I've Been Making Whoopie

PIES!  Seventy-five Whoopie pies, to be exact.  Actually, I made 50, and my god-daughter Natalie and her mom Anne-Marie made the rest.  We celebrated Clara's graduation from Skidmore last Saturday evening with a big party in the back yard, and the Whoopie pies were dessert.  Close to 70 neighbors and friends came to see Clara and the renovations to our house and yard -- and to eat, of course.  It was a great party, despite a few rain drops, but it was really exhausting.  I could barely function on Sunday.

I made almost all the food myself with help from Clara, Pete, and our good friends Anne-Marie and Mike and their daughters, Natalie and Charlotte.  For starters we had homemade guacamole and salsa (made by Pete and Charlotte) with regular and blue corn tortilla chips, shrimp cocktail with sauce made by Mike, crudite with my special pesto dip, store-bought hummus with pita bread, and pigs-in-a-blanket, requested by Clara.  Our neighbor, who has an oyster farm in the harbor, brought several dozen oysters which we served on the half shell with Mike's mignonette sauce.  Who needed dinner?

But dinner we had.  We bought great fried chicken from The Rotisserie in Southold.  To accompany the chicken: tuna nicoise, orzo with pesto and asparagus, tabbouleh, a big green salad, and Pete's homemade bread.  Yummy.  Then, of course, came the piles of Whoopie pies.  I wish I had taken a picture of them, but I was just a tad bit preoccupied.  We also served sliced watermelon and store-bought palmiers for non-chocolate eaters. 

What a great start to summer.  We have more fun coming up this weekend.  Clara will ride Star, her favorite horse, in the Southold 4th of July parade on Sunday, and we are attending a benefit for the Cornell Cooperative Extension's SPAT program, which works to save and replenish the shellfish in Peconic Bay.  We'll be dining on Widows Hole oysters while we listen to Teddy Charles play jazz and watch the fireworks explode over Shelter Island. Have a great 4th of July!