Alex wanted to invite his friend Brian over for dinner. He made a real point of it being at a time that I would be cooking for his friend. He wanted me to make something "weird" for Brian. I had planned on Thai Red Curry Chicken - not that weird by my standards but I didn't necessarily think Alex's friends would be getting a lot of Thai cooking at home. So, as a back up, I had a few alternative menus - Penne with Basil and Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto, or Chicken Cacciatore, or Chicken Parmesan. As I was listing the choices for Brian he was looking pretty skeptical. I finally described the Chicken Parmesan as "sort of like home-made chicken fingers on spaghetti." Brian liked the sound of that. When I asked him if he'd like a salad, he said, "Well, um, I'm not really the salad type." A nice, honest answer. Perfect.

It turned out really well. Nothing that weird, but it was very tasty. For the garlic bread, I used the left-over garlic parsley butter from yesterday's corn-on-the-cob. I stressed that he shouldn't eat anything he didn't care for and I had plenty of cookies and ice cream to fill him up if he didn't like the chicken. Of course, there's no way that Brian could have offended me if he didn't like it. I'm not that fragile and besides I'm used to cooking for some finicky diners. Brian ate most of his meal and said that he really liked it. He's a terrifically nice kid. It made me happy that my sons have such nice friends. I hope that says something good about them.