eggplant spread with pita bread
margaritas
hoegaarden white ale
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grilled asparagus
skewers of tofu, kohlrabi, eggplant, zucchini and sweet pepper
brushed with parsley oil and grilled
macaroni salad
from the fannie farmer cookbook
double this recipe, even for a small meal
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rhubarb bundt cake
watermelon slices
Our friends Windy and Derek hosted a wonderful vegetarian barbecue party over Memorial Day weekend. In a year I have only done five (now six!) of these "menu" posts, because it's not every day I have an occasion to create one. The menu for this get together was so nice, and so special in that it was so satisfying and so delicious and healthy, that I had to share it. This is also the fourth out of the six "menu" posts that include Windy and Derek. What's up with that? We like to eat together, and to try to impress each other with our cooking, what can I say!
Our two contributions were the delicious summer corn salad from 101 Cookbooks (on Windy's suggestion, but you know I love me some 101 Cookbooks), and the inimitable, AMAZING Bloody Mary tomato salad that was floating all over the interwebs this past week from Running With Tweezers. It was beautiful in this meal, and I made it again the next night for dinner, where it was damn, damn good again. I am loaded up on vitamin C, for sure.
Some random shots from the day and the meal:
If you can't tell how grey and cold out it was from this shot of corn.....
.....then this should convince you.
David and I were color coordinated, he in his wool shirt and me in my lower-back-pain-inducing wedges.
This is the Bloody Mary salad. You serve it on a bed of sliced blue cheese. I'm going to
go grab my leftovers right now. True vegetarians note, this recipe includes Worcestershire
sauce, which contains anchovies. Soy sauce is the recommended substitute.
We were in and out of clouds for most of the meal, plus I'm only just learning
how to drive my new used camera, so admittedly this photo is shamefully framed
and lit. This is the whole incredible spread though. So energizing.
Digging in.
Two of everything.
Unless you're serving more than six or eight adults, you don't need to double up the corn salad recipe. This was wonderful, and will be even more wonderful with sweeter corn later in the season, but there was a lot left over from the double batch. And I know at least David and I had thirds of this!
Under the trees. We've been here before.
Oliver was the oldest little one there. He and his sister do so well at grownup
soirées (she typed proudly). He stinks at sharing though!
I like my "menu" series. It's really helpful to me to go back and look at them to remember the things I know how to cook. Am I the only one who blanks out when someone asks me to bring something to a party, or when I need to bring a meal to someone (especially one with dietary restrictions)? It has become a good little data base for me. Also, a nice reminder of social times for when times get a little less social around here. It comes in waves like that, you know?