Things have been busy in my neck of the Abruzzo woods lately. My parents are here visiting for a month, so we’ve been spending some time together. Plus I’ve been busy with some work and various and sundry other things.

Yesterday was O’s mom’s birthday, and we planned on having dinner for her here at our house. O told her the night before that he would come pick her up if it was cold and I planned on having just a traditional meal with pasta and ragu - usually a mid-day meal, but since it was the middle of the week, we would do it at night.

After my English lesson in the morning, I headed home to make a chocolate cake that was destined for dessert that evening. Right after I popped the cake in the oven, the doorbell rang. I looked at the clock and wondered who it could be since it was 11. Thinking it may be the mailman with a package, I opened the door to find O’s mom. She must have thought we were having lunch instead of dinner. Not wanting to embarrass her, I figured I’d roll with it and try to get something put together for lunch.

Well, if you know about making ragu, you also know that it takes more than a few minutes. I had to brown the meat and lthen let it stew in the sauce. I said a silent thanks that she showed up at 11 instead of 11:30 because I never would have been able to pull it off if she had showed up any later. O has an hour for lunch which means that 45 minutes of it he spends here (15 minutes for travel) and would get home at 12:15. That gave me an hour and 15 minutes, meaning the meat would be able to stew in the sauce for a little over an hour. It would work.

After starting the meat cooking I quickly gave him a ring to let him know what was up. I didn’t want him to be surprised and figured he may be able to squeeze a few more minutes out of his lunch hour.

Of course, there was no way the cake was going to be done. After baking for 45 minutes it had to chill for several hours before being frosted. So, we’d have to do without it which means that we’ll just have to have the double-chocolate truffle cake for my birthday tomorrow. (Recipe to come) Oh, what sacrifices I make.

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