Beach house visit brings group dining challenges

I’ve just returned from a weekend on Plum Island in Massachusetts to attend my niece’s graduation. Instead of searching for hotel rooms during a busy travel time, my sister-in-law found a beach house rental large enough to accommodate the entire extended family. Although it was a bit of a drive to campus for the ceremony, the place was beautiful and comfortable. We had a few planning discussions before we all arrived, most importantly about food.

Since the town didn’t have a large-enough restaurant for the group, for our first night we decided to find a place nearby to order a meal and bring it back for dinner. Choosing the specific cuisine included a vigorous debate about ingredients, most notably the intense dislikes expressed for pork and cilantro. In the end, Italian won the day, and we chose a wide ranges of dishes.

As you can see from the photo of the menu chalkboard, the quantity of food was extensive (except for the bruschetta, which stayed overnight on the passenger seat of my brother’s car). Everyone had something to say about the meatballs, not all of it positive, and the salad was missing its dressing. The pasta, grilled chicken and roasted vegetables were crowd-pleasers, but the stars of the show were the chicken parmesan and the caprese skewers.

Once we finished eating, the challenge became finding room in the refrigerator for the leftovers. Every shelf, door pocket and crisper drawer was already filled with beverages brought from home. We didn’t bring coffee, breakfast cereal or fresh fruit, but everyone brought at least a six-pack of their favorite drink – lemonade, iced tea, energy drinks, hard seltzer and (of course) champagne.

For those of you expecting guests for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday, this may serve as a helpful tip as you stock up on food and drink. Consider using a portable cooler for the various beverages to leave room available in the fridge for whatever really needs to stay cool. If you’re like us and don’t treat breakfast as a necessity, you can always run out to one of our wonderful bakeries in the morning before your guests are awake.

If, on the other hand, you need a good start to your morning, make sure to have the standard options in stock. That would typically include coffee, fresh orange juice, yogurt, eggs and a loaf of bread or English muffins. Depending on your guests’ tastes, you may want to have avocados or granola for the vegetarians and some type of breakfast meat for the carnivores.

There was one item in our dinner order that turned out to be the best solution for lunch and snacks – an antipasto tray loaded with sliced meats and cheeses, pickles, olives and hot peppers. This is a good way to have nibbles on hand for your guests. Consider containers of hummus to serve with pita bread, pepperoni and cheese slices to serve on crackers, and some fresh veggies to dip into ranch dressing.

I won’t try to replicate the chicken parmesan recipe, since that is a dish most cooks have their own favorite way of making, but I will provide an easy and elegant way to assemble caprese skewers. Look for the bamboo skewers with a loop on one end, as they make a nicer presentation than plain skewers or toothpicks. Arrange the finished product like spokes of a wheel on a round plate and pass them with lots of napkins to catch the drips of Balsamic dressing.

Caprese Skewers

Rinse and drain the tomatoes; set aside. Thread each skewer with one tomato, a piece of basil leaf and a mozzarella ball. Arrange on a serving platter. Whisk together oil and vinegar; drizzle evenly over the skewers. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature or chilled. *The size labeled "bocconcini" is best for this; pearls are too small.