Maldon -

by gansie

When Guacamole is the Most Ambitious Menu Item

Guacamole for a party makes an easy dish – a few ripe avocados, some chopped onion, tomato, chilies and seasoning. Serve the guacamole soon after mixing and it will be the party’s star.

But what happens when you have to feed 30,000 people — breakfast, lunch and dinner — in more than 30 corporate tents at this past weekend’s U.S. Open? Well, you have to make a lot of guacamole.

Bennett and I checked out the third round of this (what people tell me) very important golf tournament, located just outside of D.C. this year at Congressional Country Club. We were able to check out the caterer’s own corporate tent and get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to pull off the edible win.

Salvaging a Crime Scene

This time of year it’s hard for me to eat brunch at a restaurant. Instead of tired florentine or crab cake benedicts (or <gasp> buffets), I grab a bright red bike from the closest Capital Bikeshare dock and ride over to the farmers market. Asparagus bundles line the wooden tables. Bins of kale and spinach also take up plenty of space. But on Sunday, it was all about the strawberries. It was the first time I spied the sultry fruit this season and I couldn’t resist picking up 2 cartons (at $7) from the tiny Bloomingdale market.

The only mistake: riding my bike back home. The berries rumbled around in a box I borrowed from a vendor. When I opened it up at home, it looked like a crime scene as the berries stained the cardboard walls. I managed to save them and decided to use most of them up pretty quickly for a friend’s graduation party. (Congrats, El!) It’s a twist on strawberries and cream, and mostly all of the ingredients can be found at market.

Creating this still cheesy, but much fresher, dish makes me so freaking happy its spring! That was pretty lame, huh?!