28 | June | 2025 | Life of Wry

Thanks Maribel!

June 28, 2025

I feel all Sunset Magazine-y.

Picture this: smiling people, casually standing around a kitchen island, drinking cocktails and wine and laughing, eating gorgeous looking appetizers, while the host puts the final touches on dinner.. music playing (though not too loudly, in deference to Jim who believes people need to be able to hear one another… lol).

Backstory: tonight it was our turn to host what is becoming a nice dinner eightsome — Carrie & Marc, Joe & Janet, Pam & Bill and Jim & me. Since Jim and I had just returned from Spain, France and Portugal, we decided to cook some somethings from said countries. As we’d had such a fantastic culinary experience at the Terra Hotel in Bonansa, Spain, courtesy of proprietor and chef extraordinaire Maribel, we decided to replicate (or attempt to replicate) a couple of her dishes. We built a menu around her very picture-worthy cold squash soup and an equally picture-worthy zucchini carpaccio. I should say that when I contacted Alejandro and Maribel, Maribel was delighted to share the approximate ingredients of both of these dishes, but she generally cooks by feel and couldn’t provide the exact quantities. So we improvised as best we could! I’d taken photos when in Bonansa and, amazingly, we got very close to her presentation on both.

Rounding out the menu:

Cocktails: Joe was the cocktail meister and brought ingredients for three different concoctions reminiscent of the regions of travel… I can’t even begin to describe, but I loved the two I had!

Appetizers: I put out some Mediterranean cheeses and olives, and Carrie brought a traditional Spanish shrimp tapa. Incredible.

Soup course: Jim made Maribel’s chilled butternut squash soup w/ roasted pepitas, an edible flower, and a corn cracker.

Dinner: I made a Mediterranean-style baked salmon with tomatoes, olives, red onions, capers, lemon, garlic, herbs (it was an impressive slab-o-salmon surrounded by vibrant color) and smashed roasted tiny red and yellow potatoes. And this is where we served the zucchini carpaccio.

Dessert: Jim’s cookies (two kinds), garden strawberries, and Pam’s amazing fruit crisp w/ ice cream and sorbet.

I, myself, did not take photos during the evening.. but Pam did.. so here are some shots of tonight’s dinner party (I guess I can call it by its fancy name).

[Fun fact: Pam was actually the food editor for Sunset Magazine sometime in the 80s.]

No pic of the salmon or potatoes, but here are the ingredients I prepped earlier in the day