Food 52

Speed limit birthdays are important to celebrate. On Lorelei, my sister’s, 70^th milestone birthday, I hosted a celebration that filled my home with an eclectic group of friends and family. The usual cast of characters, Lorelei’s old roommates, long-time friends, and Gary, my high school boyfriend, came to help us celebrate. When I was in high school, Gary, had been present at countless family dinners, vacations and spent lazy summer days hanging out at our swimming pool. Well-liked by my sisters, I was glad he could attend.

I had planned a Mediterranean dinner that included chicken shish kabobs, stuffed grape leaves, and an olive bar (which had a bowl of orange & chile marinated olives). Dinner was delayed and after a few cocktails the ‘natives were getting restless’. Gary, reverting to the comfortable ease he had a at my home as a teenager, lead the charge by helping himself to side dishes that had been set out for dinner and others followed. They couldn’t stay away from the orange olives, which kept everyone from starving to death.

When I plan a dinner party, perfection is super important to me. I feel the heavy weight of disappointment when napkins and silverware aren’t lined up, a side dish misses the mark or a dinner is delayed. Rouge dinner guests laying siege on a buffet table would never have happened to Martha Stewart.

I recently shared my frustration with Annie, when setting up an event and things were not flawless. She pointed out that a perfectly set table, amazing food, and well time dinner service isn’t why friends and family come to dinner parties. That the focus is really the people and celebrating each other. She said to ‘Kintsugi it’. A Japanese method of putting broken pottery back together then filling the cracks with gold to create beautiful pieces of art’.  She was telling me to accept the flaws and know that brokenness can become something beautiful.

My life lesson with the story of the olives, Gary and the delayed dinner is that there is an ambience when guests feel comfortable to helping themselves to drinks, appetizers or snacking on dinner even before it is served. A warm atmosphere trumps perfection any day of the week. Keep these olives on hand. They can be a lifesaver when your guests are fainting from hunger.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ C   Olive oil
• 5          Cloves garlic, smashed
• 1          Peel orange, shaved with a potato peeler or paring knife, in about 1 inch-wide strips
• 4          Sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1 ½ t    Red pepper flakes
• 2 T       Fresh orange juice
• 15 oz   Plain olives, drained and rinsed

Directions

• In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil and smashed garlic over low. Warm the oil though, tossing occasionally and taking care not to fry the garlic, about 3 minutes. Add the orange peel, rosemary, red pepper flakes, and olives. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is just starting to brown at the edges, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.
• Stir in the orange juice, mixing to combine. Set aside to cool. Serve slightly warm or allow to cool completely before transferring (rosemary sprigs, orange peel, and all) into an airtight container to store in the fridge. Will keep for 1 week.