Sometimes a friendship comes into your life in a most unusual way...and that friend becomes a part of your life and your sweetest memories..and then life interferes and you go your separate ways, but somewhere, down deep, that connection, that love, that friendship is always there.
...It was 1966...Everything was so new. I had a precious baby boy who was 8 months old...a brand new sporty yellow Mercury car...
When I went into labor with my daughter, I called and asked her to watch my son until my parents could arrive from New York...and she and her husband came down to our apartment, armed with crayons and worksheets and games to be the first to ease my son into big brotherhood! When I came home from the hospital I found a gorgous, sumptuous chocolate cake that she had baked to welcome us home! And what a baker she
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| The day I came home from the hospital with THE CAKE!! |
was! She was also an excellent cook and we could spend hours sharing recipes ... no holiday was complete without a long phone call as we cooked and prepared and laughed.
She and I decided to do charity work and we attended many meetings, searching for an organization that fit our needs and talents. We found NCJW and dove in with gusto. I still belong to that organization today!
I met her parents and her sister and she met mine and we attended each other's family functions...laughed together...cried together...but always...together.
Our families were growing and we were all looking to purchase homes in the suburbs. And one day she said they had found a house. She said she loved my apartment and asked if I would help her decorate her new house. I said my mother was an interior designer... but she wanted me! So with a list of sources from my mother we set out to decorate her house. It was the most wonderful experience and when it was finished it was beautiful...it was truly a labor of love. ...And then her neighbor called and wanted her house done...and thus, my business was born!
We bought a house in a nearby town and she and I still spoke many times a day. We visited often... and I supplemented my education to include design.
As our children grew up we still spoke daily. Several years we lived in south Jersey interrupted our frequent visits but we still spoke often and when we moved back to North Jersey it was like we had never been away. I often sought the wise, and gentle counsel of her wonderful husband who was a psychologist. He was so generous with his time and expertise. I loved going to her house to listen to him play the piano, which he did so magnificently.
I had a huge luncheon in my house for her friends and family to celebrate her 40th birthday and she reciprocated with a gorgeous luncheon for my 40th at the very chic Lutece restaurant!
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| My mother, me and my daughter at Lutece... my 40th B'day |
And our children grew up... suddenly I was an empty nester...A lawyer, a college graduate working in fashion and my youngest son in college ...my husband had his own company now and I had a wonderful, thriving design business that took me to many new, far away places... so we decided to move into the city. And
somehow at about this time, my friend and I began to slowly disconnect. I don't think it was ever one big thing...just life and proximity. Visits and calls got to be fewer and fewer and finally none at all. Once in a while, on a holiday we would have that marathon preparation call...and years went by and all I had left were her wonderful recipes and a random phone call. In later years I tried to reconnect but she had moved on and I guess, so had I...but that empty place in my heart was still reserved for her.
When my daughter called to tell me that this friend's husband had passed away I went to New Jersey to see her. The house was still decorated exactly way I had left it over 40 years before...she embraced me and I felt like I had come home. Her friends and relatives who were there, whom I had known so well for so long, were loving and gracious... it all seemed so familiar. I don't know if we can ever recapture what we once had...but I do know that I have missed her terribly and I want to try to get together more. I feel like a missing part of me was found.
Some of my favorite recipes come from this friend and I have shared them before, but I will again, because they are WONDERFUL!
Cold Pasta Primavera
2 lbs of pasta (different shapes) cooked and cooled
1-2 pints cherry tomatoes
2-3 cups blanched broccoli florets
1 bunch chopped scallions (white and green parts)
2 cups sliced mushrooms
Any other veggies you like
1 cup mayonaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp salt...1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
juice of 1 lemon
1-Mix veggies with pasta
2-In a large measuring cup, add mayo and all other ingredients and blend well.
3-spoon dressing onto pasta and vegetables until well blended. If there is extra dressing left refrigerate. Refrigerate pasta salad over night or at least several hours...when you remove from 'fridge, add remaining dressing if needed.
You can add shrimp or chicken to this to serve as a main course.
My Friend's Cousin Arlene's Mother-in-Law's Noodle Kugel..
1 lb fine noodles, cooked and drained
6 tbsp. butter
3/4 cup sugar
small container of creamed cottage cheese (I use riccotta...it's creamier!)
4 eggs
1/2 pint of sour cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice and zest of 1 lemon
Topping:
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tbsp sugar (I use 3 white and 2 dark brown)
3 tbsp butter
2 tsp. cinnamon (I use more because we are cinnamon lovers here)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix all ingredients with hot, drained noodles, (butter first, to melt it)... and pour into a Pam sprayed baking dish and cover with topping
Bake about 40 minutes until set
(I usually add raisins to the raw custard before baking ... you can also add apricots, apples or cherries.)
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