A post in which I spend more money

For someone who doesn't need to spend money, I sure dropped a lot of it today.  But then I had stuff to do.  I was out of TVP, so I had to go to Whole Foods.  Then I went to the regular grocery store as well.

I ran errands, and when I got home I got into the kitchen.  Gary was coming, so I made tea.  I had planned to make a pasta salad.  I wsa trying again to copy the one that Adam's Bistro makes - and I nailed it!!  The secret to infusing the pasta with so much flavor is cooking the orzo in broth.  Giada De Laurentiis clued me on how to do it on her website.  It turned out delicious, and I'm so glad it worked! 

I also worked on putting my beans together for the party tomorrow.  My beans are pretty intensive to make, which is why I don't make them too often, but by the end I was in the home stretch and singing away.  Then I went to put in the final ingredient, liquid smoke, and dumped in like half a bottle.  I had mistakenly gone from a shaker top to a nipple top, which I screwed off.  I was pretty upset.  But I decided just to bake them tomorrow.  If they aren't good, we don't have to eat them.  I was certainly not going to make a whole new batch.  There wasn't time anyway.

By the time I got cleaned up after all that, it was about time for Gary to come.  He is such a sweetheart.  He took me out for a lovely meal at P.F. Chang's.  I usually don't eat at chain restaurants, and their food is really fattening, but Gary had asked to go the last time he was here.  I think he was really surprised that I remembered.  I had never eaten at the one in Greenville - you usually can't get near the place.  But we had a cocktail and just waited for a table.  About the time I finished my drink we were seated.  I have to say, the food was good, and our service was great.  We had a cutie waiter who was also nice - and compitent, which is rare enough these days. 

It was a very nice evening.