August 14, 2015 Costco and Neighborhood Cocktail Party

 

August 14, 2015 Costco and Neighborhood Cocktail Party 

I worked until 11:30 and then went to Costco for lunch, gas, and do some shopping.  Yesterday Suzette had picked four nice early boy tomatoes and we decided to make Caprese salad because Suzette also had bought beautiful red onions at the farmers’ market in Santa Rosa.

So after I ate my open face hot dog garnished with onions, relish, mustard, and catsup, I went shopping.  I first picked up a package of fresh mozzarella and then bought a small ½ lb. piece of Swiss Gruyere.  Since I bought a 3 lb. chunk of chuck roast yesterday at Sprouts that we decided to make into pot roast on Sunday, we needed potatoes.  We both agreed that we would either use Yukon Gold potatoes or the small fingerling potatoes from Costco, so I bought a 15 lb. bag of Yukon Gold potatoes.  I finally bought a bag of dehydrated cherries, because I had put the last of the bag we had into the Maraschino cherry bottle to rehydrate and infuse at the suggestion of Ricardo. 

 Suzette arrived at 5:30 with a small bag of basil from her garden at the Center for Ageless Living in  Los Lunas.  Our basil was killed by what we think was an overspray of Roundup from the walkway by the gardener.

Suzette fetched a large white plate and I started slicing tomatoes and then red onion and we sectioned the mozzarella slices and I cut them in halves to better match the size of the tomato slices since I had halved the tomatoes before slicing them. Suzette then tore basil leaves in half and constructed the salad with alternating layers of onion, tomato, cheese, and basil and I made a simple balsamic vinegar and Spanish olive oil dressing that we drizzled on the salad.  I must say, the final result was quite lovely.

We walked over to Barry and Kylene’s house on Los Alamos, where we found the largest gathering of neighbors I have ever seen at one of the Neighborhood cocktail parties.  There were lots of new people.  I met a few.  We talked to Gary, who does foreign law compliance for Northrup-Grumman and Tim Keller, our new State Treasurer, who has a new baby, and our new next door neighbor, Sandy Buffet, who is the niece of Warren Buffet and whose family owns Buffet Candies, all of whom are recent arrivals in the neighborhood.

There was an imposing array of food and, due to the season, much of it was made with fresh seasonal ingredients.  The hands down  winner as best dish tonight was Janet’s corn cakes that she had  made with fresh corn from her garden picked this evening that were garnished with a dab of sour cream and a sprig of fresh chive.  After eating Swedish meatballs made by a young lady who is buying the B n B at 701 Roma and some killer ground shrimp fried dumplings and spinach and chard balls made by Gary’s wife and a few glasses of wine I moved on to desserts.  I started by eating one of Max’s oatmeal raisin and cranberry cookies and found that I could not stop eating them.  They were the second best thing I ate at the party. I talked to Barry and ate cookies until Suzette arrived and told me it was time to leave.   I looked at my phone and saw that it was 9:15 and realized that I was getting sleepy.  We said goodnight and walked home after a lovely night of food and conversation.

The winning dish must combine originality, which means to me the best matching of ingredients to the dish selected, good flavor, and good presentation.  For example, Janet’s corn cakes were still warm when I first tasted them.  They had no chemical flavor that interfered with the clean flavor of the freshness of her main ingredient, creamy fresh corn.  The cake literally melted in one’s mouth.  They were attractive with flakes of red pepper and beautifully garnished with a dab of sour cream and a sprig of chive that enhanced and complemented their flavor.  I was impressed by their simplicity, directness, and yet they had a complexity of flavor that seamlessly combined all the elements into a pleasing whole.  I could have eaten a dozen but took only one, so others could enjoy them also.

Bon Appetit