52 Dinners - Week 37: Southwest, But Make It Northeast

We’re still basking in the glow of Sunday’s dinner, when several farmer friends from all over the state- Andrew, Rita, Kate, Nick, Luisa, Lucas, Hilary, and Dave- all took time out of their busy summer schedules to gather on our farm and connect for an evening.

The theme was ‘Southwest in the Northeast’.
We started with cucumber margaritas. The recipe is easy and two-steps:
- Combine approx. 2 cups tequila, half a cup of lime juice, a quarter cup of orange juice, a splash of maple syrup, and a big cucumber in the blender.
- Wizz it up, pass through a fine mesh strainer, then shake/pour over ice.
While Bailey took everyone on a leisurely farm tour, I ran down to the party barn to put the finishing touches on dinner.

We enjoyed chicken tostadas with lardy refried beans and pickled carrots, carne adovada tacos (pork slow-cooked in a red chili sauce), spicy beef and cayenne pepper enchiladas, elote (grilled corn with limey crema, cotija cheese, cilantro, and amarilla chili), calabacitas (sauteed squash, corn, poblanos, and green chilies), and rice & beans.

And for dessert I made sweet corn ice cream, which I topped with warm dulce de leche, Morey Hill blueberries, and maple chipotle candied nuts from The Nutty Vermonter.

The original plan was to pile all of the food onto the table and hit it family-style. But we decided instead to fill that prime real estate with Bailey’s other-worldly dyed sweet peas, and he created these shades of terracotta to coordinate with the menu theme.

Hosting a dinner party is about so much more than the food or the flowers. It is ‘creating a space’, providing an opportunity for your guests to talk and be heard, to feel safe, fed, comfortable, and loved. We all deserve that. It’s important.
- Thomas
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