Friendship Communities (3) – The Densters

Everyone needs a hobby or special interest when they face retirement (or just to stay sane during those “early years”). Notice I said retirement...not when we quit working. I’m of the firm belief (after 10 years of retirement experience) that for many folks, retirement is when you work harder...the difference is that this time it’s for yourself, for your own projects, and with your own deadlines.

I love to bake bread. I saw retirement as the opportunity to build a wood-fired oven (WFO) and bake lots of bread for my neighbors and friends. I also thought it would be a way to meet people and have something special in the way of Foodie Entertainment. Since we didn’t have air conditioning, Susan thought an outside WFO was a good idea just to keep our house cooler during the summer months by reducing the inside cooking chores. So when we retired in 2009, I started the process of building our WFO. As always, Susan was thinking much farther ahead than I. She did not want me working out in the rain (and tracking mud back in the house) and she did not want to have our envisioned guests to be surrounded by the Oregon flies, mosquitoes, yellow jackets, and other uninvited critters as we sat down for a meal al fresco or to have a brief shower change our dining venue.

As the outside structure took form around the WFO, we found that a neighbor up the hill really wanted to try baking bread in the oven. Diane is an excellent cook with some fascinating restaurant experience, a retired professional photographer, and a fabulous talent for making memorable beers. Her husband Peter had an engineering background, loved vintage sports cars, also had experience in professional photography, loves good wines & tawny ports, and is also a terrific cook was in the food industry for years. While living in Minneapolis and working at a high end restaurant, Peter and Diane met & served many famous people, including a President and (more importantly to me) Julia Child. In addition, Peter is originally from England and has that sought after British accent and sense of humor. Diane is always able to put together tasty loaves of bread, luscious custards, and mouth-watering pies & tarts paired with an excellent home brew on pretty short notice. Who could resist inviting the Griffins down to dinner?

Peter & Diane at a dinner up the river with brew buddies.

Susan & I and Bob & Deb enjoying a summer
 evening party at the Griffins

Our neighbors just upriver, Bob & Deb Walker turned out to be a good addition to the group as we’d get together for a Friday bread bake. Bob is a retired fireman with a rich supply of fun stories from those years fighting fires and from his time in the Navy (yes, our Navy). He did a lot of cooking at the firehouse and had plenty of experience at a butcher shop before the Navy. Diane got him interested in charcuterie and it wasn’t uncommon to have him show up on a Friday with some sausage or other delightful prepared meat item as a taste tester. Deb retired as an accountant and they both did years serving on Search & Rescue teams. Now, Bob is becoming a master at turning wood on his lathe and enjoys making everything from Spurtles (yes, I’m going to make you look it up) to Mobiles. With their knowledge of training dogs for Search & Rescue, after moving to Roseburg, they became involved with training dogs to hunt Oregon truffles. The Oregon Truffle Festival has become quite popular on the West Coast and they find themselves in demand to train other people’s dogs to hunt the elusive underground fungus so highly prized by the culinary world. Bob produces truffle oil every year that he sells to several high end restaurants. Deb has also started multiple classes to help people train their new puppies (and to train the owners how to be good dog owners).

I wanted to come up with a name for the enclosure/structure around the WFO. Since I really enjoyed taking pictures of dragonflies, Susan and I christened the screened enclosure The Dragonfly Den. Our group of six took on The Densters as our nom de plume (Deb’s idea). Susan really loved setting the table in the den with different dishes and table cloths (just a couple yards of a pretty print from a bolt at the fabric shop...she just loved the idea of an inexpensive table cover that she didn't have to fret about).

Susan all ready for another bake day meal with The Densters.

Peter's birthday focaccia (and it was a bit chilly in the den).

Fridays became an event we all looked forward to for the food and the comradery. Susan would often decide to make it a dinner event and would assign salad, side dish, or dessert to the other couples. Food was always spectacular but Bob pointed out that we could not say any particular item was “perfect”...rather we needed to say it was “almost perfect”. This would ensure that the dish would appear at the table again...after all, once you’ve had a perfect dish why would you ever follow it up with a second rate version? Flawless logic after a wine or beer or two... Why even a birthday Focaccia seemed like a good thing to do for a Denster!
When it got a little too chilly for an evening meal in the Den, we’d send out an email noting that after appetizers there would be inside seating for dinner. It was always fun to have some fresh sliced baguette or other hot appetizer from the WFO before we moved on to the main course. Bob said at one point when we were building the den, he thought what a waste of time on something we’d rarely use...but soon after we started to regularly enjoy the den together on Fridays, he couldn’t imagine being without The Dragonfly Den and The Densters for all those fun & tasty years together.

Great Times & Great Friends That Can't Be Forgotten!