Monday, August 20, 2007

the neighborhood scan

So ... Papa and I were invited to the elite neighborhood potluck supper party at the Sweetens. I was dang excited, until Papa got the flyer from Brother Sweeten at church. I was suppose to bring a casserole!!!! Brother... have I ever!!!! made a casserole in my life?! I wanted to get Bonnie's famous lasagna recipe, but I never got around to it. Sadie suggested the rice, chicken and broccoli dish... all of your chicken enchiladas sounded good. Well... Monday was a long day at school, getting ready for the Freshman day (over assembly and junk and other junk) and so at 5:10... I panicked --- even frozen lasagna was out because it takes two hours. (Party at 6:00)... so I called Olive Garden... do you have something yummy, fast, and unique... why sure for a lot of $$$... no problem!! I ordered a pan of "Braised beef & Tortelloni"... whatever. So picked it up at 5:51... called Dad from the take out line telling him I was on my way. Got home... opened the tin dinner pans... threw the stuff into one of my glass 9 x 12... put tin foil on the top and there we went. ... Whew! Made it at 6:07... placed it on the table and blended into the crowd. Success!... Well, not exactly... everyone wants the recipe!!! Usually I'm good to say... they're frozen rolls from Rhodes... but everytime anyone asked Steve would start laughing... and so would I. So it became worst! We left without letting on. (Did I just end that sentence with a preposition?) Having great confidence in Google and entered "Recipes that you don't want to own up on the fact that you cheated and bought them from Olive Garden after serving them in the neighborhood"... and ola! We got something close enough. Now I just have to make it in my leisure time and see if it is at all similar... Oh the life of the almost retired... lov nana dona

5 comments:

sadie said...

What I always do in those situations is say something like..."What...you want the recipe for this old thing? I just threw together a few things and added some spices." The only problem is you will have to be ready to turn down a lot of dinner invitations...or it could get pricey.

Shayne said...

This is a great story. This is how I picture Dona all the time. Doing awesome things like this and getting caught and then doing her best not to lie but to still get away with the caper. But even when she gets caught she has this way of never being really guilty of anything, she could talk her way out of a suicide bombing plot. In WW II she would have been riding with the Kamakazi Jet Pilots and reasoned with them until they had flown her to Oregon.

daisy said...

Way to go mom. Grandma Idon would have loved that story!

Emily said...

So, where's the recipe? I'm dying to try it.

Marty Reeder said...

Biggest reason not to be concerned: you were at the Sweeten's. Now, if it was Erma's, then there would be a problem.