T is for Totally Al Fresco

 

 

One of my dreams has always been to have friends over and sit with them at a long table in the shade of a big tree. This dream was nurtured by many French movies where people always congregate in someone's beautiful but artfully messy garden behind a big old French house with shutters on the windows and huge trees casting their shadows on wide lawns. Sunlight was filtered through the rustling leaves of the trees. People sitting at the long tables seem carefree, eating the most delicious food (it's France after all) and drinking wine. Of course there were loaves of freshly baked baguette (I remember one French movie in which Romy Schneider comes out of a boulangerie and she immediately bites into the baguette - oh heaven!) and baskets overflowing with fresh fruit. Above all there was this air of Mediterranean lightness.

I thought I would never be able to achieve this dream. 

But then I thought, why not?

There is a big tree in my garden.

It's a privet, so it's quite messy. But it's loved by the birds and it gives great shade and therefore I just take it with all its messiness. Under the tree is the sad, totally dried up remains of the lawn that used to be there (that I never watered in the nine years we have been living in this house since I never wanted a lawn in the first place). It's the perfect place to set up a table or two, chairs and invite friends over for a meal al fresco.

Even though we're having an exceptional drought, I was still able to pick some flowers from my garden and put together a little bouquet as a centerpiece. This was the only decoration I used and it worked well.

I had invited the students of my German class. Every summer we get together for something typical German - either food or drink -, but of course, last year we had to skip. Everybody turned up this summer; it was the first time that we all saw each other again in person since March 2020 when we changed our class to online learning. It was wonderful to see everyone again - and yes, we had this feeling of lightness, joy and laughter.

Everybody had brought something to eat and I had made a German Erdbeerbowle ("drunk strawberries"), a typical summer party drink in my native country. This, of course, is my contribution for Elizabeth's "drink post" - thank you so much for hosting!

Prost! - as we say in German.

Drunk Strawberries

When I told you about our garden party I mentioned a special German drink I made. This drink is called Erdbeerbowle or, as I simply call it, "drunk strawberries". It is one, if not THE most popular summer party drink in Germany. It's a true crowd pleaser, and it's super easy to prepare.

You only need 4 ingredients - strawberries, sugar, a dry Riesling and (dry) sparkling wine.

Start out with the strawberries - since I was expecting quite a crowd I prepared three baskets of strawberries that I got at the farmers market.

Dice the strawberries small enough that they can float in a wineglass, but not too small either.

Put them in a bowl that is big enough to hold the entire drink but that also fits into your refrigerator.

Add some sugar - I barely cover the berries and then mix it in. You don't want the fruit to become too sweet.

Add a bit of lime peel - this is optional. It enhances the flavor.

Then pour your first bottle of dry Riesling in the bowl until all the strawberries are immersed in the wine. It is important that you use a DRY Riesling and not a sweet one. The ones from Oregon, Washington and, even better, British Columbia are good choices.

Put the bowl in the fridge and chill for at least one to two hours. You can also leave it overnight (and get very drunk strawberries - yummy!).

Shortly before or when your guests arrive, pull the bowl out and empty another bottle of the same Riesling into it.

Now comes the fun part: Open the bottle of sparkling wine and pour it over the strawberries and the wine.

Aaaah.....

Get a ladle, fill into glasses, relax and enjoy.

Cheers!

Dog Days of Summer Party

I didn't write a single blog post at all last week. I just didn't have the time because I was preparing our garden party that took place on Saturday.

On the hottest day of the year up to then (Sunday was even hotter with a balmy 104 F)! It wasn't only hot, it was smokin' hot - literally. In the early morning, the smoke of the big wildfires north of us made its way down into our county and lingered the better part of the day. Thankfully it had disappeared mostly when our party started in the late afternoon, but the air is still hazy and a bit smoky. And it's still hot.

But I digress. I wanted to tell you about the garden party. Every summer I had talked about a garden party, but except for one summer quite some years back I never followed through with my plans. This summer, though, was different - and I finally had the party I was dreaming about all the years before.

Do you remember the clothesline the Geek built for me? It's perfect to change into a canopy sort of thing for shade for a party. I just threw a huge piece of sunny fabric over the lines, fastened it with my bird shaped pegs, set out a table and a few chairs beneath it - done! It was a popular spot to hang out during the party.

I had bought flowers to make little bouquets for the tables - that was the real fun part of the prep work. I love to arrange flowers in a casual way, and this is what it looked like.

I wanted to fill this lovely wire basket with flowers as well. I usually put my harvest in it when I walk around the garden picking the ripe veggies. I found these stunning gaillardias and a petunia in one of my favorite nurseries. I will plant all of them as soon as it cools down a bit.

And then we were just waiting for the friends and neighbors we had invited.

They came and most of them had brought something to eat or to drink. No one had to leave hungry!

I had made a special German drink that is very popular at summer parties, and I will tell you more about it in one of my next posts. I got a lot of ideas from Pinterest, the Geek created the wooden base for the lemonade and even Kaefer had made some of the food. Very soon the party was in full swing.

The girls had occupied a table for themselves and had such fun together.

The next morning didn't look much different than right before the party...