When my friend and coworker Francie got back from her Italy trip she brought me a bottle of limoncello and a promise that she had bought balsamic vinegar and planned to cook with it at my house. Francie cracks me up. Left up to me, I’d still be hiding in my cube minding my own business but Francie is very hard to say “no” to. So I’ve stopped trying and instead really enjoy her friendship. She had no qualms at all about telling me to pick a night that her and her son could come over and cook with me.

She didn’t want to cook and experiment for just her and her son. She wanted an audience and since she’d met Michele and Charles before and liked them she told me to invite them as well.

Another reason she had this balsamic vinegar experiment at my house was so I could hold her hand. She’s a wonderful cook. I think she prefers not to be alone though. Me? I can cook all day by myself but I don’t think Francie would find that enjoyable.

And in fact I found cooking with Francie to be a lot more fun than cooking by myself. Aside from her girly, high maintenance demeanor, Francie and I are a lot alike. The other day she asked me about something that she had thought out so thoroughly that I was impressed. She had out-thought and out-planned me. A woman after my own heart. She showed up on time with all the stuff she said she’d bring and we got to it.

We prepared:

• Italian Bread Dipping Sauce
• Caprese Salad
• Low Fat Oven Baked Greek Tilapia drizzled with balsamic vinegar
• Rosemary Chicken Breasts
• Grilled Balsamic marinated London Broil
• Port Balsamic Sauce
• Some marinated cucumber salad that turned out over salted.

And my favorite part…

• Balsamic-Caramel Sauce over Vanilla Ice Cream that we served with strawberries. I highly recommend this one. And the tilapia. But I’m partial.

When the dinner was over, we all played a long but fun game of pictionary. I’d never played with Francie and her son before and was glad to see they weren’t intimidated by beach house gaming proclivity.