I've written about this many times over, but it all began with my mother. She went to art school in the 1960s and then moved to Manhattan where she somehow forayed all of her artistic talents into working with food — cooking, catering, working as a food stylist on commercials. Did you even know there was such a thing? A food stylist? Well, there is and my mother was one.

She brought food into the life of our family on a daily basis. She commemorated each occasion, good and bad, with a meal. Cooking was an activity to cut boredom, it was a frenzied passion, it was a simple hobby. It was everything.

It was the thing I missed most about my mother when she was gone. And it became the thing I turned to over and over through the last 13 years, in order to feel close to her.

At least this is how I justify my obsession with food. And my need to make things like an entirely food-related Flickr album, when I could be doing so many more productive things with my time.

Anyway, enjoy!

EAT

Sure, every moment of them will have an enormous impact on who she is, but the details of it all will remain in the dark. She'll never remember this apartment, or our lovely little neighborhood. She won't remember all the mom groups I've dragged her to, or her best friend Ezra. She won't remember her first Christmas, or the trip we took to New Orleans when she was 8 months old.

She won't remember the baths her daddy gives her each night, or the books we read to her before bed. She won't remember Greg's green Honda (because, god-willing, we will have a new car by the time she is 2). She won't remember how young Greg and I looked when she was born, and she won't remember how every morning when she wakes up, Greg brings her into bed with us and we all cuddle until it's time to get up. 

She won't remember the funny animal sounds she makes, or her adorable little rain boots with butterflies on them. She won't remember the weekend she spent in Ohio with her grandparents, or her first time trick-or-treating. And lastly, she won't remember one of my favorite past-times, her attached to my hip, while I prepare a meal.

So I made a video.

I know I haven't done a food blog in a while. You try having a toddler and doing ANYTHING. Kidding. Kind of. Anyway, like I was saying…I haven't done a food blog in a while, and even though this post won't contain any of my own recipes, I thought it might be nice to share a bit about our evening.

Having friends over for dinner is one of my top 3 favorite things in the world to do, and anyone I'm friends with knows this because they've been over for dinner. I get it from my mom. She was the queen of throwing dinner parties, and while a few of my friends have graciously said the same about me, if they had met my mother they would be forced to take it back.

Not only was my mother an excellent cook, but she knew how to create ambiance. She knew how to time things just right so that by the end of the evening you felt nothing but slightly stuffed, slightly tipsy and wonderfully and simply happy.

That's how Saturday night ended for me. 

There were a lot of things that made it good.

Number one was the company.

Number two was the food.

We did a potluck of sorts, something I've truly learned the art of from living in the Midwest. (Side note about potlucks: First of all, I hate the word. It makes me think of Minnesota church basements, but I haven't come up with anything better. Number two, while they can be fun and economical they still require forethought and creativity, if you want a decent end result.)

Anyway, here is the menu for our party. I've linked to a few of the recipes.

Starters-

• Cheese and crackers
• Chips and Dip
• Cucumber-Mint Saketinis with Ginger Simple Syrup
  

Main-

• Grilled Salmon
• Grilled Chicken
• Green Bean Salad
• Potatoes Au Gratin
• Grilled Corn
• Grilled Naan Bread

Dessert-

• Lemon Olive Oil Cake
• Mixed Berries
• Homemade Whipped Cream

I wish I had thought to take a few more food pictures, but I was trying to stay present to the evening and not get lost in the camera. But anyway, a few notes about the menu:

The things I contributed to this dinner were the saketinis, the salmon, the gratin, the naan and the olive oil cake. I found a bottle of sake in the cupboard and after a little searching I came up with the recipe linked here. It was pretty tasty and definitely a nice start to the evening. I actually thinly sliced long, translucent ribbons of cucumber to put in the glasses and the end result was beautiful. 

We don't cook fish that often, but I was inspired a to make this salmon after having a tasty grilled version Amber's mother made for her baby shower last weekend. I found the above linked recipe online and it was really flavorful and easy to prepare.

The green bean salad was Emilie's and it was perfect. The recipe is linked but I believe she added crumbled goat cheese, which the recipe doesn't call for. And it even held up the next day as Greg and I polished it off for Sunday dinner.

A quick note about the naan bread — you can get this at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and if you just brush it with a little olive oil and put it on the grill, it's simply amazing.

Lastly, the Lemon Olive Oil cake. The last time I made this it didn't turn out so great, so I did some hunting around and liked the looks of the above recipe. It turned out great — really moist and flavorful and simple to make. Oh, and I added some dark chocolate chips, because Sarah Weisz is right when she says that chocolate chips make everything better.

So anyway, hope this inspires you to have your own dinner party before the summer is over. View more photos from the evening here.

Oh, and if you really want get your guests involved you should whisk the whipped cream by hand in the living room (because you don't want to wake the baby by using the Kitchen Aid mixer) and make each person take a turn, and you should laugh heartily when none of the boys are any good at whisking.