lovely photo courtesy of lovely Jo Santangelo

This is my kitchen.

This is my great grandma Rose’s lace tablecloth. My dad sat at this cloth as a little boy. My mom sat at it too, as a newlywed.

These are the gluten free breadsticks/crostinis I made earlier in the day.

These are the chairs (lower, right-hand corner) that we found on the side of the road, presently tucked neatly under our kitchen table-card table-bungee-corded-together scenario.

This is the place where 8 people will eat a Jo-cooked, from-scratch meal for less than $70.

These are the flowers that will retain their color for months and months (great purchase for flower lovers on a budget.)

Those are mason jars, holding breadsticks and flowers with such (multi-)purposeful pride.

That is the oven-door, waaaay in the back (humming a Roger Miller tune), which conceals a scratch blueberry pie, made with home-preserved, local blueberries.

There are my treasured cloth napkins, extending grandeur in diversity.

This is the night before my first (book) deadline, and I can’t think of a better way to spend the evening than with 6 friends and my home-cooking, hot Italian.