Dinner, Dessert & more – Tahoe Birthday Edition

Boy – I have really made this linger.  I didn’t mean to, I promise, but sometimes that’s just what happens, ya know?

When we first started thinking about the dinner, I knew that we wanted to have a menu that was super simple.  Things that required little to no cooking so we could really just enjoy being up at the lake for the weekend and not spending the whole day in the kitchen.  Even so, dinner for 20, no matter how simple, takes at least a bit of time.

Thankfully we have awesome friends (who are great in the kitchen & out) and everything came together by committee.

What I was undoubtedly most excited for were the tomatoes.  I had seen a few fun posts on Style Notes focusing on summer tomatoes (a tomato tasting from Martha Stewart and a tomato bar during cocktail hour at a wedding) and knew right away lots of heirlooms would be key for a low-stress summer dinner.

I thought it would be fun to highlight the different varieties will a plethora of salts and oils. Sometimes cool salts can be pricy, but when purchased in bulk (and without fancy-schmancy packaging) you can get some great finds at even better prices.  We loaded all the salts (plus local crushed chiles and freshly cracked black pepper) in the little dishes from Chinatown and set them out in little grouping among the table for everyone to sample.

We had:

• Vanilla Salt
• Himalayn Pink Salt
• Pink Mineral Sea Salt (Redmond, Utah)
• Yakima Applewood Smoke Salt Salt {for a little BLT taste}
• Lima Sea Salt (France)
• Cyprus White Flake Salt
• Cyrus Black Flake Salt with Activated Charcoal {everyone’s fave}

In addition to the tomatoes and salts, we had local green and purple basil, fresh mozzeralla, homemade ricotta with olive oil, herbed flatbreads and garlic, basil & lemon olive oils.

I would’ve been happy with just that.

But a summer dinner isn’t complete without something on the grill – so marinated flank steak and grilled corn filled that role – which were complemented niceley with a tarragon chimmichurri.

We also had a simple summer green salad with lemon, Israeli and regular cucumbers from the farmers market, avocados and basil and tarragon amongst the lettuce.  Finally we had a lemon zucchini spaghetti – which was basically this raw zucchini salad {with the multi-colored summer squashes julienned instead, to mimic the shape of the noodles} tossed with spaghetti.  With of course a bit more lemon juice & zest, basil, mint, olive oil and loads of fresh pecorino (or parmigiana).  This dish was the only thing that required the stove, and only then to cook the pasta.

I loved having such a simple (but fresh, local, delicious) meal that we all prepared together. Hopefully everyone working felt the same way.

For the sweet side of things, we kept it easy and pick up the cake(s).  I am not much of a baker and again opted to spend that time with a croquet mallet, trying out stand-up paddle boarding, beating B in cribbage and enjoying a beer in the sun. Something tells me no one minded.

When the rain finally cleared and we cut the cake, we ventured back outside and tried to write our names with old-fashioned sparklers.  Let me tell you, they sure don’t last as long anymore.

But they are just as fun!

Thanks to everyone who made it such a great weekend and thanks for coming along for the ride here too!  xo