My Favorite “Communist”

My brother in law Bobby is a special guy and he has been in a really different type of Supper Club for years.

My wife Susan used to get upset when I jokingly referred to Bobby as “my favorite communist”. When I told him the story he countered with “I am really more of a Marxist”. The beauty of Bobby is that he is one of those genuine liberals that really walks the walk.

Bobby’s socialist roots go back to being a political science major in the 1960’s. I think he was head of the SDS at the University of New Hampshire back in 1968. The guy has some liberal “Cred”. Now while he has that background he also understands capitalism better than most. When PC’s first came out back in the 70’s/80’s he was teaching high school math and he started a software company to develop school administration programs. He says that I told him to “Cash Cow” the business and started investing in condominiums. I don’t remember telling him to cash out the business, but I do regret not investing in the condos with him. He wound up owning 269 condos that he bought mostly at distress sales from banks. He also set up a company to manage over 500 condos.

In 2006 just before the housing crash he decided to sell the condos. (Perfect timing) The piece that makes Bobby special is that he GAVE the condo management company to the employees. Lots of folks will talk a liberal bent but this guy walks the walk. He sort of combines the best of capitalism with the best of socialism. This reminds me of the old Joke:

A farmer from Maine goes to Boston and hears a lecture on socialism. He goes back to his buddies in Maine and announces that: “I am a socialist”. To which his friends queried:
• You mean if you had two houses you would give one away? To which our new socialist replied: “Yup”
• You mean if you had two cars you would give one away? Again he replied: “Yup!”
• You mean if you had two cows you would give one away? To which he replied: “Well that is not fair, you know I have two cows”

As unique as Bobby’s story is, his Supper Club is unique as well. For years he and his wife have gotten together once a month with another couple for dinner. They alternate between each other homes and enjoy socializing over a meal. The tough part is that Bobby is a good cook and goes to great lengths to serve something special. The other couple consistently serves similar pasta dishes. This dichotomy does present a bit of friction, but the Supper Club continues on.

I guess the moral of the story is that with both people and Supper Clubs – all types can be very successful.

For more tacky stories like this one keep following my blog at: https://impromptufridaynights.com/category/blog/ and watch out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights – A Guide to Supper Clubs due out form Morgan James Publishing January 30, 2018

You Had S.E.X. at the Party?

One of the funniest things that ever happened at a Supper Club event goes back to a New Years Eve party we had several years back. Before I go further I have to say two things:

1. Alcohol was involved
2. Names have been changed to protect the guilty

Susan and I hosted a neighborhood New Years Eve party for years. This year in question involved extensive appetizers/drinks, dinner/drinks, game/drinks and dessert/drinks. About a quarter of the way through the evening “Ralph”, who I had probably over-served, announced to party that his new years resolution was to “have more sex in the new year”. His wife who is usually adept at controlling such out bursts was missing in action. It really got out of control when another neighbor who was a psychologist started querying: “So Ralph tell us what you really feel?” As you can guess Ralph was the target for a fair amount of teasing, but the evening went on and a good time (non-sex related) was had by all.

A few days later I was back at work and got a call from Ralph to apologize for his S.E.X. comments at the party. While the whole thing was funny to me, poor Ralph had taken a (deserved) beating from his wife and probably had been forced to give me a call. Later that day my wife and kids met me at McDonalds for lunch. In recalling the highlights of my day I told Susan about Ralph’s call and apology for comments. I was careful to spell out the S.E.X. word in front of the children. My daughter Jennifer who was about 9 quickly leans across the table and carefully turns to protect her brother Brian (6) and whispers “You had S.E.X. at the party?” Susan and I both initially burst into laughter and then almost in harmony ask “How do you know about S.E.X.”. To which Jennifer answered confidently “Oh Lydia (Ralph’s daughter aged 10) has told me all about it”. In the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo on “I love Lucy” we had quite a bit of explaining to do.

Do you want to catch up on similar tacky stories? Keep an eye out for my book Impromptu Friday Nights – A Guide to Supper Clubs – Due out from Morgan James Publishing January 30, 2018

Healthy Menus

I was asked at a supper club once: Why don’t we have a “Healthy Menu” for a Supper Club. The answer is we could and we should. We have quite a few friends and family members that have become vegans. I have cooked with and for them and we have had some really amazing meals. Unfortunately, “Healthy Menus” are not all that appealing to a broad group of Supper Clubbers. The truth is that most of us try to eat healthy all week long and we like to splurge a little at a dinner party.

Like it or not, “Healthy” is still a tough sell. Kraft has invested heavily in “healthy” businesses over the years. Good friends of mine ran the “Back to Nature” business for Kraft and the experience was not good. Consumers say they want to eat healthy, but invariably there hasn’t been a large enough volume to drive the growth and margins that large corporations must deliver. But this can change.

I am sure that some readers will disagree with me, thinking that I am a relic of the big bad food processors. I truly hope that we can all eat healthier and what a lot of smaller companies are trying to do is very good. Unfortunately, there is a huge risk in local, organic and natural products. There is a huge food safety risk in products from small companies that make “local/organic/natural” products. “Food Processors” have kill steps in there processes to control pathogens. These kill steps, critical control points and good manufacturing practices provide a level of safety that many smaller companies don’t have.

This irony came home to me while visiting my cousins on Maui. They are vegans and own an organic farm near Hana. They looked at me as working for the evil empire with fear that Kraft is killing the American consumer with processed foods. I saw how they made their tropical fruit frozen smoothies that they sold at their farm stand and I was scared silly. I ran a coconut company in the Philippines so I know too much about bad bacteria in tropical environments. I saw them making their fruit pops in an open air kitchen. In the yard next to the kitchen was Mable the Mule. Mules will do what mules will do. The do attracts flies. Flies can carry bad bacteria. This irony was all too real.

The backlash that Chipotle went through last year is just a small example. Chipotle was trying to do what the American consumers says they wants by sourcing ingredients from smaller local suppliers. Those suppliers didn’t have kill steps or necessary critical control points in their processes. This led to the E. coli contamination and people getting sick. The way Chipotle has addressed the issue should be applauded. They just have to back off their local/organic/natural claims.

But I digress. And yes I will write a “Healthy Menu” for a Supper Club. And yes there are several fantastic vegan recipes in my book – Impromptu Friday Nights – A Guide to Supper Clubs due out from Morgan James Publishing January 30, 2018.