Party Recipe: Earthquake Memorial

This was our sixth year of hosting a dinner on April 18 in commemoration of the 1906 earthquake - and one of the finest yet! After having 19 guests last year, I cut down the list to just 10. It was tough, but resulted in a much easier party where I had time to relax, drink and chat.

As the sun set, we lit a couple candles while Rob kicked off the night with a quick introduction to triage (pictured above). The guests then categorize 15 photos - including zombies and Batman - into green, yellow, red and black.

You may remember that this is an electricity-free party. So once it was totally dark, we lit all the candles and sat down to a meal of cioppino with hot sourdough bread with garlic-truffle butter. Margaret followed that with strawberry shortcake with fresh whipped cream and homemade pound cake.
















We lingered at the table for a long time with glasses of port and lively conversation about serial killers, the meaning of "steep" vs. "seep" and You've Got Mail (among many topics). It was 10:30 before anyone even mentioned going home and took a good half hour more to actually shut down - definitely the sign of an excellent night.