A Mexican Luncheon

Other than some outdoor get-togethers with friends, I have not done much entertaining at home in the last couple of years.  But last Saturday I got out the good dinnerware and had a couple of invited guests to the house for lunch.

You may remember my former student Meredith and her husband Chuck.  Back in the winter of 2019 they accompanied me to Mérida, Yucatán, and I gave them the tour of one of my favorite cities in Mexico.  Since then, we have gotten together a couple times when they have traveled to Ohio to visit her family for Thanksgiving.  While I was in Mexico on this latest trip, I received an email from Meredith.  They were going to be in Ohio again, and she wondered if we might have a chance to meet.  We decided that the Saturday after Thanksgiving would be a good day.  At first we were talking about meeting at a park for a picnic... if weather permitted. (Ha!)  We actually did that last year during the height of the pandemic.  The day was rainy but not too cold.  We took some chairs and sat at a safe distance from each other on the pedestrian covered bridge in my home town of Olmsted Falls.  We had a lunch of tamales that I had bought at the local Mexican supermarket.  

We also talked about going at to a restaurant if we could find one that wasn't too crowded.  We are still rather hesitant about being indoors with large crowds.  Finally I suggested, "Why don't you come over to my house for lunch."

Since I had just returned on Friday from Thanksgiving in Columbus, I didn't have a lot of time to fix a fancy lunch.  So I returned to the Mexican supermarket and bought a couple packages of tamales again.  They aren't as good as what you can find in Mexico, but they aren't bad, and Meredith and Chuck had enjoyed them.  I also bought some avocados, the ingredients for salsa, and a bag of "totopos" (unsalted tortilla chips).  I prepared home-made guacamole and roasted tomato salsa.  Meredith brought some fruit and a green salad.  So we had plenty of good food and, most of all, the pleasure of very good company.  It was great to see Meredith and Chuck again!

 (And, yes, it was snowing outside.  Definitely not good weather for a picnic!)