SHOW UP

We eat dinner together, every night, in the dining room, with cloth napkins and usually candles, sometimes fresh flowers.  Music that compliments the meal comes through the speakers.  Attendance is not optional, even if you are a teenager.  This is just the way it is when your parents are “in the business.” 

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

Our children have been learning to chop without cutting off your fingers, sauté, grill and toss a salad since they were tall enough to see the counter top.  They can touch a steak and tell if it is rare, medium rare or medium (nothing else is allowed-it is thought to ruin good meat!).  They will always be able to feed themselves and impress their girlfriends.

Tonight I yelled down the stairs that it was time to help with dinner.  They both trouped up, one set the table, the other got plates down and carved up the pork tenderloin.  Veggies and rice were added to the plates, sauce ladled out.  Music was turned on.  All this was done as routine.  We sat and enjoyed our meal (yes, I really CAN cook), discussed the day, debated the merits of droid vs. i-phone and continued the tradition of shared hospitality.

Do you stop and smell what’s cooking?

A group of us usually get together on summer nights, bring our dogs and our favorite libations and watch the sunset over the lake.  These past few weeks, the air has been so thick you had to breathe it through a colander and the dogs preferred the a/c at home-so much for “man’s best friend”!

Thirsty People

The heat does funny things to your brain and it made me start to think about what drink would be best in such circumstances.  Fruity rum drinks are fine when you’re young or they’re being brought to you by someone young while  sitting on a tropical beach.

Something clear and crisp was called for.

A quick Google search brought forth all kinds of ideas, many that involved vodka and umbrellas.  These are not pre-dinner cocktails-too sweet, too frou-frou.  Then my eyes ran across a classic-gin and tonic.  It’s clear, refreshing, it doesn’t ruin your palate.  Perfect!  Slice the limes, fill the tall glass with ice. . .you get the rest.

Love and Gin

While I was searching through the Google cocktail suggestions, my eyes fell on a listing with a link to the lyrics of a song.  Apparently a bride had this read at her wedding and, since I am in to all things “wedding”, I had to check it out.  While unusual for most ceremony readings, I like it-love certainly does all of this and more to a person! What do you think?

“Love is Like a Bottle of Gin” by the Magnetic Fields

It makes you blind, it does you in
It makes you think you’re pretty tough
It makes you prone to crime and sin
It makes you say things off the cuff
It’s very small and made of glass
and grossly over-advertised
It turns a genius to an ass
and makes a fool think he is wise
It could make you regret your birth
or turn cartwheels in your best suit
It costs a lot more than it’s worth
and yet there is no substitute
They keep it on a higher shelf
the older and more pure it grows
It has no color in itself
but it can make you see rainbows
You can find it on the Bowery
or you can find it at Elaine’s
It makes your words more flowery
It makes the sun shine, makes it rain
You just get out what they put in
and they never put in enough
Love is like a bottle of gin
but a bottle of gin is not like love

Cheers!!—

Then I started to think-is this a shot of the future, will I be doing weddings like this? My kids already communicate mainly via text, lord help us if they have to actually talk to someone on the phone! They know that they have to answer when I call (I pay the bill) but they never, ever talk to their friends, only text. I also think this has contributed to the poor spelling skills of most!

I recently read an article that said a restaurant in LA was cutting back on servers and had set up the kitchen so that you could text in your table number and your order. A server would then deliver it to you when it was ready. This was a nice place here-not Mickey D’s! I’m sure the dining experience is certainly enhanced by having to text “may I have some more water please” and just how much are you expected to tip for such “service”?

While I try to be progressive, I can text, use a GPS, I have figured out the hands free thing in my car, I firmly believe that we are social animals that thrive on social interaction. Pushing tiny buttons on little boxes and watching screens is not really social, it’s talking to a thing.

While I will agree that technology is great in many instances, I have decided to remain old fashioned in this regard.  I will not be doing weddings requiring apps or pushing buttons. You just can’t feel the love in that and that’s really what they’re all about.

Over the years I’ve worked at hotel front desks, sales offices, in catering and convention services.  I’ve dealt with groups ranging from NASA scientists and US presidents to poultry farmers and national Christian groups (they wear the best hats!).  I’ve consoled crying beauty queens who have lost their “lucky” teddy bears (she was 18 for goodness sakes), served 4000 people a gourmet meal at the same time, and arranged to get an underage VVIP through a backdoor of a local establishment so she could dance on the speakers (just for 2 songs). 

In 1987 I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and jumped out of the hotel world, the one with a regular paycheck and benefits, and opened Events Catering with my now husband, Craig.  We started with nothing, no pots, no pans, no help-we rented, borrowed and begged everything. I waitressed at night and cold-called by day.  I spent the night of my 30^th birthday peeling shrimp for a party the next day, in an unheated kitchen, in January.  We promised the best to our clients and we delivered.  I got to quit the waitress gig about 9 months after we opened, a happy, happy day!

Now I mainly do weddings, mitzvahs and a few corporate events here and there.  I love my brides and mitzvah kids.  I don’t have bridezillas, my brides are all beautiful and well behaved and I am honored to be a part of their special day.  My mitzvah kids are all smart and sweet.  I love what I do.  I get to be around happy people, folks who want to have a good time and know that I am trying to give them that.  How many other kinds of jobs can you have where you get to do this?

So, to all people who have shared your lives with me and allowed me to live what really has been a 30 year long celebration, I say a heartfelt thank you.  It’s been a blast –  April

According to a new study, while friends and family are still the number one way to meet a mate, the Web will soon put the matchmakers and Aunt Martha’s of the world out of business.  Michael Rosenfeld of Stanford University says technology hasn’t shaken up the dating scene this much since the invention of the telephone!

People used to trust their friends to pick a good match – not now!  Just pull up a screen on your computer, fill in the blanks and it spits out the names of your Prince/Princess Charming.  According to NPR’s Jennifer Ludden, people are liking this method of mixing because “no one knows you like you do,” and “it saves time.”  If you are set up by a friend, you feel like you have to suffer through a couple of dates.  With a computer matching you, if there is no heat-no problem.  “It’s like, “Next!  Thanks a lot, it’s been real.’”

My generation used to hide the fact that we met in a bar, now couples hide that they met on the Web.  A Duke University study finds that online dating will continue to grow as access expands and successful couples spread the work.  The social stigma of meeting your match online is easing and will no longer have to be a secret to keep from mom and dad.  Your kids will talk about where you met, not the local market or watering hole but match.com or pickapartner.net. 

I say, find love where you can –

How did you meet your soul mate?

• 1/2   7-8oz jar oil-packed dried tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 pints red and/or yellow cherry or grape tomatos
• 1 tsp cracked black peper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 14-16 oz pkg dried regular or multigrain spagetti
• 4 oz bite-sized fresh mozzarella cheese balls (bocconcini), halved
• 1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley or fresh basil

For the sauce: drain the dried tomatoes, reserving 1 tablespoon of oil.  Halve large tomatoes.  In 12-in. skillet, cook garlic over medium heat until tender, about 1 minute.  Add cherry and oil-packed tomatoes.  Cook, stirring, until fresh tomato skins blister, about 8-10 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti, with 1 tablespoon salt added to water, according to package directions.  Reserve 1 cup pasta cooking water.  Drain pasta.

Toss spaghetti with tomato mixture in skillet, adding enough cooking water to thin sauce.  Serve immediately with fresh mozzarella balls and parsley.

Makes 8 servings, 264 cal

MISSISSIPPI MUD CAKE

• 1 cup butter, melted
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 unsweetenened cocoa
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cup regular flour
• 1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
• 1 (10.5 oz) bag mini marshmallows
• Chocolate Frosting (see below)

Whisk together first 6 ingredients in a large bowl.  Stir in flour and chopped pecans.  Pour batter into a greased and foured 15×10 inch jellyroll pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees 20-25 min, till a wooden pick comes out clean.  Remove from oven; top cake evenly with marshmallows and return to oven.  Bake 5 minutes.  Drizzle chocolate frosting over warm cake.  Cool completely before cutting. 

Chocolate Frosting

• 1 (16 oz) pkg powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Beat all ingredients at medium speed with electric mixer until smooth.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla.  Mix on medium speed until well blended.  Pour into a greased 9 by 13 inch baking pan.  Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and pat down lightly.  Bake for 30 minutes.  They will look like they’re not done – they are!  Remember, the goal here is gooey!  Cool completely and cut into small bars.

• 1 pkg Devils Food Cake Mix with pudding
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• ¾ cup Water
• ½ cup Vegetable oil
• 4 Eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.

With electric mix, blend cake mix, sour cream, water, oil, eggs and vanilla for one minute.  Stop and scrape down sides of bowl.  Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more.  Batter should be well combined.  Divide batter among the pans and place on center oven rack to bake.  If all pans won’t fit on center rack, put two on the center and the third in the center of the highest rack.

Bake the cakes until the spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 20-25 minutes.  Cool in pan 10 minutes then run a knife around the edge of each layer and invert onto a wire rack.  Cool completely.  Prepare filling.

FILLING:

• 1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
• ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted (measure 1^st, then sift)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

Chill a large, clean mixing bowl and electric mixer beaters in the freezer for a few minutes.  Pour the cream into the bowl and beat on high until it thickens, 1 ½ minutes or so.  Stop machine and add the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla.  Beat on high until stiff peaks form, 1-2 minutes.

Place one layer of cake on serving plate, spread with half of the whipped cream, spreading to within ½ inch of the sides.  Top with second layer and repeat.  Top with third layer.  Cover lightly and refrigerate to chill.  Prepare Chocolate Frosting.

FROSTING:

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• ½ cup half-and-half
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into pieces
• 2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Place large mixing bowl full of ice in kitchen sink.  Place the chocolate chips, half-and-half, and butter in a medium-size pan over medium heat (do not use a pan with a nonstick finish!).  Stir constantly until the chips and butter melt and the mixture thickens, 5-6 minutes.  Do not let it boil.  Remove pan from heat.

Whisk the confectioners’ sugar into the mixture until it becomes smooth.  Then, place the saucepan in the bowl of ice, taking special care not to let any of the ice water spill into the pan.  Beat the mixture with an electric mixer set on low until the frosting thickens and is satiny, 4-5 minutes.

Frost top and sides of cake.  If frosting gets too thick during this, put it back on low heat until it reaches spreading consistency.  Store cake, covered, in fridge.