Entertaining Each Other!
By Jane Weston Wilson
Summer is especially welcoming for outdoor entertainment. Our Westside Community Garden just finished a 6-week series of musical events on Sunday evenings and now we’re in the midst’s of a 5-week series of mini Shakespeare's Twelfth Night on Saturdays and Sundays. It’s a one-hour in length production and the kids can interact with the actors.
These kinds of events happily happen everywhere. But something else is going on as well. Online I read about how we are entertaining each other. A group of young standup comics have garage standup nights and invite neighbors, the whole family, from kids to grandparents, to come out for the show, and get to know each other through laughter. It is so successful they are now going to do front lawn standup nights as the word spreads.
Sounds a little like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, putting on a show in their barn and getting everyone into the act. The downturn in our economy, loss of jobs that effect all generations, have caused everyone to put the kibosh on spending.The up side is that turning to each other for entertainment is new again.
One of my favorite memories as a youngster was Friday night at the Johnson's across the street. There were seven kids, one of the older brothers, Dick Winslow, had a band, Mrs. Johnson sang beautifully and a song writer friend came on Friday nights when we all joined in around the piano to sing the hit parade songs of the day.
Shakespeare trips off the tongue of some of our favorite British, Australian and Irish actors with good reason. On Friday nights they gathered in each other’s homes to recite Shakespeare’s plays and the great English and Irish poets.
Another form of entertaining has a long history, too. A vegetarian nightclub is something cookbook author Martha Rose Shulman started 30 years ago in her apartment in Austin Texas to introduce vegetarian cooking to her friends. I’m sure the cost to invitees was not costly.
Just last week I was part of a Dinner Theatre Party to celebrate a friend’s retirement from teaching and her upcoming trip to Kenya. It coincided with two other friends of the hostess’s, Jessica, who were in town to do a Two-Woman Show. I was talked into doing Gazpacho for twenty people. The day before was the designated time to prepare it. Arriving to see the kitchen table overflowing with vegetables, I was told the refrigerator was on the blink but that we had a huge ice chest.
Well, of course it got done and by the next day the refrigerator was fixed, a big black bean salad made, appetizers and dessert as well. Arrival time 6:30, dinner, showtime 7:30. Terry and Carolyn did a version of their two woman show and invited questions for our celebrant, Suzanne, as part of the improv. A really delicious evening. For a mere $15.00. That’s just $5.00 more than a movie.
Write your ideas for how to entertain each other and send them to us, won’t you? And keep reading, for a great recipe for Gazpacho.
Gazpacho Soup
Serves 6
This is really a salad that turns into a soup, great for a party and good for breakfast, lunch and dinner all summer.
Ingredients:
1 can 18 oz tomato juice without salt
3 small yellow onions, peeled and quartered
2 large cucumbers peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 medium size yellow or red peppers seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 large tomatoes peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tab each tomato paste and tomato puree
2 Tab red wine vinegar or rice vinegar
1/8 tsp Tabasco or 1 tsp paprika
1 can green chili seeded, optional
Procedure:
1. In a blender in 2 or 3 batches, blend tomato juice and vegetables.
2. Pulse on and off for 2 or 3 seconds, until a chunky consistency. Don’t over-puree.
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