Weekend Update, January 26, 2014

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art....

It has no survival value; 

rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."

C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis is somewhere around seven oceans smarter than I am, so I'm sure he's right about this. I mean, let's say one was stuck, alone and friendless, on the proverbial desert island. One could survive. One could survive absolutely alone, and there would be nothing about a having a friend on that island that would make survival more likely....

okay, so Wilson is the exception.

all right, Robinson Crusoe and Friday are
exceptions too.

okay, okay, so maybe it's scary deserted islands
that are the exception.

Whether one can survive without them or not, friends make surviving sweeter. They're the people who are willing to be a part of your process, the people who you trust, the people to whom you can say your weirdest stuff,

and know that they won't get bent out of shape.

Friends give you room to fire off questions

without trying to shoot you down,

and they know how to help you with the hard stuff.  Stuff like making peace, and making plans, making decisions, and making dinner- though admittedly, different sorts of friends have different ways of helping.

Here's how I imagine a guy friend helping another guy friend decide what to cook:

(some of my best friends are guys, which is how you can know that this a totally and completely not sexist imagining of  a conversation I, being not a guy, could never have actually been a part of.)

Women friends (or at least a few of mine) can collaborate on a dinner plan as if it were a wall, one idea stacking on top of the other like hastily-mortared bricks:

When you're playing and planning with friends who tastes you trust, great things can happen- at least they did this week:
A shaved Brussels sprouts salad with grapefruit and walnuts was rostered early in the week, and I was all set to start sprout shredding, when my friend Rachael wondered out loud what this salad would be like with kale instead of Brussels. Only one way to find out....

here it is, with pecans instead of the more expensive
hazelnuts, sittin' pretty next to
  Alton Brown's worth-every-carby-calorie mac and cheese.

And then, naturally, one wants to know what it tastes like in the original....

here it is with the corned beef- actually, I kinda liked the
kale version better.

Later in the week, we were set to try the red cabbage slaw and honey lime tilapia that my daughter had enthusiastically recommended. Except I had forgotten to put a red cabbage in the shopping cart. There was, however, right there at our fridge's front and center, half a zip bag of shredded Brussels sprouts. So, after a quick "what do you think" style pick of the brain of my friendly daughter Liz, the swap was made:

Three reasons this salad looks not as good as it tasted:
1. My camera phone
2. the use of balsamic instead of apple
cider vinegar sort of browned things out.
3. My not so great photog skilz

The tilapia, by the way, was great- something about marinating it in a bit of honey gave it a wonderful crispy caramelized edge. We cooked the marinated fillets in olive oil; Liz says they're even better cooked in coconut oil, and I can't wait to try this marinade on salmon! 
That'll happen Friday-
But until then,
I hope that this week, you're in the company
of friends-
 people who help you
with the hard work of staying alive,
and make that hard work
worthwhile.
I hope you're in the company 
of friends who respect your boundaries
and never push past your limits
and know exactly the right way

to help you dance along life's ledges.