Sunday, September 26, 2010

Nana's 80th

Not only did we celebrate my parent's anniversary last weekend, but we also celebrated my Nana's 80th birthday, with a picnic at the Lafayette Reservoir. It was a perfect end to the busy weekend, complete with Italian cold cuts, silly newspaper birthday hats, cake with chocolate ganache frosting, and lots of family.
Our picnic spot...thanks to my brother for arriving at 6am to claim it!
Uncle D, Pa, Aunt Kim, and Nana

Check out my grandpa's choice of newspaper sections...hmmmm

Love our hats! Apparently this is a tradition from the 1930s
I really like this picture...the party goes on behind my dad.

I contributed to the festivities by bringing an antipasto platter. I bought some marinated olives and dolmas (Greek grape leaves stuffed with rice) at my local farmer's market; and then I hit up the olive bar at Whole Foods to get giant white beans, mushrooms, and peppers. I also made pickled cherry tomatoes and fennel (courtesy of Food & Wine)...a super easy recipe for a healthy appetizer. Scott helped my with the presentation of the platter...and viola...our antipasto platter!


Pickled Cherry Tomatoes and Fennel

3/4 cup water
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 teaspoons sugar
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of ground cinnamon
1 fennel bulb; trimmed and cored, cut into 1 inch by 1/3 inch sticks
1 pint cherry tomatoes; halved

In a shallow dish, combine the water, vinegar, salt, sugar, cloves, and cinnamon; stir. Add the fennel and tomatoes, and refrigerate overnight. Drain and serve lightly chilled.



6 comments:

Unknown said...

happy birthday to your nana!!

i'm so jealous of all your fun family gatherings!!! it's got to be so wonderful being so close to everyone!

love the newspaper hats... your granpa is funny!

and that cake, i'll have a piece... thanks! :)

janet said...

Hey! Those were very serious paper hats! I made that part up about being a tradition from the 30's hee hee.
The antipasta platter was wonderful, thank you!!!!

devon lorraine ... said...

where's my favorite preggy pic i saw in a fb album??

well i wish your nana a huge happy 80th and noticed that obit page your pa picked out. pa!

J+K said...

thanks for the recipe!!! those pickled tomatoes were yummy!

and, janet, no wonder i couldn't find any 30's references to paper hats...you jokester!

J+K said...

OMG!!! 1/3 inch sticks???

Holly said...

The recipe said 1/3 inch sticks, I just cut up the fennel however I felt like it! Scott totally would've made them all exactly 1/3 inch, without even trying =)