Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Amber & The Art of Tray

River House is a long-standing tradition, spanning multiple actual houses, guests, hosts and kitty companions.  But one thing has remained constant: the necessity of Making a Tray.  A Tray can be featured for lunch, a light dinner, or for an appetizer course served while grilling dinner.  Beth, our first 2010 River Guest and an excellent start to the season, is seen here with a lunch tray, featuring garlic- and prosciutto-stuffed olives, cracked green olives, roasted red peppers, marinated sun-dried tomatoes, a baguette, multi-grain chips, genoa salami, marinated mozzarella, sliced pickle, sauteed zucchini slices, and prosciutto bread.


What all Trays do have in common are: a variety of tasty items for picking at, olives or other Italian specialities, some kind of bread or crackers, leftovers from the prior night's dinner which can be eaten on aforementioned bread or crackers, some kind of cheese, and accompanying cocktails.  The quintessence of Tray is really variety, tastiness, and savoriness.  And, ease.  Tray is all about easy deliciousness.  And fellowship.


Diana has raised the Tray game and made it more about antipasto.  And that is fine because it is still about variety, tastiness and savoriness.  And fellowship.

Also, it is about River.


Sorry, Ginger.  Tray is for people only.

5 comments:

CRD said...

You should have an Olives tag since you looooooove them so much.

I don't know why you have to always ruin Trays with those little nuggets of pain and horror.

Emma said...

I, too, believe in the power you call Tray. I call it "snacks" when friends come over.

Poor poor Ginger.

ALH said...

I do love olives, CRD. But I do not force my olive love on others. You are free to eat or not eat olives.

Emma, the weirdest thing about Ginger's tray lust is that he wants the veggies--not the salami. He licked an apple slice today and was just about as happy as I have ever seen him.

CRD said...

Didn't the concept of Tray originate in England? Another thing I'm not a big fan of. And yet paradoxically, I like Tray.

ALH said...

That is a false root story for Tray, but also good remembering, CRD. That one summer it was super hot in England, I spent a week in Cambridge with my friend, Sally, and her mother, Reva. It was too hot to cook, so I introduced them to the concept of tray and we had it with lots of British specialities from M&S, including "dolma" and "pitter breads."