Saturday was one of my favorite kind of days; a day when friends dropped by to kibitz around the kitchen table.  We caught up, shared the latest news, everyone talking over each other, and lots and lots of laughs.  Fried donuts drenched in chocolate and Baileys Irish Cream glazes were chased down with freshly brewed coffee.  That doesn’t happen enough these days – not the donut part, but the ‘people stopping for a visit unannounced’ part.  Instead, there is an acrobatic juggling of calendars resulting in a date so far into the future that by the time it arrives you have forgotten the reason you were getting together in the first place.  I remember Sundays during my childhood when extended family and friends would frequently drop in, often staying right through to dinner.  And that’s the trick.  You need to feed your company.  Keep bringing out food and they’ll stay.  After the donuts were gone I went to the freezer and brought out the sticky buns I had frozen the week before.   If I had anticipated their visit, I would have had a big pot of soup on the back burner or something roasting in the oven that would have enticed them to stay even longer. Continue reading →