Our house is about to be filled to the brim with hilarity, irreverence, good food and snackums, and, yes, cocktails. Friends from the glory days at Washington College are coming for a long weekend of Florida sun and fun, citrus fruit and photo ops. I want to enjoy myself as much as they do, so I am doing a little planning ahead of time (for once.)
The first wave arrives Thursday morning, and we will zip from the airport over to the island of Palm Beach for a lunch in the best local hang-out ever – Hamburger Heaven. This is people watching at its zenith. Socialites, yummy mommies, high school students, old ladies with bouffant hair, yacht brokers and us chowing down on the best soda fountain hamburgers to be had. (If you get a chance to go to HH be sure to sit at the counter. It is the perfect spot for gawping. One of my favorite counter games is “Count the Rolexes.”) After lunch we will pick up the second wave of friends and buzz back home, with a stop at Total Wine and a bathing suit shop. Apparently it is difficult to buy bathing suits in the gelid North at this time of year…
Once we settle in, conveniently it will be time for our first cocktail and some snackums. We are going to have the Garlic Parmesan Potato Chips from a couple of Food Fridays ago. And I am going to try something new for tortilla chips: Cantaloupe and Honeydew Melon Salsa, which I will also have conveniently prepared Wednesday night. (Recipe to follow.)
Then we will claim our Adirondack chairs, sipping divine concoctions, watching the charms of ibises as they glide with reflected glow of a pink sunset on their bellies, through the back yard, on their way to Bird Island for the night. They fly so low sometimes that you can hear the wind ruffling through their feathers.
I will sashay into the house, turning the oven on to reheat the quiches I so cleverly constructed on Wednesday night. We will dine richly on quiche, wine, salad and something sweet for dessert. It should be warm enough for dinner outside, with candles burning and fairy lights shining. We will listen to the wind chimes while regaling each other with our tales from Birthday Balls past, and the time when it snowed so much that we sledded in front of the Hill Dorms on trays borrowed temporarily from the cafeteria, and that Homecoming when we paraded Anita Bryant, straight from Dade County, up 213.
For your college reunion catering plans:
Cantaloupe and Honeydew Melon Salsa
(From the Spring 2012 Michigan Blue magazine)
1 cantaloupe melon, cut from the rind
1 honeydew melon, ditto
1 green pepper, seeded
1 red pepper, seeded
¼ – 1 cup fresh cilantro, minced
Juice from 2 fresh limes
Cut and chop melon and peppers, combine with remaining ingredients. Let sit for 2 to 3 hours before serving. I will be making ours the night ahead.
Quiche Lorraine, or however you choose to fill yours
(I am also doing one without a crust, as we are addressing gluten issues. Poll your guests before their visit.)
Preheat oven to 375°F
Ingredients for 1 quiche – serves 4
1 baked pie shell (store-bought is fine and dandy)
1 cup half and half
3 eggs
6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
One onion, chopped
1 cup grated Gruyère or Swiss cheese, more if you like your quiche stretchy
Salt and pepper
1 pinch ground nutmeg
Brown the chopped onion in a little of the bacon fat that you have reserved. Or butter or olive oil, remember to be loose and enjoy the baking event! Add the onion and the bacon to the pie shell. Scatter the grated cheese with abandon and artistry. Beat the eggs, cream, salt and pepper and the nutmeg until your arm is tired. Pour the mixture into the pie shell. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the top looks pleasingly golden brown. (I like to bake quiches on a baking sheet, because I have a tendency to spill.)
When you re-heat the quiches, bake at 350°F for about 20 minutes.
Other ingredients to consider adding to the mix: fresh thyme, ham, broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, goat cheese, leeks, sausage, salmon, shrimp or good Maryland crab! Also consider this dish as a breakfast possibility.
“Do you know what you call those who use towels and never wash them, eat meals and never do the dishes, sit in rooms they never clean, and are entertained till they drop? If you have just answered, “A house guest,” you’re wrong because I have just described my kids.”
– Erma Bombeck
“Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday. “
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.