Yesterday was rather long. Heck, it stretched right into today. But that, as you all know, is not inherently a bad thing. I would never begin to compare a day’s labor in the midst of my remarkably comfortable life with one in the farm fields, in the classroom, the clinic, office, or certainly in thoughtfully and lovingly caring for children, parents, friends–one’s own or others’. And when the goal of the work is hospitable and happy, why then so should the work be also. As it was. So, long story short, a long day can end in feeling short enough!
That, after all, is what makes anything resembling hospitality happen. If it’s done wearily or begrudgingly it’s bound to show. Even I, in my natural state of obliviousness, can generally tell from the other side of the table whether the hosts’ smiles are forced or genuine, whether the invitation was obligatory or willingly made. I credit myself with enough savvy to be able to differentiate between a relaxed conversation with a friend on the porch and her frantic attempt to make a life-saving dash for her car. And to my knowledge, I have never failed to find something that everyone in attendance could and would eat or drink on any given occasion. It demands a small amount of forethought, but then the pleasures of good company would be ever so much lessened by, say, a case of anaphylactic shock brought on by a stray peanut or an understandable case of high dudgeon induced by serving a roast of bacon-wrapped pork loin to my orthodox Jewish friends or a traditional but utterly inappropriate Asian feast of glazed short ribs and chicken feet when a vegan comes to call. A simple inquiry beforehand can put off any number of embarrassments.
It can’t, however, protect me perfectly from serving things that some among a larger group won’t love. That’s yet another reason that it’s helpful to offer a wider assortment of things in smaller quantities, when I can. No one has to feel any obligation to try everything, nor should they be forced to choose between only two or three things that are all less than favorites or just go hungry and thirsty when everyone else in the room is happily munching and sipping away. Thus, knowing we were all going to be either performing or hearing some beautiful Spanish music, I was rescued by the easy outlet of serving a tapas-style array of food and drink. I’ve already admitted that authenticity of product was less a factor in this party than simply being inspired by the notion, so when I tell you what I served I hope you’ll be as cheerfully accommodating as our guests were.
Almonds: Marcona almonds (those lovely little fat Spanish almonds), served simply as toasted in olive oil with a little sea salt; sticky, spicy-sweet almonds that I glazed in a pan with honey thinned with extra dry sherry, salt, cracked black pepper and lots of cinnamon; and savory almonds that I toasted in blood orange olive oil with fresh rosemary and alder smoked salt.
Celery sticks, plain as plain can be, because someone nearly always longs for the very simple and fresh among the more complex tastings of a snacking party.
Mango-Manchego bites: Tasty as it is, I had no membrillo handy to serve with cheese, so I wrapped cubes of Manchego in narrow strips of mango fruit leather. That turned out to be a fairly popular move, and it was certainly easy enough to assemble each with a toothpick, so I’ll keep it in mind for the future.
Marinated treats: Spanish olives–I just took a batch of the standard grocery store pimiento stuffed green olives, drained them of their brine and replaced it with dry Sherry and extra virgin olive oil; Marinated mushrooms–I bathed some sliced medium-large cremini mushrooms in a simple vinaigrette dressing of balsamic vinegar, red wine, olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme.
Chorizo-Date bites: Again, simple as can be–dry-aged chorizo, casings removed and meat cut into small pieces, and each piece speared on a toothpick with a cap made from a quarter of a sweet Medjool date.
Papas Bravas: My version of the popular spicy potato bites–dice scrubbed, skin-on russet potatoes into about 1 inch cubes, toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, smoked paprika and chili powder, spread them out in a greased baking pan, and brown them in a medium oven.
Fig Bread: I didn’t have any fig bread handy, but I did have a batch of my nut-and-seed bars in the freezer, and I did after all have some figs in this batch–so I whizzed them up in the food processor (and crumbled the recalcitrant harder-frozen bits by hand), melted a bar and a half of white chocolate I had around with a heaping tablespoon or two of cocoa powder and a spoonful of instant coffee and a pat of butter, stirred that in to the crumbs, and chilled it all, patted flat, in the fridge until it was solid enough to cut into cubes. I rolled the cubes in a mixture of powdered sugar and cinnamon to keep them from stickiness.
Drinks: I had other things around, but what ended up getting used was mighty easy, and I got the impression that no singer left un-slaked. Besides store-bought limeade (the plain lime juice and cane sugar and water kind) and water, I had a cooler of beer and a big pot of Sangría. That was it. The Sangría, always an ad-hoc concoction in my house, was a mixture of hearty red and sweet white wines, homemade orange liqueur (made some months ago with vodka from home-candied mandarin peels, fresh mandarin + lemon + lime juices, and dried coconut and brown sugar for the sweetening), a small bottle of Mexican green apple soda, a small bottle of green apple hard cider, a tin of sliced peaches canned in fruit juice, a pint of sliced fresh strawberries and a pint of frozen blackberries. All I can say about my Sangría methodology is it’s very much a matter of combining what I have on hand at the moment with what I’m in the mood for on the occasion, the liquid equivalent, I suppose, of my casseroles.
The happy conclusion to the story is of course that, whatever I prepare (or don’t), it’s all about the company we keep, and my partner and I are pretty good at surrounding ourselves with outstanding people. So, was the food good? Good enough! The drinks? Wet enough! The company? Outstanding. The party? Just exactly right.
Art-Colored Glasses 
Well goodness me this is indeed a feast and as you said most of these dishes were simply prepared, I especially liked the olives in sherry and what is blood orange olive oil, this sounds interesting, dates and chorizo must be very poppy. YUM! a lovely round up of perfect food. good morning katherine.. c
I know there are other brands of it out there, but the Blood Orange Olive Oil to which I refer is from Stonehouse (http://stonehouseoliveoil.com/store/blood_orange_olive_oil_256754750.html), and we discovered it in a tasting in San Francisco a few years ago and fell in love with it. I’ve not found anything I didn’t love to use it for yet, and am scheming to make an Italian style olive oil cake using it soon.
🙂
xoxo
Wow, what a delicious spread! And infused with the genuine spice of true hospitality (the showing of respect for ones guests and providing for their needs), how could it be anything but a wonderful party! 🙂
We had such fun. The main after-effect was that of looking at each other and saying, as always after such a thing, ‘Why don’t we make time for this kind of thing much more often!’
Couldn’t we just call blood orange oranges, red-orange oranges?
Simply an itty bitty petty peevey. Tee!Hee! Hee!Hee!…
I’m afraid I *do* have to steal their life’s blood from them when I eat them, so maybe it’s more honest to admit to it in their name . . . ? But I could happily just call them Gorgeous and Incredibly Delicious Oranges too!!!
Cooking is not all. Knowing how to shop for great food and having the know how to put simple things together is a skill that few people have. That seemed delightful indeed!
Well, if you’re in north Texas next time I get a little gathering going, you’re welcome to join in–you seem to have a similar attitude, even if your culinary skills are more refined than mine! 🙂
Those savory almonds have my attention. It’s the rosemary. Roast anything with rosemary and I’ll find it irresistible. Some people like the smell of bread baking. I’ll take rosemary every time.
Funny you should say that on the same day that I got a notice from the friendly folks from whom I buy the aforementioned Blood Orange Olive Oil: they’re now selling Rosemary Olive Oil. Me, I can grow rosemary and will infuse my own, but given the quality of Stonehouse’s products, if I couldn’t grow my own rosemary I’d be buying a bottle of theirs right this minute. They also posted a really glamorous sounding Rosemary Olive Oil Cake with Chocolate recipe I might have to try! 🙂
http://stonehouseoliveoil.com/store/rosemary_oil_259689620.html
Thanks, Kathryn. I’ve bookmarked the site for later use. I don’t know exactly when or how this happened but suddenly I’ve got 3 different brands of olive oil AND 3 different brands of balsamic vinegar. It’s an embarrassment of riches. No, not the oil & vinegars but of friends wishing to keep me well supplied. 🙂
That’s my kind of party!
Any time I can lure you over, you’re expected to join in, you know, Marie!!
xo
Oh how I love tapas! One of my bucket list goals is to have tapas in Spain with a right tasty glass of sangria.
That would be fabulous indeed!!! Spain is still on our list of travel hopes, as neither of us has been yet. 😀
…Just loved what you had to say about genuine hosting, stress, good conversation, & accommodations.
I can tell from your posts that you are very attentive to all of that yourself! 🙂
Oh wow, I would give anything to try some of those almonds right now!
Those are so easy that, well, even *I* can make them! 😀 And I’ll happily fix some for you when you show up here–but in the meantime, I’ll bet you wouldn’t find it too time-consuming to throw a batch together at home. 🙂
What an interesting mix of foods. Everything as usual looks wonderful. Did you make them all sing for their supper?
Maybe, since they were already doing the performance, it’s more a case of *them* needing me to feed them in exchange for their *singing*! In any case, it was certainly a lovely evening. 🙂
Sounds like a wonderful time was had by all! As it should be, when you put so much of your heart and soul into it! Your photographs of food are as sumptuous as your descriptions! Have you done a cookbook or ever thought of doing one? You could not only offer your creativity in recipes, but also in drawing and photography and not least your commentaries.
Love this, by the way: ‘A simple inquiry beforehand can put off any number of embarrassments.’ How true, how true, in regards to so many of life’s situations!
As much fun as a cookbook might be, I don’t have anything like the culinary expertise to do credit to a true cookbook. I do, however, have a book of food-related poems, artworks, essays and general nonsense that I might try to publish someday, and that would likely include some things like what I post on Foodie Tuesdays (or possibly, some of these very posts). But then, I have about a dozen books of my stuff on different topics (nature, nonsense stories, etc) sitting around and no idea what to do with them as yet, so all of it will require some gumption on my part to decipher whether and how to publish. 🙂
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