Dinner party

Last night we had our first dinner party. My three girlfriends from the UK and US came. my argentine friends Matt and Caco were supposed to come too but one hour before showtime I received a call from Matt that he wasn't coming. his family was having a "meeting" about the family business - their farm. strange excuse. did they just decide to meet on a saturday night? He was apologetic and ended the call with a desperate plea "ambi, don't be mad, I love you!" coming from a 25 yr old marilyn monroe obsessed gay argentine man, that doesn't mean much. my girlfriends claimed similar experiences with their local friends. something about how argentines hate to say no to an invitation even if they can't or don't want to go. so, they cancel a lot. ugh. that is going to take some getting used to. we spent the entire day preparing for our guests. i found what seemed like an easy recipe online for an argentine stew. just buy a bunch of different things, throw in a pot with some water and simmer for a few hours right? well, that's why i'm not the chef in the house. we went to 5 different shops to gather ingredients. butcher shop for the stew meat and bones to make the broth. big market to buy a large enough pot and misc veggies. cheese shop for appetizers and wine. panaderia for a chocolate cake (a surprise with candles for hugh's birthday which was last tuesday). hugh did most of the heavy lifting in the kitchen and i served as assistant. nonstop all day long until about 7:30pm. then it was time to clean the house. patricia who cleans our house m/w/fs couldn't come on friday as her daughter got sick. i'm a bit worried for her as her daughter has a condition similar to Uttas where her esophogus was formed incorrectly, so she had to have major surgery and can only eat certain foods or she'll vomit. Patricia's husband left her when their daughter fell ill. terrible. anyway, girls arrived at our place at 9ish and stayed until 3am. practically had to kick them out. the stew was delicious and even better leftover today. it was a great night.