to recap: rum. food. rum.

on saturday night, superette played host to a reunion of sorts, featuring six of annie's college friends (plus dabney and "april," the only non-swells in the bunch). the theme for the meal stemmed from dabney's recent travel souvenirs from the virgin islands - four bottles of coconut rum and 2 bottles of vanilla rum - that she hand-carried home on the plane. they had been burning a hole in the superette cabinet for months now, and jm's arrival provided the perfect reason to throw a "caribbean-style" dinner party.



and friends, there is a time to be humble, but this is not one of them. while ann spent most of the day doing some much-needed housework, dabney toiled in the kitchen. and the feast that followed was fish topped with coconut chutney and steamed in banana leaves, mango slaw, coconut rice cakes with spicy carrot sauce, and black-eyed peas with tempeh. dessert was vanilla ice cream with a balsamic reduction.

even the rum drinks that followed couldn't erase the memory of this meal.

perhaps even better was being able to eat on the back porch for the first time this year. ann and dabney couldn't have been happier if they were sitting on a beach somewhere under the sun with a drink in hand. absolutely everything about it was delicious.