Note, this post properly mentions BACON, but it is more of an invitation to virtually enjoy the menu tonight in honor of a beloved USNA sponsor family daughter, and perhaps join us in a toast to the generations who follow. We are finally celebrating her promotion to Captain (she wears my collar eagles and DH’s command at sea pin), selection for major command, and her PCS orders to command of a storied DESRON (destroyer squadron). What she doesn’t know is that there is a Zoom planned with her 5 sponsor brother and sister classmates scattered around the world (one is a FAO in Asia). We also have surprise VIP guests, the retired admiral and his wife who was the commissioning sponsor of her destroyer command, plus one of my own closest friends and her retired Navy husband (she was the first female CHENG on a carrier). Add in my retired captain brother in law and lively SIL, who met the sponsor daughter when she was a plebe, just as we did, and it’s starting to look like a Dining Out!
Here’s the menu.
Menu
Purchased Parmesan cheese crisps
Marcona almonds
Champagne
Served kitchen side where we will be cooking with wine and hanging out until Captain-daughter arrives last.
Arugula salad, roasted red peppers, raspberry vinaigrette, a few glazed salty-sweet pecans (Trader Joe’s) on top
Roast boneless tenderloin of beef, studded with garlic slivers, rubbed with olive oil and dusted with herbs de Provence, au jus, rare to medium rare
Room temp mini redskin potato salad, with steamed haricots verts, tiny bits of roasted Vidalia onion, Stilton blue cheese crumbles, crispy BACON bits, house-made mustard vinaigrette (my signature no-mayo summer side)
Mixed wild mushroom casserole, baked with unsalted Cabot butter, fines herbes, some heavy cream
Mini ciabatta rolls from TJ, cut into halves, brushed with EVOO, toasted, sprinkled with a tad of pink Hawaiian salt
A big Silver Oak Cab in my best big glasses.
Dark chocolate pound cake made with Callebaut cocoa, a scoop of Talenti raspberry sorbet, fresh strawberries halved
Dog walk with all for afterward.
This is THE BEST part of military service, lifelong friends, bonds, appreciation, sea stories out the wazoo. Doesn’t matter how long since we have seen each other.
Rest assured we toast the fallen. And tonight the USNA mid who recently passed away.