Summer Tony Party

Cater time! In the bold tradition of food porn, I’m sharing what I made last night for my mom’s Tony party (yes, my mother has parties to watch the Tony Awards. They also bet on the winners, although not for money, and that just told you everything you need to know about my mother). The food was really good! And I’m trying to get the extra crab salad for lunch tomorrow.

Menu:

Appetizer:

• Fig-ricotta-mint on pumpernickel.

I got these little pumpernickel toasts and piled them with fresh ricotta cheese, mint leaves and pieces of fresh fig (they’re in season! Go guy some!). Soooo good – the ricotta-mint-fig combination is one of my favorites, and also constituted my sandwich for lunch today. Next time it could do with less heavy pumpernickel toasts though – the flavor worked but the bread was so dense that it got to be a little overwhelming.

Main Course:

• Roasted butternut squash
• Sweet pea-corn crab salad
• Orange-fennel-parmesan salad on mixed greens

Squash: Sorry, no pictures of the roasted squash! But – just cut those babies in half, scoop out the seeds, put them on a pan face up, fill the middles with olive oil, crushed sage, beer (yes beer! Usually I use butter and vegetable broth but 1) there was a vegan coming and 2) I didn’t have any broth, but I did have a negro modelo. It worked well!), salt and pepper, cover with tin foil and roast at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes. Then cool, scoop, mash and serve. Mmmmmm.

Sweet pea and corn crab salad: Sooo loosely based on a Mark Bittman recipe that was in the times a while ago, but I added/changed some stuff. I used: ¾ of a large red onion, 2 small red peppers, one orange pepper, 4 ears of fresh corn (cook it, then cut the kernels off and add), 2 avocados, about 1 lb of sweet peas, shelled (no actually I’m making that up and have no idea how many I used. But it was a bunch. Take them out of their shells and poach them in saltwater for about 30 seconds before using – otherwise they’re not so sweet), and three 8-oz containers of packed crab meat. Dice everything that doesn’t come in bite size pieces, and make a dressing out of olive oil, lemon salt and pepper. Oh! And also chop up some basil. Mix everything together and eat.

Orange fennel parmesan salad on mixed greens: get mixed greens. Wash them. Put them in a salad bowl. Chop fennel. Add it. Chop orange slices into bite size pieces (no pits! This can be difficult actually if you don’t know how to do it – I learned from Jamie Oliver). Add them. Shave parmesan on top. I forgot the dressing for this so used Newman’s own, but think some kind of lemony-dijon thing would be nice.

Dessert:

• Thyme-Fruit salad and Frommage Blanc.

Fruit salad: Blueberries, chopped nectarines, bananas. Make a dressing out of the juice of 3-4 limes, and a few tablespoons of honey and the leaves from like 6 fresh thyme sprigs. Mix. Yum.