Ah, sweet, sweet love. The stuff good dreams are made of. That wondrous feeling of constant butterflies in your stomach. Or is that hunger pangs? I get the two mixed up all the time.
But seriously, what better way to celebrate the impending happy union of two hearts than with another universal concept…food. Really good food.
Parallels have long been drawn between food and love. My favorite is by Harriet Van Horne, “Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” I always envision myself running on the beach holding hands with the Husband, with our (my) hair blowing in the wind. Or cooking on high heat, oil splattering everywhere and me, without an apron or splatter guard in sight. Nice.
After recently attending my friend Maya’s wedding last month in Pescadero (near Half Moon Bay), I was inspired to post about her equally spectacular bridal shower I had the pleasure of attending in July.
Showers are the ultimate chance to really chow down while cheering for your friend’s happiness in life. Marriage. Baby. Whatever. Sadly men often times miss out on tons of really good food by not observing this time-honored tradition of showering their friends (buckets of wings at bachelor parties do not count, because we have our buckets of wings at the bachelorette too). Couple’s showers try, but it’s not the same. A room full of couples does not a shower make. That’s just a party (also fun, and also has good food, don’t get me wrong).
This shower was almost quintessentially female and held outside on the wooden deck of her parents’ sublimely rustic and elegant home in Carmel. Knowing the (then) bride-to-be and her foodie ways, we expected a complete feast for the senses and were not disappointed in the least.
Garden treats
- to Good Eats
Menu
Piling into a minivan packed with the (then) bride-to-be’s girlfriends, we arrived early to help set up (almost as fun as the shower itself). We picked fresh homegrown fava beans and snap peas from their lovely garden to throw in an arrangement of seasonal salads. Her father, the grillmaster, threw on some fresh vegetables and prepared salmon two ways (all excellent).
An in-house sommelier happily poured many glasses of a thoughtfully stocked wine collection and chatted us up about the varied bottles we were drinking (and kept drinking).
The varied and fine wines
Homemade guacamole came out. We oohed and ahhed. Some crazy cheese dip that looked like it belonged in Amsterdam arrived. We stuffed our faces some more. This was really good stuff.
This guacamole was gone in two seconds.
Crazy good homemade cheese dip
Matching wind chimes rang softly in the crisp Bay Area breeze as we happily munched on grilled mackerel, summer peaches and sipped champagne in the sunshine.
Chili chocolate, Florentines and strawberry champagne cupcakes greeted us inside, as we settled on the floor to watch a highly entertaining and heartwarming video interview from the (then) fiancé earnestly and (impressively, might I add) answering rapid fire questions about his bride-to-be.
Seven Deadly Sins Cookbook Favors
- Hats off to the chefs!
Joy that can only be derived from the ultimate garlic press
