My oldest friend Teresa lives in Leeds, England and has a studio space in a building with many artists, writers, and other assorted creative folk. She has befriended a couple of young women who are embarking on an arts project that explores human relationships with the sea; curioseaty.wordpress.com. They are very interested in whales and whaling, so where better to do research than in New Bedford, the home of Moby Dick, Captain Ahab, the Seaman’s Bethel and The New Bedford Whaling Museum. Teresa assisted them with finding a good B&B nearby and by introducing them to me. I was delighted to meet them and hear what they’d been up to. Not so easy.

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Scheduling proved difficult, along with my obvious inability to read a calendar. We had one day that we were all available, but I had the wrong day marked. So they were happily doing some research in Mystic Connecticut but I thought they were whale watching off of Stellwagen Bank.  When I didn’t hear from them my long dormant maternal instincts kicked in and I started getting panicky. Texts flew. Realization dawned. We rescheduled our meeting and were able to pull off breakfast the next day.

Hondartza, her fiancé Simon, and Lorna met me at Cobblestone’s, a downtown New Bedford breakfast and lunch place I’d been to recently. They do a nice Sunday Brunch with a killer Bloody Mary. Today we were doing a late breakfast and my new European friends were lamenting the size of the portions in the U.S. and Cobblestone’s was no different. Their Portuguese Eggs Benedict (with linguica, a Portuguese sausage, instead of Canadian Bacon), cheese rolls (for the uninitiated a small bread with cheese baked into the middle, usually split and grilled to a crispy, cheesy delight) and omelets were plenty big enough. Add in some home fries and the table could have split the order. I stuck to my veggie egg white omelet with ½ of a dry toasted English muffin, no potatoes. Sigh.

It was great hearing a bit about their project and pointing them in the right direction for shops and the beach, and of course directing them to where Teresa and I went to high school together. Our gorgeous building was built around 1900 and we think it’s special. My new friends are used to Spain and England where EVERYTHING is old and gorgeous. I felt a bit silly. We had a lovely visit nonetheless.

Spain was on my mind this week, not only after meeting Hondartza, but as we will be traveling there as part of a bigger European trip this fall. Our friend Phil was coming to dinner Saturday night, and a hot weekend means a cold beverage, so Sangria came to mind. I still had bottles of the Spanish wine I use so I mixed up a pitcher, with lots of fruit. Tapas seemed the obvious appetizer. The shrimp I sautéed in olive oil with smoked paprika, garlic, chili pepper, cognac, lemon juice, and parsley and served with crusty bread was killer. I tried it with scallops, and while it was good it was not as good as the shrimp. But then again, it’s hard to beat a great shrimp dish. Especially with crusty bread. OK Deborah, time to step away from the bread…

Deborah