Margarita Madness

Decided to do a little grilling on the roof deck last night and should have stopped after two margaritas. The third one only succeeded in making me feel a bit sluggish this morning - not a hangover - just a little sluggish.

It also made me not think to take pictures of all the food we served. For munchies, I put out a smoked Gouda and a St. Andre cheese, accompanied by strawberries, various crackers, and kalamata olives. I had never tasted St. Andre cheese, but let me tell you, move over, brie. This cheese isn't as runny and has a much more intense flavor than brie. I'm officially hooked! Main course consisted of a FANTASTIC watermelon, tomato, and kalamata olive salad (thank you, Chow.com), a fresh green salad with my homemade orange-sesame vinaigrette, and a grilled pork loin that had been slathered with fresh parsley, sage, oregano, thyme, and garlic scapes. We also had swordfish, fig, and shrimp kebobs and a fantastic scalloped potato dish, compliments of my roof gardening partner in crime. Here's a picture from chow.com of the watermelon salad:
The flavors in the dressing, which included balsamic dressing, really mellowed the sweetness of the watermelon - while a few were skeptical of it - all ended up loving it - hooray!

Here's my not-so-exact-science orange sesame vinaigrette recipe - I do a lot of additions and fixing to taste so while this is a base, it's not necessarily what you'll end up with as some like dressings sweeter, while others might like to taste more of the sesame flavor:

• juice of 1/2 orange (or juice of two clementines);
• 1 tsp. sesame oil (it's strong so less is more);
• 1 T. white vinegar (or a little more);
• 1 tsp. granulated sugar (or honey);
• 1/3 cup EVOO (again, or a little more);
• A few shakes of black sesame seeds for color

Combine ingredients, shake well, and serve on a baby greens salad. I bet this would make an interesting marinade for chicken as well.

Anywho - that's what went on last night. We are trying to think of inexpensive ways of dressing up the roof deck - we sorta want to work with what we have or purchase things on the cheap. Any thoughts?

~GAC