（日本語は後に続きます）

On December 23, I asked my son’s girlfriend, his old roommate and his girlfriend to come over for the Christmas dinner.

The roommate is from India, and he and my son lived together in the dormitory and apartment for 4 years at college. He is applying for the MD/PHD combined program, while working at one of the biology labs at Brandeis University this year.

He had been coming to our home for 4 years for many different occasions, and we celebrated their commencement at our house this summer, for which his father from India came over. He is like my third son, and I also feel affectionate toward his girlfriend from Israel. In addition to my son’s girlfriend, these two are very important people in my life.

Because I am not quite up to the cooking and hosting task yet, I asked them to cook dinner together.

Together they cooked:

Black mushroom soup, Chicken Marcella, Pasta with olive, artichoke, caper, squid, and shrimp, boiled broccoli and cauliflower, salad, salmon cheese ball, and key lime pie, all from my recipes except for the pasta dish that my son concocted on the spot.

In a way this was more fun than the traditional dinner for which I cook and serve. The conversation while cooking together was more natural and spontaneous, much better than the contrived one at the formal dinner table.

I am grateful that they all were such good sports, consenting to come and cook together.
I hope that they will ask for the recipes sometime in the future.