#7: A Celebration of Summer

The table setting with a red, white, and blue theme for summer.

I have been quite derelict in my duties as food blogger this past month.  We had a fantastic dinner event at the end of August with some of the nicest guests we have ever had and yet I am late in getting the summary and menu together!  Contributing to this delay are the normal events of life that pop up around this time of year, you know, like the U.S. Open.  But, I have come to terms that there is also a general ennui and frustration that has overtaken me a bit recently with food and the restaurant scene.  I mean I still love to cook and entertain as much as I always have, but I am frustrated with the deification and glorification of chefs and restaurants and the "foodie" scene.  I feel that we are losing touch with what's important.  We obsess over an ingredient's origins, how it's grown, what oil and pan it's prepared in, what you serve it on or with, whether you can cook it better or faster than someone, and we end up losing the essence and purpose of a meal.  We are inundated with glossy niche foodie pubs that produce lists like 18 ways to use a sous-vide or the 10 best doughnut and quinoa shops you haven't been to yet, etc.  Bottom line: the food scene is overexposed and splitting at its seams.

My cooking inspirations are my mother, my grandmothers, and Nigella Lawson, in that order.  Their goals were to pass on old family recipes, bring their friends and families together, and feed them.  For my family, meals are a way to stay in touch but they also serve to keep its members healthy, nourished, and occasionally spoiled.  Maybe it's the publications I read, or the twitter feeds I follow, but the obsession over food porn, designer spaces, food "competition" shows, and rock star chefs, has diluted and confused what I thought cooking was about.  To me, why I began this blog and why I spend so much time in the kitchen is because I love good food and I love making my family and friends happy.  Nigella once said that in French cooking, attention is drawn to the chef, whereas in Italian cooking, the attention is drawn to the food.  And I feel that is such a relevant remark these days, I feel that almost all aspects around food now are meant to draw attention to the chef.  That doesn't mean most of these chefs and restaurants don't deserve praise, in fact they absolutely do!  They make incredible dishes and their restaurant employees work incredibly hard to put it all together for the public.  But in the end it's not about who is the "best" to me.  In the end, I want people to enjoy the food I make and the company around them.  I don't want to exclude anyone and I don't want to make anyone feel lucky that they are eating my food.  Luckily, like all food trends, this one will soon pass, much like how carved out watermelons were used as serving vessels back in the 70's.  So, I am hopeful that once again in the city I live, and other big cities, restaurants come back to earth and just make great food again without all the fanfare.

Our guests (from left to right in back): Clark, Anne, and Torao, with my husband Kevin in front.

Ok, with that off my chest, what about the dinner and guests from our last event??  I wanted to do something that celebrated the end of summer, since it's my favorite season.  In that vein, I thought of grilling meats and vegetables, corn on the cob, and ice cream.  And the menu below reflects those aspirations.  Who came to dinner?  We invited some new friends to Kevin and I in Clark Ebbert and Torao Kubo.  I know Clark through my work with the Miss Adams Morgan pageant here in DC.  I film the videos for their annual amateur drag pageant and Clark has been with the organization as a performer and contributor for many years.  I only just met his boyfriend Torao last December at our holiday party.  Torao runs a successful salon and has a business degree, which I find so impressive.  They are a fantastic match and based on that initial meeting last year I sensed that the their relationship would continue strong for a while.  Clark also participates in a different supper club with friends he has had for many, many years.  A rival supper club?!  The game was on. :)  Clark invited Anne Steinicke and Sharon Groves, a couple he knows from that supper club.  Unfortunately, Anne's partner Sharon was sick and not able to make dinner that night.  Clark had described Anne, affectionately, as an "old-fashioned" lesbian, which I am still unclear what frankly that means.  Regardless, my impression of Anne was a calm, friendly, thoughtful person who has great taste in food and life.  So if that's old-fashioned, then I aspire to be old-fashioned as well.

Conversation that night veered all over the place, in a fun way.  We talked about the pageant, our first jobs and the unusual arcs our careers have taken sometimes (Clark after assisting at a psychiatric hospital right out of college eventually got a master's degree in dance and was a professional dancer), and working with the millennial generation (the "M" word as Clark calls it).  Thankfully, Kevin's drink that night (a long-cherished Barefoot Contessa recipe for Long Island iced teas) kept the buzz going and the talk lively for most of the evening.  It was a great night and I hope that an invitation to their supper club is in the mail soon.

For the food: the Nutella ice cream came from the NYT's recent master ice cream recipe (which is epic and amazing), here is the recipe for those Long Island iced teas (my favorite drink really), and for Nigella's Union Square Cafe nuts (which are perfect for a summer snack).  I will post some of the other recipes that I developed for that night over the next couple weeks.  In the meantime, enjoy and keep on cooking.

MENU

A Celebration of Summer

August 23, 2014

Cocktail

Long Island iced tea

Mixed liquors, simple syrup, lemon juice, cola  

Appetizer

Spicy grilled shrimp

Cilantro dipping sauce

Union Square Café bar nuts

Mixed roasted nuts, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, rosemary

Main

Grilled pork loin

Guava-mustard glaze, orange-habanero mojo

Cheesy corn pudding

Local sweet corn, grueyere cheese

Grilled broccolini

Lemon zest, parmesan

Sweet

Ice cream sundae

Homemade Nutella ice cream, organic vanilla ice cream, chocolate ganache, toasted walnuts

Guests

Clark Ebbert

Torao Kubo

Anne Steinecke

Sharon Groves