Festa di pomodori

At some point in the middle of the summer, one of my genius friends decreed we should plan to have a tomato festival to celebrate the end of summer. Early in September we made it happen! Most of us brought home-made tomato dishes, and one person brought drinks, and we drank repeatedly to our cleverness. The festa must be repeated!

We started with salsa:

Then  had crostini:

Then we moved on to my sister's offering, gazpacho:

Then tomato salad - made with a surprising combo of water, oil, and vinegar, so it's soupy for dipping purposes:

Then we had pasta with a POUND of brie in the sauce... (but it did make a lot!):

And finished with my offering, a cherry tomato cobbler:

It was probably as well we had no dessert, though we did ponder whether tomato ice cream, gelato, or sorbet might be good. Perhaps we'll find out next year!

Party prep

I love going to parties at friends' houses, and I always feel a little cheated when friends don't get around to having a house warming party because they never felt the place was ready. That's the point of a house warming! If you have it early enough, you don't even have to unpack!

So I'm having a party this weekend (six weeks post-move-in), and am very much feeling the whole Lack of Furniture thing. My office is kind of haphazardly set up at best, and my living room is feeling more than a little echo-y. My sister and I rearranged what furniture there is, and I just can't decide if I like it. I like the couch in its new orientation but I don't have a real coffee table to anchor the space, and the chairs I have aren't really working. Then there's the tv room, which still has boxes (but may not by the weekend.. we'll see) and then there's the fact that I can't really figure out what to do dining-table-wise...I've got a good bit of art to hang but can't figure out where... oh dear.

So, to distract myself from all that nonsense, I'm picking out food to serve at the party. I'll have a few different cookies, and two or three dips, cheese and crackers, and a couple of finger food things. The question I'm now running into is: what to serve in the way of drinks? Beer & wine are obvious for most adults, but not everyone wants to drink and people in this region aren't really into soda. So what do I serve? Tap water seems rather boring. I suppose I can get some fizzy water from Trader Joe's, but what else?