ED

We had a board meeting today for the Council on Aging, and we discussed flu vaccine.  For the last bunch of years, the board has paid for the vaccine for clients who couldn't afford it, for staff, for board members, and for Meals on Wheels volunteers who go into the homes of frail, elderly clients on a daily basis.  If we're not covered by Medicare yet, which I'm not.

I've been hearing that you need to get the vaccine for seasonal flu, which vaccine I've gotten for many years, but you also need to get the swine flu vaccine, too.  Until today I was under the impression that the swine flu vaccine required two shots, twenty-one days apart.  Today I learned that it's just one shot, and it can be given the same day you get the seasonal flu shot.  We're tentatively scheduled to get our shots on October 6th.  Last year I missed the free flu shot at the Council on Aging, so I had to go the health department to get mine and pay for it.  I needed a tetanus shot, too, though, so I got them both at the same time.  The flu shot was painless, but the tetanus shot hurt bad.  And I was sore from that one for days.  I had on a short-sleeve shirt, but the nurse made me take it off.  I think she just wanted to see a hot 61-year-old man.  LOL!

Idle question:  Have you ever known anybody who got tetanus?  Or known of anybody who got tetanus?  I haven't.  Maybe all those tetanus shots are working, but is that really a disease anymore if nobody gets it?  I think I've had more tetanus shots than I've had shots of novocain for dental work, if that's possible, and I've never had tetanus.  I've had some mighty sore gums, though.

ED

Today is my wife's 63rd birthday.  She celebrated it by sleeping in until 9:30 this morning, by not going into work today, and by ordering a rack of lamb form Outback tonight for dinner.  It was a subdued birthday, but it was what she wanted.

ED

It was Mark Twain who said, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."  That came to mind yesterday morning as Beth and I were having breakfast at Liza's Kitchen with friends Janet and Steve.  Steve is an elementary school teacher, and he recounted that last week, at a faculty meeting, the principal was talking about a technology program they have at their school.  He told them that I was instrumental in getting that started, and I was.  Then he said, "I think Ed has passed away."

Steve blurted out that I'm very much alive, and I am.  Since then Beth and I have laughted about it, and we decided that I should stop at that school on Halloween to tell the principal that I'm there to haunt him.  I think it's pretty funny.  I'm old, but I'm not that old.  Hell, I'm not even sick.

ED

On Death

A good friend died yesterday morning after an heroic battle with cancer for eight years.  She was sixty years old.  She was a woman of great faith, and she died peacefully surrounded by her loving family.

On Heroism

We heard today that another friend of ours--a man we've known since he was in the cradle, literally--received an award from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for saving a town from destruction by fire.  (I tried to upload a picture of the magazine article about our friend, but it was so small as to be illegible.)  The hero in question is Derek Fussell, and he saved a town from a wildfire.  Congratulations on the award, Derek.  Your extended family is proud of you.

ED                                                                                      

Susan and Sean and Savannah (the dog) are staying with us.  Last night Beth cooked a glorious meal called "Figgy, Piggy, Cornish Hens."  It was really delicious, with fresh figs, bacon, and Cornish game hens, and we all loved it with special mashed potatoes, the recipe for which she got from the Council on Aging's official Panama City Centennial cookbook.

This morning Beth announced she had a series of meetings today, the last one starting at 4:30 PM.  She said she would not be cooking tonight.  Susan decided we'd go out to eat at the Captain's Table, and she invited her sister, brother-in-law, and Liza to join us.  We had a fantastic family meal tonight at one of my favorite restaurants, and the seven of us had a wonderful time.  The irony?  We had a great family meal that was completely unplanned and improptu.  And, yes, Liza was the center of attention, and, yes, Beth did point out how cute five or six babies in the place were for Susan and Sean's benefit.  LOL.  The woman wants more grandchildren because she knows what a blessing children are.

ED

Liza spent the night last night, and this morning I took her for breakfast at our neighborhood diner.  She had a great time, and I think we're going to make that a tradition every time she spends the night with us.

Susan, our older daughter, came home tonight.  Sean, her husband, went to Tallahassee to watch the FSU-Miami football season opener, and FSU lost by a hair.  Sean will be here tomorrow.

Susan has their dog, Savannah, and on previous visits Savannah has been a little wild.  But Savannanimal turned two in August, and she is much, much calmer than she was at her last visit a few months ago.  She's a pure bred yellow Lab, and she's gorgeous.  She loves me and follows me around the house because I give her treats and play with her when she's here, and it's more than a little ironic to me that the development of babies and toddler children parallels the development of dogs.

ED