Happy July 4th! Let the festivities begin......

Yes, and when my brother asked, the day before,

what he could bring, I said, "Seltzer and pickles."

"Well, that's not enough," he replied. "How about we make something?"

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "I'm kind of a control freak about menus. And I get my kicks from arranging everything in advance. So please, thank you for the offer, but what we could really use are seltzer and pickles."

And that's what they brought! Maybe the key is repetition, multiple times in advance... smileys/wink.gif

 
We went to a friends on a lake. Very fun. (Until the skies turned, and sounded like T & L. I

brought Gays recipe for Marinated upside down Shrimp. Huge hit! (Seriously.... I served it after I came back from a trip on the boat, there were a number of people that were just enjoying what was put out, in fact everyone was just kind of laying back, talking, enjoying the scene.... As soon as they heard about the shrimp, they suddenly got a second wind and jumped up to go inside to partake). It was quite funny

I also brought Charlies rec; of Roasted Vegies and Salsa Verde. Again, a huge hit.

 
Oh, the party was with your bro! Did he show up on time? (If I recall correctly, he many times

came late to the parties). I do find it funny asking for seltzer and pickles!

 
Yes! Total shock! He said he'd tell his girlfriend the invite was for two pm, not three, so they'd

be on time... smileys/wink.gif)) Must've worked.

 
Actually, my grandmother was quite neurotic, suffering from "the fatigue" and "the sinus"

which we now understand was untreated depression and migrains. (She refused to see doctors.) But she was a wonderful cook in her own obsessive way. She enjoyed us visiting in her home and always had goodies on hand, but when it was her turn to come to our house it caused great anxiety.

She compensated by setting out to make the perfect cake to bring along. All from scratch. She would start mid-week with the layers, then make the frosting another day to avoid "fatigue," then create her masterpiece the day before the party--multicolored frosting shapes and big swatches of different colored sugar crystals, those silver bee-bee things, rosettes drawn with a spoon--no pastry bag training here. It was true folk art. There was an extra day worked into the schedule to recover, or in case she lost a day to "sinusitis." Sometimes she would make chocolate or lemon cream pies, perhaps less stressful, and go crazy with multi-colored whipped cream.

We kids weren't aware of all the drama that went into the desserts and didn't understand why my parents wished she would skip it. We couldn't wait to see her creation and taste her special frosting, which was different from everyone else's. She had a covered cake tin so there was always a big unveiling while she protested how "hateful" the cake was this time around.

Last month at Jacques' birthday party I served Julia Child's Orange Buttercream Frosting and my sister, who inherited the cake tin, took one taste and said, "How'd you get the recipe for Nana's frosting?! I guess the magic ingredient had been orange zest. My aunt was at the party and she revealed another secret--Nana had used orange zest and juice in her pie crusts. I will have to try that sometime--it made for a great chocolate pie.

 
or "the rheumatis" smileys/smile.gif)) this brought back memories. Oma would never drink anything cold---

thought it would make her sick.

 
Well... He used to be fairly punctual, and then he met her. smileys/wink.gif (She's lovely, though.)

 
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