Easy peasy lunch for a group

Putting on a party for friends is one thing, but for family, it’s another. Having parents and grandparents nearby, can be a blessing and a curse. Thankfully, I was given a little bit of time before having the token house warming, or in this case, “just a lunch so your grandparents can see your apartment.”

Knowing my grandparents and I, both like to eat light and prefer Mediterranean food, planning the menu was not a problem, not like choosing between the background music. Hard rock alternative or solid gold oldies?

An olive oil tasting set saved this lunch

Having a carafe of olive oil with fresh basil, salt and pepper, is a good staple to build the rest of a grazing lunch around. I also always use Carr crackers to entertain. They are perfect for cheese, humus and pesto. Spruce up any boring platters with fresh flowers from the garden. Parsley can also be added to tops of dips.

Smoked salmon with lemon also work well on brown breads

A late summer Mediterranean wouldn’t be complete with a chilled bottle of white wine. This Jacob’s Creek Riesling went great with the prosciutto and salami finger sandwiches on pumpernickel.

Voila!

Back to school

I write with a pencil, ever since high school AP English. My teacher edited papers with a pencil, to be less abrasive, and I picked up on it (and when I became an editor and then college instructor, I learned it’s easier to make change suggestions).

At this time of year, the crisp morning air makes me want to go out and buy a batch of fresh pencils. Thoughts of school, a chance for new beginnings at the end of the calendar year, is something I miss – it just isn’t the same being in front of the classroom.

School shopping for me was a little different while in school. If anyone went to high school in New York State, you know about the required majors for a Regent’s diploma. Somehow, at the end of junior high, I was placed in an advanced art class. So, in my batch of pencils, paint brushes and spatulas were thrown in.

Many believe genetics play a huge part in our capability to be creative. I think this may be true, as I never aimed to be a painter, yet I come from a family of artists. One of my aunts, Aunt Linda, is embarking on a venture to learn how the old masters, such as Rembrandt, painted. This fall she will be studying this style at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy.

These methods are time consuming, but produced luminous, deeply beautiful paintings. Currently, there is a renaissance (no pun intended) going on in the art world. There is a very select group of artists that are exploring the methods of the old masters, including my aunt.

A sketch from photo to paper, in pencil

“As the name suggests, these artists shun the modern style in favor of these time-tested methods. If done well, the work is really beautiful,” she said. “I am very disappointed in my work because I did not get to finish it. So for now, I have put it aside and will pick it up again when I return from Italy.”

Visitors admire a portrait painted from an old photograph

After a recent visit to her studio in Western New York, I begged to differ. There I was able to see some pieces she was working on. One of my great uncle who passed away and another of my great-grandmother, as a young woman; I would say it’s already a masterpiece. Aunt Linda plans to work on it when she returns.

Its not you, it's me

Being single, I often find myself sitting across from a stranger, trying to make something spark over a glass of something (insert wine, vodka or gin tonic, or if it’s really bad, vodka martini – straight up, dirty, with an olive). Once I was told I didn’t have to drink to be more interesting and my response, “I’m drinking to make you more interesting.” (This attitude could be why I never got married).

Not so long ago, being single wasn’t an unusual thing. In my 20s, being the single girl, I was admired or considered the norm. But about the time I starting growing out of studio apartments, and into a co-habitation situation, my friends starting getting married and soon enough, having babies. Fast-forward a few years, and I’m left with a garden gnome, a couple of marriage proposals and many life lessons.

More recently, I keep hearing that getting married is out. With the divorce rate at 50 percent and many not wanting to go through the pain and expense of the “starter marriage” I’m wondering if this is true. Has man (and woman) finally evolved passed marriage?

The wedding business is worth billions of dollars in the United States, and we’ll go to them, and believe in them, because doesn’t everyone want to feel they are in the presence of true love, according to a Wedding Crasher?

Moving back to my hometown and into yet, another apartment, I didn’t know what to do next in the love category; with these repeated revelations, I’m sort of relieved that I may not have to do anything at all. However, a part of me won’t let my belief system fall into the marriage naysayer category just yet. Who wouldn’t want a guaranteed someone in their life after a bad day at work, argument with a loved one or someone to take trips with?

The happiest time in my 30-something years was when I was making the smallest amount of money and living in the tiniest apartment. This probably wasn’t because I enjoyed getting creative with noodles and peanut butter sandwiches at dinners and drinking cheap beer, it was probably because I was meeting new people, seeing a life ahead of me that wasn’t pre-determined and wanting to go out there and take the necessary steps to be established.

It could be this excitement that lingers today, which is why I refuse to settle, waiting to be sitting across from that person that will make me say to myself, “this is why all those others didn’t work out.” That being said, I have a date to get ready for.