Dinners, the Finale

Well now I can wrap up this saga by sharing a third encounter we had, one which also happened to be centered around food, but with a much different outcome than what happened in part 1.

As you read there, our first attempts to invite some neighbors into our home did not quite pan out as expected... they simply didn't pan out! A few days after our lovely dinner with the legal clinic folks, Ted and I decided to try again, but with a much simpler approach.

Tostones, the sweet version.

I had made some yummy loaves of pumpkin bread the night before and saved one for some neighbors of ours, a Puerto Rican family with whom we had exchanged many "hellos" and "how are yous" in the past. Knocking on their front door, with pumpkin bread in hand, we were greeted by the mother with warmth and invited into their home.  Over the next half hour we sat and talked with the mother and father, heard stories of his father's farm in Puerto Rico, saw some great pictures, and then... were invited into the kitchen for an impromptu cooking lesson!  Tostones were on the menu - one of my and Ted's favorite tropical snacks :)  Being Puerto Rican, they had tons of plantains on hand, and the mother just kept smashing them and frying them up, sending us home with a heap of them! (And this after eating several while standing in their kitchen.)  Plus, they also sent us with some delicious vegetable soup that the father had just made.  It was so much fun to be invited into their home, to sit and talk, and to be invited back again.  "Our home is your home!" said the father before we left.  What nice people, what a sweet gift.

There ends our three-part "dinners" saga from the month of November! ha.  What saga will there be next?  :)