Once

At the end of last night's dinner, my friend Michael came up to me and told me about a film he saw, titled like my post here-- about a group of people who came together through some happenstance, ate a marvelous meal with wine, and experienced something singular.

It was not only a compliment to which, after a fretful 48 hours of planning and creation, was how I felt as well. It was nothing short of beautiful, despite the few snafu's. As Nils Christie, one of my distinguished guests told me, he'd personally rather be in the middle of it all, than have it all done behind the scenes. Good, I thought, as I pushed plates, knives, forks and so forth around the already crowded, already relaxed group that were off on a million conversational journeys.

In attendance were: Nils Christie, Bud Welch, Margaret Vandiver, Sandy and her husband Richard, Michael, Deano, me and occasionally my daughter Tina, coming in to sparkle (literally) for us in greeting or in a quick plate of food. The first three are all speakers in tomorrow's Death Penalty Symposium.

Here's what I made:
We started with fresh tomato-vodka, with garlic and cream over farfalle. Then we had an end-of-summer tomato, basil, and red onion salad, dressed with very special olive oil and balsamic and finished in feta. Third course was a cauliflower fried in allspice and butter dish that I love (I adapted it from a preparation stage of a Mahqloube) and the last course was sweet Italian sausages and a side of very picante salsa verde, made from neighbors anaheim's and jalapeno's, roasted and simmered together with a beer reduced over a sofritto of onion and garlic.

We had 4 wines. Two white and two red. Clois Du Bois Sauvignon Blanc (very nice) and a rather too sweet Reisling and Renwood 2005 Red Zinfandel and another Renwood I don't remember the name of. The two Renwoods were lovely, about 10 bucks each.

Dinner was a hit, as I've alluded, and the food met my requirements with a couple of minor caveats. There, I'll leave it at that.