Reunion

There’s water everywhere!  The streets are flooded and children are splashing into giant puddles.  The sky has swallowed up the sun in a hurry, only to burp out intermittent dark grey clouds of indigestion.  We spent the morning reprovisioning at the Central Market in Bari,Italy; standing on line for fresh mozzarella and getting soaking wet alongside the locals. 

The drastic change in the weather feels appropriate, as today couldn’t be more different than yesterday, when we were surrounded by twelve friends that we had just spent the week with on dry land, in Tuscany.

“These boys were friends before they knew who they were going to be today.”  Somebody said that, meaning that they bonded before they were successful men.  Although this is true, over the days together, I came to realize the words were deeper than that.  These boys were dumbass teenagers that got into trouble together, and they have the stories to prove it.  These boys are husbands who chose wisely and won on the marriage battlefield (anyone who says you don’t have to fight for it is a liar) – each and every one of them, victorious to this day. These boys are parents who had great fatherly moments, as well as blundering idiotic ones that they shared over the years.  These boys chose each other when they were kids, before life happened.  Then they chose each other again, accepting every quirk.  Then they chose each other again, and again, and again.  That’s how they wound up in Italy together.  Not by chance, or luck, or good fortune, but by choice.

Us wives, well, we chose them.  I suppose it’s luck that we all get along so well.  It’s certainly bon chance that we got to go to such a lovely place and share incredible, once in a lifetime experiences together.

Of course, I will recollect the fireworks, but I can’t be sure that the memory of them will be as vivid as the in-between.  I have a clear image in my head of him tearing up with emotion.   I can almost touch her smile lines, the ones that made her look the picture of happiness.  The in-between is what’s indelible to me.  The card game conversation.  The chatter after midnight.  The morning cappuccino talk.   

The time was a near perfect present, that had been built on the past, ensuring a future.  It was a reunion, in honor of seven big birthdays, intended to be savored, like the finest wine in all the world.  It was indeed delicious.   Happy 50th boys, and thank you!

Last remarks:

Thank you Todd & Holly for my new cookbook, and Nancy for your inspiration. See below for Ribollita soup recipe. (Keep in mind that I’m not an exact recipe kind of girl. Okay, I don’t measure anything – Ever.)

Ingredients:

• 3 cans cannellini beans
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1 small can chopped stewed tomatoes
• vegetable broth
• generous amounts of Tuscan kale, carrots, and cabbage
• the right amount of crusty, thick Italian bread
• 4 shakes of red hot pepper flakes.

Cooking instructions:

Cook the onion and veggies for a bit in olive oil, add the broth, tomatoes, and beans. Shake the pepper. Break the bread into small chunks and throw it in the pot. Cook until the bread is soft and mushy.

*Add more broth for a thinner soup. The bread will soak up quite a bit of liquid.

Enjoy!