On Monday, we had a garden party.
A day planned to share with our family and friends the bounty of the summer garden, and to tackle the challenge of creating interesting recipes from morning until night with fresh ingredients, all cooked over a campfire and grill in our backyard. Everyone came.
It began at 10:00 am with fresh fruit, coffee and homemade blueberry coffee cake, baked over a campfire in a cast iron pot. The guests mingled and chatted and relaxed in the Jacuzzi overlooking the patio and garden.
By lunch time, we picked fresh tomatoes and spicy peppers, oregano, basil and lemon thyme, shredded a roasted chicken and piled it all with layers of cheese to make smoked chicken nachos on the grill, served with home brewed root beer and beer, also on the patio.
The kids tossed and kicked an assortment of balls while more food was devoured. Both big kids and little kids played and had fun.
Then grandma’s little helper learned the tricks to making Nachos and pizza dough for home- made pizza on the grill. His favorite part was punching the dough as hard as he could and stretching it into shape. He did an amazing job of measuring each cup of flour, leveling it off with the flat side of a butter knife. Our four year-old chef did a wonderful job. At one point he turned and said, “All I really wish is that I had a chef hat.” My niece, Sarah, created one for him with computer paper and a stapler. One VERY happy Chef. Ah….the simple joys.
We made three different grilled pizzas. The first was a red tomato pizza with jalapeno pepper, basil, a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar, and three cheeses. It was grilled on a pizza stone on the grill for about twenty minutes. It was incredible.
The second pizza was an all cheese pizza for the younger crowd with a garlic roasted tomato sauce. I can’t show you a picture of that one. It didn’t survive long enough to grab my camera. I am told it was the best cheese pizza ever….but I’ll have to take their word for it. I blinked and it was gone.
The third one was a meat lovers pizza, with Andouille sausage and spicy pepperoni, assorted peppers from the garden and a medley of garden herbs. It was devoured, but being the carnivore that I am, I grabbed a piece before the crowd descended.
The party wound itself down around 10:00 pm. Except for a few of us who enjoyed a relaxing finish of campfire and wine.
With warm and happy tummies, most of the guests went home twelve hours after it began, happy smiles and full tummies, a day of lively participation, cheery conversation and fun games.We had several requests to make this an annual event.
We have decided we will. It was a great day. And…for me, an accumulation of all of my hobbies and most important past-times rolled up in one grand experience as a summer’s end finale. Our garden producing the harvest bounty. Cooking everything fresh, with home-made ingredients, sharing our love of cooking with family and friends, experimenting with fun new ideas. Recording the day with the camera, capturing the highlights to enjoy forever.
And my favorite hobby of all, spending time with my beloved family and friends.
To me…this is what life is all about.
