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It??™s your 5th anniversary coming up. Congratulations! You know that you want to make it a special time, not just some dinner out. You want to have a wonderful party and invite all of your friends. Well, some of your friends were not able to fly out to your destination wedding in the islands. They all asked if you were going to have a San Diego celebration, but you put it off . . .until now. Plus, in the intervening years, thanks to Facebook and changes at work, you have a whole new slew of friends! You??™d love to include them in the celebration.
You??™re eager to plan the details of the party at your home. Well, the flowers and decorating, you plan to leave to your wife. That??™s kind of her thing. Your thing is the food and the surprise! For food, you??™re making everything yourself. You want to make the party a celebration of both yours and your wife??™s heritage. Your people have been in California since WWII. Originally, your grandma was from the South. Your wife is Japanese. You imagine an eclectic menu of small plates, nothing too formal. First, you??™ll make a big, chilled Sake punch with fresh fruit. It??™ll be creative and cost-effective. Then, you??™ll make some seared tuna with wasabi-soy-grapefruit sauce. You??™ll roll out some old-fashioned buttermilk biscuits, in case people would like to turn them into a sandwich. You??™ll also do some bacon-wrapped scallops: an oldie that??™s everyone??™s guilty pleasure. When it??™s done with dayboat scallops that you pick up at the seafood market in the middle of the night and wrapped with artisan bacon and sorghum that you??™ve ordered from Arkansas, you??™ll have a taste sensation nobody will forget. For dessert, you??™re filling up little pastry puffs with white chocolate-mandarin orange mousse.
Of course, you??™ll fill up a bunch of metal buckets with local microbrews on ice. That??™ll keep the party going! Well, that and your favorite Hawaiian shirt.
But the best part of the party, as far as you??™re concerned, is the surprise part.
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