Paradise Found

I took a vacation from blogging for the weekend leading up to Fourth of July and for the week following.  It was a nice break for me, and actuallly gave me a chance to reflect on Summertime here in Paradise.

Many people think that Memorial Day is the official beginning of summer – at least it is the first hopefully warm, extended weekend when one can swim, beach and boat. Fourth of July is special and although not smack in the middle of summer it is the epicenter of summer celebrations.  And then of course there is Labor Day which is the offical end of summer and the start of a new time.  Many years ago I read an editorial in the New York Times that suggested the day after Labor Day be deemed New Year’s Day because the city came back to life the day after Labor Day.  I thought it was a pretty good idea.

In our house, we like decorating our kitchen hutch for the smaller holidays:  bunnies and chicks for Easter, hearts for Valentine’s Day, Shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day, etc.  We start with Memorial Day and leave our red-white-and blue decorations up until Labor Day.  What can I say?  It is just something about Summertime.  We have little American flags, sparkly tiny flag/hearts and some red-white-blue candy corn (replenished regularly).  It seems that Americans are nostalgic aobut Summertime and its holidays and do the same things over and over – year after year – and we like it that way.

Fourth of July is certainly a marquee holiday and this year we were very lucky to be invited to our dear friend Pat’s Siesta Beach home.  I love that in summer, and especially on Fourth of July, most people celebrating keep with the ritual of sharing the preparation of the American food menu, a good dinner with family and friends and, hopefully, fireworks following.

I was assigned potato salad and a pie.

I don’t make a lot of potato salad, but recently I did a lot of reading on what potatoes are best for this dish. Seems that waxy are better than starchy, so I went with baby golds which don’t need to be peeled and added a bit of color with very crispy crumbled bacon and a little diced red pepper.  Buttermilk dressing was my choice this time spiced up with mustard seed and basil.   A traditionalist, I like to keep pretty close to what people expect for a Summertime holiday.

As for the desserts, there were two.  One is my signature dessert – triple berry tart.  It is incredibly easy and always a winner.  Not too sweet but special.  A good cookie-like crust makes this a really nice finish to a meal.  I just bought a rectangular tart pan with removable bottom – I love the shape and the tart was much easier to serve as strips instead of wedges. The other was a peach tart with pecan crust and in a  more rustic shape and baked on a cookie sheet instead of in a tart pan or pie plate.  Here in the south we can buy what I called pecan dust.  Made by the South Georgia Pecan Company,  it is actually called pecan meal and can be used in both cooking and baking.  And it is much easier than grinding pecans yourself and it is a staple in my kitchen.  It is very nice to coat chicken or fish, and I use it to make one of my Christmas Cookies – pecan coins.

Pat served a great meal beginning with pickups that included very chunky guacamole with pepper chips, salmon and cream cheese and delicious slices of smoked chicken sausage.  The buffet style dinner included crispy crab cake sliders on Hawaiian rolls and a brightly colored corn and black bean salad.  Pat’s style of entertaining for the evening was very casual, but somehow she always puts a beautiful touch of elegance in all that she does.  Her lovely place (along with that billion-dollar view) is white and pretty and full of beautiful things including her many orchids.  Doug and I have been lucky enough to be invited many times – for Christmas, Easter and now Fourth of July.  Each time is more enjoyable than the last.

As we waited for the fireworks to begin, Pat’s panoramic view was like an all-american movie – children having a lot of fun and a lot of freedom to run and play,  people still swimming in the warm Gulf and others who lined their seats up facing north waiting for the fireworks to begin. On the beach in front of us was a lovely little trio that played fun, tropical music.  They started their performance with a strings-only rendition of The Star Spangled Banner – very moving.  I always have a tear in my eye when I listen to our National Anthem.

I can’t think of a better way to have celebrated an all-American, small-town Fourth of July.

Summertime is lazy, especially for Doug and me.  To have no schedule or no list of must-do’s we love the quite.  Paradise slows down a bit – the traffic is still there but much less congested as are the parking lots.  We can get to Siesta Key in about 10 minutes versus up to 45 minutes in the “winter”.  However, one thing people from everywhere except Florida may not know – Floridians go to the beach in the Summertime (June, July and August) when their children are out of school or when they are on vacation.  So our beaches are full just like they are in the winter but with different people.

While we may live in Paradise and near the  beach – there are definately seasons here and right now we are enjoying  Summertime when the living is easy.

Till next time.