Friday Show and Tell and A Miracle Story

"You meet your friend, your face brightens-you have struck gold. "
~kassia Byzantine

I always used to love "show and tell" when I was at school, and there's nothing I like more than being able to share something special with you, my readers. This is a photograph of me when I was in Grade one. I am the second girl from the left hand side, and I was six years old at the time. It was at the end of the year school closing exercises and the four of us in this photo were receiving awards from our teacher Miss Bezeck. I know that I have probably spelt her name wrong, but that's how it sounds!

The girl on the far right end was Eileen. She and I became friends in kindergarten and stayed friends right on up to the end of Grade 5 (age 10). After that I moved, one of the drawbacks of being in a Military family, and we lost touch. Eileen had always been the prettiest and smartest girl in the class when we were at school. I had always admired her. Her mom introduced me to exotic cooking, in the form of French Toast. I had never had it before or ever even heard of it, when Eileen described it to me one day at school. Apparently they had it every Friday for lunch, and she very generously offered to bring me home with her one Friday, for a feast of it. I don't think she remembered to tell her mom though, as I remember her mom as being quite surprised when she turned up with me in tow. Nevermind though, I did get to taste it and have been in love with French Toast ever since!

I had admired her so much through the years, although we had lost touch with each other, so much so, that, when I gave birth to my oldest daughter, I named her Eileen, after this special childhood friend of mine, who had made such a wonderful impression on me. Amazingly enough, we were able to get in touch with each other again just a few years ago through the magic of the internet and Classmates.com. It was so wonderful to be in touch again with an old school chum, and we were doubly blessed when she flew over here to visit a sister of her's that was actually living over here at the time. She was able to travel down by train from her sister's home to Oak Cottage, and spend a couple of days here. We had not seen each other for over 41 years.

What a wonderful reunion that was! I think we drove Todd batty with all the chat . . . I don't think we shut up once. It was so wonderful catching up with all that had happened to each other in the intervening years and remembering special times together as children. We were able to go through our grade 5 class photo, and between the two of us, we managed to name and shame almost every child in the photo! We have stayed in touch ever since!





The girl next to her in the photo is the Dukeshire girl. Sadly, I cannot remember her first name, but she did live only about three houses down from me, and I can remember playing in her garage with all the neighborhood children from time to time, and getting up to all sorts in there. They had an old refrigerator stored in their garage, and I can remember being expressly warned by my mother not to play in it!

"You know everything about the other. You are comfortable. There are no secrets."
~Jennifer Aniston

The girl right next to me on the far left, was my greatest childhood friend, Susan Warburton. We were inseparable from the day we met each other at school, in kindergarten, until the heart breaking day when her dad got transferred to Germany at the end of Grade 4. My mother always called us Mutt and Jeff, as Susan was always clearly head and shoulders taller than myself. We shared everything together . . . childhood dreams and plans, adventures, mishaps and misfortunes . . . everything. We literally spent every moment we could with each other and were a part of each other's families. We could not have loved each other any more if we had been sisters, and in a way we were.

Amazingly enough, even after she moved away, we never lost touch with each other. We faithfully wrote to each other all the way through junior high and high school, through one more move with my family and several more moves with hers. When I got married the first time, she was able to come and spend about a week with my family and I prior to the wedding, and if I could have had more than one bridesmaid, she would have been my choice as the other one. My dad couldn't afford more than one though and so my sister got charged with the duty, and Susan was there simply as a good friend.

We managed to stay in touch pretty much for another ten years after that, and when my ex husband and I were posted to London, Ontario in the early 1980's, we ended up living not very far from each other and we were able to visit with each other several times then. I had a young and growing family though, and somehow we managed to lose touch with each other after that. My heart was never very far from hers though, and I have thought of her often through the years and wondered how she was doing and where she was now.



"Think of your friend as a precious piece of Ming jade, or a rare ruby-something you can't afford to break or lose."
~Mary Ann Plunkett

Two days ago, on a whim, I put her name into the google search. Nothing came up. I was quite dissappointed. I then decided to put her married name into it. I was amazed when, just a few clicks later, I was actually looking at a recent photograph of her on the staff pages of a small Canadian Hospital! She still looked the same, albeit a few years older! My heart sang as I jotted off a short e-mail to hospital contact address on the page, and my fingers were crossed as I clicked send. A short time later I received an answer, telling me that they would forward my information on to her.

I did not hear anything at all yesterday and my heart sank a bit, thinking that, perhaps, she didn't want to know. Then, miracle of all miracles, when I opened my e-mail this morning there was a wonderful e-mail sitting in my box from her, and my eyes filled with tears as I read the words she had written. All the years dropped away, and I was again in touch with the best friend of my childhood. We share a history that is shared with nobody else, memories and experiences that nobody else on this earth has, and I feel as if I have been given the greatest gift ever I could have been given. I have struck gold . . .

"We are born into our families, but we earn our friendships."
~Rebecca Stefoff



Todd and I are off to France tommorrow for the day with some friends and so I won't be posting as we are leaving here quite early in the morning. I'll be back on Sunday, hopefully with some pictures of our day spent and some remembrances of a great time spent together!

Chicken is such a versatile meat. It lends itself to many flavours and means of presentation. Here's a delicious recipe that was always a favourite with my kids. You know kids and pizza . . . the two go together like peas and carrots, and so it is with this chicken!





*Pizza Chicken Melts*
Serves 4

Quick and easy to do and as wild as your imagination will allow you to go. You can vary the toppings as you wish. Add peppers and olives, perhaps a bit of chorizo. Use a really spicy pasta sauce if you like, or a mild and plain one. It's really all up to you as to how much or how little flavours you want to add to this one. My children always liked the ham and pineapple version!

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
olive oil
1 cup tomato pasta sauce (you can choose whichever one is your favourite. I like a puttanesca)
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese
4 slices of streaky bacon, cooked until almost crisp and crumbled
4 slices of baked ham, cut into slivers
1 small tin of pineapple chunks, drained
2 TBS grated Parmesan Cheese

Heat a grill pan or a skillet over medium high heat. Add a bit of olive oil to the skillet, or brush the grill pan with some. Season your chicken breasts well on both sides with some salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add them to the pan and grill them for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side, until just barely done.

Heat the grill on your oven to high. (broiler) Place the cooked chicken breasts in a baking dish. Spoon the pasta sauce evenly over each one. Top with equal amounts of the cheddar and the mozzarella cheeses. Sprinkle the bacon, ham and the pineapple evenly over all. Finally sprinkle with a dusting of Parmesan Cheese.

Bang the pan under the grill, about 5 to 6 inches from the heat source and grill them for several minutes, until the cheese is all melted and bubbly and it is all heated through. Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes before serving.