It’s the Last Supper.

I’m cookin’ tonight, baby, for our two dearest friends, Bill and Julie. It’s an encore presentation of my own concoction of doctored pasta sauce and fresh veggies that holds a mix of chicken breast and hot Italian sausage, cacciatore style, to be generously ladled over fresh pasta and olive oil. This extremely robust mixture will be accompanied by a salad that’s a meal in itself – mixed greens, hot and sweet peppers, Calamati and stuffed olives, pepperoni, whole garlic cloves, avocado and whatever else looked good at the supermarket. Fresh baguette for the meal and, of course, dessert (if anyone has room).

This meal gives me cause for reflection. Bill and I go way back, I think it must have been the mid ‘70s when we met. It was a professional meeting. He needed pictures of a client and I was the guy to do it. We hit it off quickly. Bill has a background in theater and broadcasting and, even though he was an attorney when we met, his sense of humor nonetheless listed to starboard (as does my own). We found, through our senses of humor, that we both enjoy many of the same things this life offers, great books and great food being just two of them.

Some years later our wives met. They formed a bond faster than Super Glue to a steel girder, probably stronger, and the four of us began to meet regularly, to eat, play cards, talk, whatever. When we were together we simply enjoyed each other, as good friends will.

Bill is the son of a master chef, and knows his way around a kitchen like a Hong Kong tailor does around a shoulder pad. I’m just a slug who likes to cook, Chinese and Northern Italian fare being my ‘specialties.’ Several years ago Bill and I started ‘Dueling Dinners,’ outrageously intricate (and expensive) evenings for the four of us where he or I would try to outdo the previous meal. While I don’t know exactly how much time Bill spent, there was one meal I produced, a cacciuco, a fresh fish soup with halibut, lobster, shrimp, clams, mussels, a ton of fresh produce and God knows what else, that took me three days to make (it was worth every minute and I’ve never made it since), starting with a rented 40 quart stock pot and a whole whitefish carcass that was boiled down to its essentials before being mixed with a slew of somewhat repugnant fish remains. It sounds awful but was delicious. Trust me.

I think Bill followed that Dueling Dinner with a lamb extravaganza that was, as they say, ‘to die for.’ I’ve never been willing to die for a meal (that’s not the idea, right?), but I’m certainly willing to try anything. As always, Bill (with Julie’s help – she can cook okra like no one I’ve ever known) came through.

You know, I could sit and write volumes about the wonderful meals we’ve shared and the great times we’ve had together. I could write additional volumes about the evenings spent playing pool with Bill and other good friends in the ‘Men’s Crisis Center,’ a recreation room he built (complete with a 9’ professional table) in a heated and air conditioned room he built above his garage. It doesn’t matter, though. Bill and Julie are leaving for Costa Rica and Sue and I will be the lesser for it.

Some years ago they bought a small coffee farm down there. Their land purchases escalated, and the size of the farm is such that they are beginning to show a profit, however small, for their efforts. Both of them have become avid equestrians, increasing the size of the herd as well as the stable, and Bill has taken a liking to horse training and is considering it as a side business. The bottom line is that they have grown to love the people and the country of Costa Rica and will be leaving Minnesota next Sunday, returning infrequently for family or business matters.

We wish them well, of course, but we’ll miss them terribly.