I I Worked hard in the hope of creating something different for snacks with wines, tea and coffee... because we had invited some dear friends in for an afternoon of 'catching up' on each other's past few weeks... I wanted something that could pass for a 'light meal' yet have the essence of a simple not sitting down to a full blown dining experience.
Something I could pull off on the patio in the sunshine and not have people sitting at the dining room table...
I baked a vegetable/beef steak pie, homemade breads with virgin olive oil, real butter and different spreads, fresh tomatoes,cucumbers with red onions in a home made french dressing, vintage aged cheese and of course brie cheese.
Lots of various crackers and two Reds, one White wine. Fresh ground coffee beans and PG black Tea. Sat out the wine bottles, wine glasses, napkins... forks, knives. Had all the platters with food on the serving table when out of the blue a wind blasted my entire showcase. Dear GOD! I flew like a spinning Dervish Dancer... I saved every thing including the napkins.
Well, everything took on a different look. Food was set on the kitchen counter, friends filled their plates with yummy bits and pieces and sat around the dining room table.
Over the many, many years I have catered and hosted my own dinner parties I always muse how no matter who the person, they Cleve unto the kitchen and the kitchen table.
In my home in WY I can have a gorgeous fire blazing in the main room of the house, fresh chilled shrimp, cheeses and all kind of drinks in the main room so that people can sit and enjoy the fire as they drink and eat appetizers before the meal...
My hell, they will come into the kitchen and chat away with me as I am prepping the main meal. They will cluster around a very small dining room table in the kitchen... talk with me, walk into the living room fill a plate with goodies and return to the kitchen!
In my restaurant, people will drop in to say hello. Yes, I am in the kitchen working, but some of my dearest friends will sit at the end of kitchen drinking wine, eat a meal and never leave the environment of all kinds of orders being cooked... dish washers working... salads being made as well as dessert orders... Is IT a human instinct? We love to be where the food is being made and the joy of a kitchen table? Or is it a comfort zone? I like it no matter what.
I always bake bread with certain music. You cannot make a gorgeous loaf of bread without certain elements of Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, BRAHMS, Shubert... the list is endless.
I love making bread to the music of David Lanz, Jon Serrie... The vibrations influence my hands and the fashion I kneed the dough... Once, I was kneading bread while the Prokofiev 1st piano concerto was being played by Martha Agerich... MY GOD THE BREAD WAS ENORMOUSLY FULL BLOWN... It was delicious...
When I fly to NYC every year I spend a day and night with one of my great mentors, Carol Montparker Taub.
We spend most of the time in her kitchen which is heaven on earth for me.
The perfume in the room is made of the lower tones from certain herbs, the high notes top off everything... she makes one hell ova lamb stew. Her salads always "tingle" with excitement.
She is a natural cook. She can toss things into a pan, talk to you at the same time and at the same moment release an aroma of bliss into the room that sets ones taste buds into insanity.
She cannot help it. She is a "MOTHER" a caring woman that instinctively knows how to comfort and give support to one's needs. Be it music, pain, sorrow, or the need for delicious food and comfort. I hope into the firmament I have the same gift.
I am always amazed how food, wine, tables, gardens give us beings of nature solace.
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