After living in our family home for eighteen years I heard a contest on a radio show. You were to look for the most outdated food item in your fridge. I did. I found a jar of Cheese Whiz that had expired fourteen years earlier…To prevent such an embarrassment here on the island I have been working through the pantry and freezer all summer. My goal is to have the cupboards bare before I restock for the winter.. When we came home from the city on Sunday night it was pretty much dark. We had time to buy some milk and that was about it. Our neighbours friends had invited us to dinner last night so we figured a quart of milk would do us until we went shopping today, Tuesday.

It was to be The Last Supper. The W’s are heading back to England and we needed to commiserate and evaluate the remaining wine supplies. She assured me she wasn’t going to go to any trouble. She was just going to empty her pantry and throw something together. Yesterday morning she called to say her pantry was apparently already empty and so the Last Supper would have to be at the pub on the neighbouring island. E and I had never been there and were looking forward to the adventure.

We met at their boat at PC for 6pm. Gorgeous sunny night for a drive through the pass and into the Bay. The Bay was still packed with sailboats, and the marinas were full. Why not? We are living in an endless summer. TW called ahead on the boat radio to alert the Marina that we were coming and see where they wanted us to tie up… No one answered. The W’s have been to this pub many times so knew to grab the first available spot at the dock. We tied up and headed to the restaurant.. My mouth watered in anticipation of my impending dinner of halibut, chips and beer as we walked up the ramp  to the door.  The door was locked.. No one home.. Closed for the winter.. not a soul to be seen, beer to be poured or fish to be battered. It was 6:30.

We returned to PC comparing notes on what was in our pantries… E and I had an onion and a chocolate bar.. AW didn’t think she had much more as they were leaving today for the winter. She was confident though, that if I had an onion she could make us a meal. Not to worry her husband TW reminded us, “There is a lot of wine to be evaluated.”  They both laughed as we pulled into the dock and said “You are going to put this in the blog, aren’t you?”

We had an amazing dinner of hot crab dip with rice crackers and chicken chili (with onion) on rice. For dessert a beautiful puff pastry filled with pineapple and cranberries. AW is an amazing cook and where some on the island sew, garden or knit; AW entertains. She (they both) are gracious hosts, even with only 5 minutes to create a dinner out of an empty pantry.   Later in the evening we cut the Mars bar into bits and passed it around. She was right, with just an onion from me she was able to make a fabulous meal. He was right, there was a lot of wine to be evaluated and yes they were both right… I am putting it

in the blog.