August 17, 2018 Lunch – Salmon Salad. Neighborhood Cocktail Party

August 17, 2018 Lunch – Salmon Salad.  Neighborhood Cocktail Party

I did not ride this morning so I ate breakfast at 9:30, granola, mango, milk, and yogurt.

At 12:30 I made a salad with romaine lettuce, a diced tomato, the PPI teriyaki salmon, ¼ cucumber peeled and sliced, and a green onion sliced.  I dressed this simple salad with Cesar salad dressing.  It was delicious.

Suzette arrived a little after 5:00 and we started. I had a snack of Manchego cheese and summer sausage as we got ready for the party.  At 5:40 I realized iI had no crackers for the cheese board, so I drove to Bosque and bought two flat loaves of chibatta.  I sliced the blueberry and peach Clafoutis into 1 ½ x 1 ½ inch squares and put them on Suzette’s new appetizer platter and suzette put out the cheeses on the Texas cheese board while I sliced one of the chibattas and put it into a basket with several ak mom crackers and wrapped them in a napkin.  The chibatta was wonderful, fresh with a slightly crisp crust and soft on the inside with just a hint of olive oil.

I also filled a bowl with shelled and salted pistachios and another with chocolate covered raisins.  The cheeses were Brie, Iberico, Jarlsberg, Tomme de Savoie, a shallot flavored Boursin, and Cahill Irish chive Cheddar.

By 6:30 everything was ready and at 7:00 Gwen Poe, our first guest arrived.  Many of our other neighborhood friends came even though there was a pretty persistent drizzle; Kylene and Barry, Travis and Kathleen, Crystal and Doug, Diane and Jim, Janis and her new neighbor, Robin, Todd, Megan, and Harvey and Chris.

Everyone brought a dish and a bottle of wine except, Gwen, who brought a container of fresh grape juice she had made and Todd, who brought a bottle of blood orange lemonade, which was very helpful, since we had no soft drinks.

Megan brought the most interesting wine, a Brander Sauvignon Blanc from the San Ynez Valley, she had bought at the winery when she visited.  I also really liked a New Zealand Pinot Noir that Robin brought.

There was a wide variety of food, including dolmas, meatballs, steamed asparagus and a sauce, a
chocolate cake, hummus, chips, and smoked salmon canapés.
At first everyone gathered on the patio where we set up the wine and beer but later as it started to drizzle everyone migrated to the dining room where the food was and I fetched bottles of wine as needed.

After a while when the humidity and temperature in the dining room increased we turned on the whole house fan and the temperature dropped almost immediately.  By 10:00 everyone except Jim and Diane left and we talked for a while longer.  They were interested in my Romanian wine business and Jim told us about his trip to Romania for a local festival.  Jim was in the Peace Corps, and has traveled extensively.

After Jim and Diane left we put up the cheeses and PPI Clafoutis and went to bed after a lovely evening.

Bon Appetit