Eating one by one:
The day started inauspiciously with the usual mix of Cheerios and granola for
me, assorted other cereals, breads, and eggs on toast for others. People
straggled down at different times, took their breakfast to private places in
the house or on the porch to eat in morning solitude, enjoying the morning
papers and the sight and sounds of the waves, gulls, and osprey diving for
her own breakfast.
Eating in small
groups: For lunch, we had shakshuka, an Israeli/Arab dish prepared by a friend
visiting from Texas. This is, essentially, poached eggs in tomato sauce, with bread
for dipping and scooping, and, in this instance, the added attraction of Mexican
chorizo along with it. People showed up and ate in small groups of 4 or 5,
depending on when they arrived for the meal, who they hadn’t seen for a while,
and miscellaneous other variables. Children ate their trusted and true
sandwiches, but a few of the older kids, plus the 2-year old, tried the shakshuka and, like the
adults, pronounced it outstanding. The 2-year old was even heard to ask for more.
A place for
everyone at the table: The dinner menu started with an appetizer plate
of assorted cheeses, crackers, grapes, and cherries, accompanied by wine, beer,
juice, and pop. About twelve adults gathered by the kitchen sink and out back by
three charcoal grills to preside over peeling, trimming, dicing, slicing,
washing, marinating, lighting, and organizing stations. Others took their turns
on the porch to demolish the appetizers, and kids set to work trundling knives,
forks, plates, and other eating paraphernalia from their resting places in the
kitchen to the tables lined up on the porch. Everyone took turns shepherding
the two-year-old future marathon runner as he careened from the front to the
back of the house, up the step stool to inspect the pantry shelves, and onto
the swing on the front porch.
The meal was produced, carried in, divided up, and eaten by 25 friends
and family of greatly varied ages amidst delight, pleasure, and raucous
laughter.
Here is the menu:
- Roasted garlic from our son’s organic farm;
- Butternut squash roasted with grapes and onions;
- Corn on the cob;
- Mussels garnished with a mystery topping – check out the picture;
- Sweet Italian sausage with an optional garnish of sautéed peppers, onions
and other stuff;
- Grilled flap loin, flank, and t-bone steaks, seasoned or non.
- Hamburgers, cheeseburgers and sliced ham for the culinarily suspicious.
There were to be hot dogs as well, but the wrong package was taken from the
freezer in Boston and transported south, only to have it be discovered that it
was marked by an X, meaning it was full of rotting hot dogs destined for trash pick-up rather than the
grill;
- And one of the pieces de resistance:
home fried French friesl We mowed through 4 huge batches and not one strip was
left.
Finally: Ice cream topped by Tom’s homemade, chemically inspired, crystallizing, private-recipe chocolate sauce.
The take away
message: Everyone had a place in planning, providing, and preparing (except,
perhaps, for the two-year-old) and everyone had a place at the table. There was
plenty for everyone, and some was even left over for another day. Listen up, World!
