Small, but Wonderful

My sister sent me a text message yesterday afternoon and suggested that I pull out my raclette grill for our dinner meal. She had to pick up her step-son (age fifteen) at 5:00, and could be at my house by 5:30. If you are reading this, and wonder what a raclette grill is, go back in my archives to early January, 2007, and read my raclette post. If you don't want to do that, do a Google search for raclette (there's an article on Wikipedia, too), and you'll get the picture.

I had not used the grill since early last year. It holds eight portions, and I haven't had very many people here to eat since DH passed away. I had looked at the grill the other night when I was putting dishes away, and thought that I needed to get it out and have some people over to use it. So my sister's suggestion was just right.

I sliced and boiled potatoes while I put away the rest of my groceries and got the toppings together that we were going to use. I had ham, smoked sausage (low fat, and it tasted pretty good), pineapple, mandarin oranges, thinly sliced sweet onion, artichoke hearts, sweet pickles (bread and butter), green olives, baby corn, mushrooms, and grated cheese. My step-nephew caught on quickly, and he's all up for another round this afternoon so that his father (my BIL) can join us.

Since I've been exercising and eating a little more responsibly (all right, a LOT more responsibly) after the first of the year, I feel better, and might be up to inviting some non-relatives over to eat. The raclette grill is rather unusual for this part of the country, and I know several families with teenagers that would get a kick out of it. I can handle visiting with people in my home (or theirs, but I don't get many invitations); it's just going places where I would have gone with DH that still upsets me.