pomegranate seeds: 16th Anniversary celebration: a smash success

Wowie. Thanks to all of you who attended our 16th Anniversary celebration last Saturday, June 21! We loved seeing so many of you: longtime clientele who've been shopping with us since day one, and new folks who just found out about us. It's a little hard to believe that the years keep slipping by (we must be having fun, right?) – the only proof is seeing your children and grandchildren growing. When we first opened, there were a handful of pregnant new-mommas-to-be who shopped with us, and now those kids are driving and looking at colleges. NO!

Anyway, we were thrilled with the turnout, and got lots of hugs and good wishes. What could be better?

We served up lots of champagne and sangria, four dozen cupcakes from Ida's, cookies and cinnamon rolls and pastries and treats... Robert fired up the barbecue for our Bruschetta Bar, and it was quite yummy. It's a great idea for casual dinner or cocktail party, by the way. Get lots of good artisan bread, slice it, grill it, brush with good olive oil, then let people slather on the toppings they like (including prosciutto and some good cheese).

We made a fresh tomato, basil, pine nut mix that was very summery and lovely. Just dice up fresh, ripe tomatoes, toast a panful of pine nuts (then let them cool), tear up a lot of basil and mix it all together. We drained the tomatoes after cutting, then added a few drizzles of olive oil. Add salt and cracked pepper, and voilà, instant summer. You could add little bits of good, creamy buffalo mozzarella, too. We didn't salt our version, since we were putting out our new Jacobsen infused finishing salts... so you could choose your taste. I liked the Pinot Noir-infused flake salt with this topping.

Our other main topping was an artichoke pesto(ish) that we made up: so many people wanted the recipe (even though there really isn't one: we figured it out as we went along) – so here's the basic idea. We took three cans of artichoke hearts (the ones in brine, not oil), drained them and chopped finely. Sauté a couple of shallots or small onion and a clove or two of garlic (depending on how much you like) in good olive oil. Add a cup or so of chopped pancetta (Trader Joe's sells it already cut up: in a small plastic container, near the cheese section) and cook through. Drain and cool that mix and add to the artichokes. You could also add some toasted and cooled pine nuts and/or roasted capers. Then stir in about half a cup (probably a little more) of whole milk ricotta, to bind everything together and make it a bit creamy. Add salt and pepper, and you're good. If you want to add a little heat or additional flavor, you could snip some chives into it. Again, we didn't salt this one, so we could do a little sprinkle of our infused salt: the Lemon Zest salt was great with it.

I managed to snap a few pictures before we were inundated...