One Fine Summer Dinner

Saturday night, I went to dinner at our friends Beth and Cindy's house with a group of our mutual friends and family and as usual it was absolutely fantastic.  It's totally going on the top 10 list of meals I've had in 2011 so far* and it was one of those dinners where after you left and even a few days later, you keep saying to yourself "wow, I had a really good time".  Let me introduce you all to Beth and Cindy: They are sisters who make up an amazing entertaining duo who are always a good time.  Beth is up on all of the latest cocktails out there so whenever you come over, she is ready to serve up her latest concoction at the bar, this time being Jeremiah Weed's sweet tea vodka lemonades finished off with a splash of limencello. (God knows vodka and I aren't close friends in the least bit but these were good!)  Cindy could be a clone of Martha Stewart (obviously all the good parts of her) because she is one of the best entertainers that I know and feeds off all of these wonderful foodie things just like me so it's always so refreshing to talk food and cooking with her because she totally gets what your thinking and envisioning all the time.  Another fun fact about Cindy is that she decorates their house by color every season and we just happened to visit during the summer green phase where everything down to the decorations and photos on the wall fit into this theme.  It looks awesome and I can't wait for the day when I have time to decorate like that.  The best thing about Cindy though is that she is a "pay it forward kind of gal" because when I emailed her the next day to thank her again for a wonderful dinner and asked for a recipe or 2 to share on the blog with all of you, she happily sent over recipes to the entire menu.  So you my friends are lucky enough to be able to have this meal yourselves one day.  

We started off with "snacks and swizzles" (my most favorite term for "drinks and apps" that has a long and illustrious history in my family coined from my Uncle John) in their sun room that included the Jeremiah Weed cocktails, a tomato and goat cheese tart, and these crisp-prosciutto and avocado crostini that if I was left to my own devices I would have literally ate the entire platter.  

prosciutto + avocado = yes please

Next we moved outside for dinner on the deck and we had a duo of cold summer salads that was washed down nicely with some rose wine.  We actually had these salads last year when we went for dinner and I remember as we were driving home, I kept thinking to myself "Why the hell don't I ever entertain like that with easy dishes that can be made ahead so I can be fully engaged during the entire party with my guests instead of slaving away in the kitchen on an up to the minute meal that needs so much attention" (So a big thank you to Cindy for giving me that huge revelation in my entertaining style).  Cindy at first was a little apprehensive to serve the same meal as last year but it was so good and when we heard this was an option, there was some hard campaigning that took place to make sure the dishes were on the table.  We had a Mandarin Beef Salad with a fabulous poppy seed dressing and one of the most moist and flavorful chicken salads with pale green fruit that I've ever had.  This dinner can have a repeat performance anytime.

We finished dinner off with a refreshing homemade lime ice cream, and these little bites of heaven: traveling almond elderflower cakes that are made with St. Germaine elderflower liquor (which is one of my alcoholic guilty pleasures).   

I think my mother summed the evening up perfectly: good friends, good food, good wine, good conversation, lots of laughs.  What more can you can want in life?

*A quick note on the Top 10 Dinners of 2011 list.  Earlier this summer I named the dinner at Denise and Ray's worthy of the list and then I loved my birthday dinner at Pasta Nostra in Norwalk with my friends, any dinner at "The Place" is always going to be up there as well as my mother's birthday party that Andrew and I threw for her but then I sat there racking my brain to think about what else I ate this year.  So needless to say this week a new ritual has been started in my life, "The Dinner Journal" (thank you Jenny for "Dinner: A Love Story" for this one) which gives me the opportunity to record what I eat for dinner every night so that way I can look back to all of the wonderful things I eat over the course of a year.