The Feast

Not my finest pictures.  Imagine hobbling around a table, ace bandaged ankle shoved in a flip flop, followed closely by a hot, hungry horde. Trying to keep my balance while attempting to point and shoot. It was a little scary.

It was also a little hot, temperatures in the 90's and given a choice between mowing the lawn or bringing the air conditioners down from the attic, we smartly chose the lawn. Small, charming and sweltering.

All signs pointed to salads.

I was excited to try a recipe from Plenty, the grilled zucchini salad tosses with handfuls of green
and purple  basil, ( straight from the garden ;-), splashes of balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper.  I skipped the hazelnuts because of course we had a guest who was allergic to tree nuts.

Luckily not to ground nuts so he could load up on GG's favorite DanDan noodles.  Spicy with chili paste, crunchy with chopped scallions and radish these Mark Bittman noodles are the hit of every summer party.

  I cobbled together a Persian cucumber salad with  smashed garlic, scallions, salt , pepper, a handful of parsley and mint and a splash of rice wine vinegar.

  Another guest was allergic to avocado which was an integral part of a roasted beet salad tossed with mint, olive oil, fresh lime juice and flavored with salt and pepper.

No matter, I knew he wasn't a beet loving kind of guy.

There was also a heaping platter of grilled chicken but once I took off its wrapping I got the hell out of Dodge.  They may have been hot but they were hungry.

We finished the evening in he most perfect way possible. Iced coffees, strawberry, rhubarb crumble straight from the farm and the piece de resistance?

They took down my dead crepe myrtle tree!  GG in a sundress and the boys from the farm took that sucker down.  They also left 3 suckers standing so we have the beginning of a whole new tree.

It's gonna be a good summer.