chef george francisco's signature panna cotta

george francisco is an acclaimed chef. he is the chef at jonah's, a gorgeous beach resort outside of sydney, australia. george has cooked for the likes of julia child and disney (my two personal favorites), just to mention a few. he has traveled all over the world enjoying exciting adventures. thank gawd, 'cause i need someone to live through. george has been my friend since i was eight years old and for me, my more exciting adventure is his return home to virginia. i am so fortunate to be able to enjoy his culinary escapades. one of his most recent success stories is the fame of his fun signature dessert from jonah's, a vanilla panna cotta. it is jiggly and woobly and makes you think of a, well, i'll let you decide. it even has its own video on youtube thanks to chocolatesuze. i was so fortunate that the chef treated us all to one at a recent cookout he hosted at his parents home. i think it was quite possibly the most delicious thing i have ever eaten. i literally licked the plate. (i did it when no one was looking, jeez)

ladies and gentleman, i give you the jiggly boobie, as demonstrated by julie.

if you would like to watch a video of george plating these not so perky beauties, go here . also, here is another good video from the taste of sydney 2009.

oh, and here are a few fun cookout photos...
george, the grill master george's parents and jim, julie's hubby
george and julie
my little man travis and julie's claire. "travis loves claires"
(personally, i love e-claires)

good friends never really go away

see these two people, julie and george, they are my friends. i mean lifelongers. julie, i see regularly, lives close by, full time working mom, kids, chats on the phone, etc... george, an accomplished chef, i don't get to see so much, in fact decades have passed. he is an aussie transplant who came home to holiday with his son. we just spent four hours talking and drinking coffee, picking up where we left off so many years ago. it only took seconds, eye contact really, for the comfortable familiarity to come back into play. why is that? what makes a person that special in someone's life? i don't know, but why does it take reaching midlife to realize how much we do miss and need them? do we crave the reminiscing and hearty laughs? is it the fact the we are weighted down with life? death? divorce? kids? that we don't have time to realize what we are missing. who knows? the one thing i do know is that i have two great friends, regardless if one is right around the corner or on the other side of the world.

wanna found out more about chef george ? look here, and here, and here.

twenty-six years ago in june

i graduated high school. last night was a bit of reunion with some of my old (i mean that is the nicest of ways) friends. york high school had an alum mixer down at the rivah with alcohol, snacks, dancing and did i mention alcohol? what a hoot. the sad part, it took me twenty- six years to realized how much i missed these people. i want more. i want to see more of them and i want more of them to see.

oh, and my damn sandal broke, obvious sign of too much dancing. i used enough duct tape to make bob villa proud.