A little wedding celebration

About this weekend and our party to celebrate Ann and Wizard’s marriage....

There we are the six classmates still looking not too bad considering we’ll be attending our 50th high school reunion next October – that is all except Wendy. She was in the class behind us, although we’ve made her an honorary member of our class.
I’m on the far left – looking a little tired from all the hostess-y work. Next to me is John – the script writer of our group. He and his wife Judy have lived in Brentwood for years – probably the first of us to move to California. Ann is next looking her cute, perky self. She has that Tucson tan – it sure makes her look healthy. She has just become a docent at the Tucson zoo, and is very proud that she got the highest score on the docent admittance exam. She also sells clothes at Chico's. Next to her is Wendy – the head of the California State University at Long Beach Women’s Study department. Besides she’s a professed witch and a member of a drummer’s group. Then there is the couple of our group – Lee and Chris. They both graduated with us – he was the editor and chief of the New Trier News – but only met at our 40th reunion. They married soon after, he retired from his job at the San Jose Mercury paper, and they moved to be close to her family of five adult children in La Habra. Before he worked at the Mercury his claim to fame was traveling with the Merry Pranksters and Ken Kesey, writing letters for Penthouse Magazine, and being the Editor of Hustler magazine.

So at dinner, my husband decided we should go around the table and say how many times we’ve each been married. And considering that my son and his girlfriend said zero times and John and Judy have only been married to each other, our average as a group was way over three. Wow – we are a much married group. And, no, I won’t go into the details.

I must say that the food was delicious. Judy brought an artichoke dip that got rave reviews, and I made a wonderful chicken recipe that I got from the Real Simple magazine. Also, we had a cake made especially for the occasion from our local Becker’s bakery – with a wonderful southwest period photo of the newly wedded couple on the top – they sent it out on their Christmas card, and I couldn’t resist. The cake only said, “Whoopdeedoo,” courtesy of Lee.

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Real Simple:

Mustard-roasted chicken with vegetables
Hands on time: 15 minutes; total time: 1 hour

1 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces
3 T whole-grain mustard
2 T low-sodium soy sauce
Kosher salt
Pepper
4 small carrots, cut in half crosswise
1 medium fennel bulb, cut into wedges
1 red onion, cut into wedges
8 sprigs thyme
2 T olive oil

• Heat oven to 400 deg F
• Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Combine the mustard, soy sauce, and ¼ t pepper in a large bowl. Add the chicken and stir to coat
• Combine the carrots, fennel, onion, thyme, oil, and ½ t salt, and ¼ t pepper in a roasting pan
• Nestle the chicken among the vegetables
• Roast until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender, 45-50 minutes