Every year, my friend JoAnn prepares a sumptuous meal on the Saturday night closest to Valentine’s Day for some single friends (and her lovely Mom and Dad).  JoAnn is an excellent cook – as opposed to me who eats out of cans and boxes – so I always especially look forward to this Valentine’s Day celebration as a time to surprise and titillate my poor ignored and mistreated stomach.  My gastrointestinal system loves me very much on this occasion – and isn’t love what Valentine’s Day is all about?  Plus, it’s always such a fun time!

This year JoAnn prepared lamb, asparagus spears (the big, fresh ones – not the little, canned ones), mashed potatoes (the kind with the potato skins and lots of butter and milk), and Red Lobster’s Cheddar Biscuits (yummmmmmmm!)  She also made some kind of pastry hors d’oeuvres – I don’t know what they were, but my tummy was shouting “Hurray! Hurray!”  Then we had a chocolate-peanut butter torte (with 10 peanut butter cups in it) for dessert.  Pure sinfulness.  See how to make it here.

I meant to take a picture of the table with all that yummy deliciousness on it so you could see, but I was so caught up in the glorious smells from the kitchen that my brain became mush, and my hands and mouth went immediately into action once the food was on the table, so I’m afraid I didn’t get a picture until after the feast had been devoured.

One friend brought the beautiful flowers and vase to help dress up the table.  And you can still see some of the rose petals that JoAnn had spread around.  The whole thing was beautiful!  I wish you could have seen it.  (Sigh. . .)

 Afterwards, we exchanged some gifts – oh, goody!

I love presents!  Not that I was expecting any.  But I love presents!  Thank you! 

After the meal, we all visited for a while, then everyone went home – except Bonnie and me.  Bonnie stayed for some girl time, and got roped into helping wash up the dishes that couldn’t go in the dishwasher.  You see, earlier, JoAnn had seen some crumbs on the stove and decided it would be a smart thing to rake them off – with her bare hand – even though she had just turned off the burner.  What?!?!?  Of course, she burned her hand.  Duh!  Two positive things about it – keeping ice on the burn helped keep it from blistering – and she had to accept help with cleaning up (she’s not real good about accepting help sometimes).  The three of us laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

Since JoAnn lives in “the city” (Oklahoma City) about 65 miles away from me, I stay over after gorging for the evening and spend the night for some girlfriend time.  We talked, and talked, and talked, and finally went to bed.  The next morning, JoAnn fixed blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast. 

My tummy is loving me (and JoAnn) so much!!

The thing is, I had never seen “short” bacon before. 

I was very excited and asked where in the world she had found short bacon?  She guffawed – not laughed – guffawed.  “I cut it in half so it would fit in the plastic storage dish.”  Then she started singing “Short people like – short bacon. . .” 

(Ooops!  Song interlude.)

Good grief!  I can’t help it if I’m short!  And I can’t help it if I go over-the-top about “short” bacon! 

And I can’t help it if I have such a fun and creative friend like JoAnn!  Thank you, JoAnn, for the super fun time, the fabulous food, and the laughter, laughter, laughter!