Holiday Happening

We usually do our big party of the year -- our ONLY party of the year --on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend. It started years ago with half a dozen friends in my postage-stamp-sized backyard in Queens and has morphed into a hundred-guest bacchanal of food, drink, games, food, waterfights, food, and did I mention food? Let's just say when you put an Italian family together with a Chinese family, nobody walks away hungry.

This winter, though, the solstice has been calling me. Something about the promise of spring right around the corner, shorter nights and longer days, got me in the mood for a party. And so it was that a dozen of our nearest (to our home) and dearest (to our hearts) gathered last night for a pre-Solstice dinner party.

The highlight of the menu: Bobby Flay's Rosemary Bricked Grilled Chicken. If you thought for a moment that half a foot of snow on the deck was about to stop my husband from firing up the grill, you were wrong. Playing back-up were garlic roasted potatoes, whole-wheat couscous with mushrooms, grilled portobello mushrooms with tomato and mozzarella, and a boatload of desserts brought by our dear guests. We stuffed ourselves silly, had a grand old time, and I do believe DH and I have added a second party to our list of annual at-home events.