In honor of the spring equinox the Misses Kleinman, Holland, Giattina, Lee and I embarked on a most ambitious undertaking: a sit down, dress up, four-course dinner for forty. It worked.
Place settings, name cards and assigned seating. Libations enough for everyone (and some even squirrelled away for later).
Caught enough red rock crab to fill a bucket.
Spent the evening before picking apart all fifteen of them.
So worth it: rock crab over tiny greens with a lemon-olive oil drizzle.
Koperski made fresh ricotta which Evelyn made into lovely cocktail-hour crostinis.
Turned the living room into a banquet hall, a literal interpretation of those spatial mathematics questions on the SAT.
Sarah pulled together a trio of tartes and some beautiful pickled carrots, which were preceded by Debbie's hand picked salad (miners lettuce!) and Lila's wild (and wildly consumed) nettle soup with cashew cream.
All of which left the kitchen looking like this in the morning.
Nothing a few bloody marys and Big Star can't fix, especially with 10 hands going at once. Before that, though, there was a great deal of festivity happening.
That's a whole lot of good looking people.
Even Jesse was on his best behavior. Sort of.
Good behavior is hard with so many good looking women around.
See what I mean? Even I went a little batty in the end...spring fever.
Goodnight, sweethearts. Until the next time.
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Which is? Plans are in the works and I think a tradition has formed...may the next time be even smoother and more populous. Until then, lets take advantage of the season! And keep a weather eye out for those portraits we took, they'll be sprouting up here shortly. Friends, partakers, toast-makers...you never fail to make me happy.