“What
can I bring?” people always ask when I invite them over. And because I know it
would be rude to say, “cash money,” I usually tell them to bring fruit or wine.
Bringing
fruit – or the fruit of the vine --
allows guests to feel like they haven’t arrived at a host’s home
empty-handed, but doesn’t require them to cook when they were looking forward
to a day of being fed for a change. That is my official explanation. The truth?
I don’t want anyone messing up my menu by arriving with a dish that won’t work
with what I’ve planned. (Can you spell c-o-n-t-r-o-l f-r-e-a-k?)
In
either case, I often end up with leftover fruit after a party. If it’s melon,
which I‘m allergic to, I force-feed it to my children. If it’s berries, I snack
on them the next day, or bake them into muffins. But last weekend it was
clementines. Lots and lots and LOTS of clementines. And while everyone in my
house likes clementines, (and although they do stay well in the fridge for a
couple of weeks), no one around here wants to eat six of them a day every day
between now and February.
So,
riffing on that old saw about what to do when life hands you lemons, I juiced the
clementines and made clementine mimosas, served them to brunch company
yesterday, and suffice to say, I am no longer overburdened by clementines.
Easy, peasy: 1/2 juice, 1/2 bubbly. Serve in champagne glasses. If I hadn’t been
feeling so lazy, I’d have plopped a sprig of mint in each one. But I was, so I didn’t.
Nobody complained.
Happy
new year!
