Chubby Bunny

Field Trip: Connie’s in Jersey

My mom’s friends from high school had a small get together. So we went to my aunt Connie’s house in NJ for the first time. She’s not really my aunt, but in my culture, anyone who is a friend of your parents can and is older than you should be addressed with aunt or uncle.

I loved her house. It’s a humble-sized house of two floors, but ie has excellent lighting and good layout for furniture to make it feel really big and roomy. My particular favorite was the bar that faces the kitchen and the bar stools situated by the counter. (Future suitors, please take note. )

We were greeted with drinks: Tropicana’s pineapple OJ, fortified with vit. D and calcium. Interestingly enough, I had just bought this yesterday at the supermarket with mom. Connie added perfectly (perfectly!!!) sliced lime on the top of each drink. Very nice touch.

Surprisingly, it was very easy to taste the lime. Hooray for added vitamin C.

There was some last-minute prep work that needed to be done for this potluck-type get together. Like prepping the pineapple for slicing.

Very good knife work from their friend Vincent. I learned that soaking it in salty water for a bit helps draw out some of the acid that usually ruins my tongue. It’s interesting how the eyes on the pineapple are aligned in such a spiral like that. Don’t you just love math in nature? (P.S. Connie has studied Numerical Analysis. <3)

Since Connie is such a sweet hostess, she set up a bowl of wasabi-spiced pumpkin seeds on the bar. It gave the feeling of being at a bar, and not just a kitchen counter.

I am not a fan of eating roasted seeds of any kind. So I didn’t try these.

After the veggies were cut up for the salad/crudite platter (my favorite), the table was set up and we were ready to eat.

Mm, vitamins and minerals galore.

But then, there was:

My mom bought roast Peking duck, some chicken and some roasted BBQ ribs from a restaurant near my house. Very good stuff.

So with that, and some sliced bread, we ate around 1pm and kept eating for about 2-3 hours. Just a lot of slow eating, conversing, etc. After the food was eaten, we took some time to digest and had watermelon, very sweet canteloupe and blueberries for dessert. It reminded me A LOT about Sunday lunch in Italy. Needless to say, we did not have dinner tonight.

Potlucks seem to be a great way for getting together with friends and enjoying each other’s company and the food on the table. Cooking at this gathering was at a minimal– the stove was only used to blanch the broccoli (easier to absorb nutrients from blanched veggies than raw!) There were three familes in total and the distribution of duties were: one for veggies, one for fruit and one for meats/entree.

If everyone does a little and comes through with the share, everything usually works out very well in the end.