Tuesday, December 05, 2006

A Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary

Rare as hen's teeth nowadays...

Ok, those aren't hen's teeth but parmesan toasts with fresh basil, garlic, olive oil and cherry tomatoes. But if you didn't know any better you could be mistaken...

I don't know too many people who have managed to stay together for so long. My grandparents did, and now my aunt and uncle have reached this momentous and significant stage in their lives. My cousin had a party tonight to help celebrate her parents anniversary. And this being my cousin, it was done in style, with 18 people invited for dinner.

It does help that she lives in a house that could be in any house & garden book. Heck the garden comes fully equipped with starfruit, as well as guavas, clementinas, pomellos, grapefruit and anona - and if they are sneaky enough, they go out back to the fields and dig up potatoes from the moshav that backs onto their property.

There were little pizza toasts with gorgonzola and sundried tomato spread, shrimp with garlic and pernod, boiled salted almonds and freshly roasted spiced nuts to keep us going before dinner. I was grateful for a small whiskey to help me get my circulation going again after my scooter ride - I don't know what the windchill of 90km/hr is, but I shivered all the way there and even now, I am still shivering in spite of the hot waterbottle on my lap.

Now, admittedly, my cousin does have help, and they dealt with all the scut work, but my cous had organized beautiful flowers, including a centerpiece for the table, which was set with crystal and white linen. Her husband, who is the cook of the family, made a gorgeous, velvety pate, redolent of the extremely generous dose of cognac that it received, as well as the rice, gratin potatoes, salad, and chicken with dried fruit and carrots.

After dinner, and before dessert they had a short video with old family movies (long enough to be interesting, short enough to be appreciated) and then, as a special treat for the happy couple, a soprano from the Israeli Opera Company, and her accompanist, sang arias from la Boheme and Tales of Hoffman, Gershwin, and Rogers and Hammerstein, and gave the evening a bit of a highbrow feel. Again, not too long, not too short, just right. My cousin always gets things "just so".

Dessert was bought, and worth every cent.
Lovely maccarons filled with coffee, dark chocolate and vanilla butter cream,

and there was a very eye-candyish dacquoise cake that had
mocha butter cream spread lavishly under the curls of meringue.

I thought it was a very nice way to celebrate 50 years of happiness.

When I arrived home, chilled to the bone, I went online and discovered that the picture that I had entered into DMBLGIT had tied for the originality class. The other entries are really impressive - there is some serious food porn going on there! And to be included in such exhalted company... I am chuffed!

6 comments:

Emily DeVoto, Ph.D., said...

Sounds like a beautiful occasion - thanks for sharing it with us!

burekaboy — said...

Whoa! מזל טוב

i KNEW that was gonna win something!! congrats, congrats. hehe of course, now you will have to top it. gonna be good for the old 'clickety, click' if you know what i mean (think 7,995, 7,996 ...).

i cannot even imagine having starfruit in my backyard. sure beats a crabapple tree! that was quite the spread they had. i keep ogling those macarrons & amazing merigues. i am wondering how they did those curled.

an auspicious day for mazaltovs.

hope you finally warmed up after all the scootering to and fro. um, may i remind you of the locale?? lol. i hope it was scenic, at least. was nippy here today.

only 14 more hours until you know what! ohhhhh, the excitement!!

aja said...

Hey Emily,
Actually, I should be thanking you for dropping by and taking the time to read this. And I think, if one does share things, that it is really nice to have something special and good to share! I was lucky, I think 8^)

Hey BB,
Und vat is wrong mit crabapples? They make great jelly. I don't have a clue how to make the meringue curls, but I have to say that David Lebovitz http://www.davidlebovitz.com/ did a post on maccarrons (how many c's and r's are there anyways???) that blew these ones out of the water.

And a drive at night through Ra'anana and out into the middle of nowhere isn't scenic, not on a scooter - it is scary - dark, don't see anything, just watching the road, the cars and making sure you don't hit gravel, wildlife or garbage... A big glass of brandy helped when I got home!

burekaboy — said...

nothing is wrong with them, per se but they just don't do it for me. i used to call them worm condominiums. i much rather a starfruit tree. more exotic, i guess.

i saw dave's post a while back come to think of it. (thanks for checkin it for me. i'm gonna relook). did u ever make them? macarrons? the real ones, i mean. i have been wanting to try but would obssess too much on making perfect ones!

glad u made it back unscathed and to hear no animals suffered in the process. hoping the shnoz didn't get stuck in the snifter! LOL.

Anonymous said...

Congrats to your aunt and uncle. Looks like you all had a wonderful celebration.

Congrats, too, on your DMBLGIT entry. Very cool!

Paz

aja said...

Hey BB,
We used to have a crabapple tree too - and you're right about them being condos for worms - worse were the tentworm caterpillars ugh!

I haven't made the macarons(sp) yet because my oven isn't trustworthy enough - unlike The Bread, they do not like very high heat... But once day I'll get me a new machine and then watch out world!!

Hey Paz,
I'll pass on the congrats - Thank You!

I thought the DMBLGIT thingy was way cool too - never entered a piece of my art for any judgement (would you believe I flunked art - really!).

Cheers!