Paint It Black

Yesterday was an anniversary of sorts. One year ago yesterday, Friday March 13, was the day our family joined the growing number of un- and under-employed--the day Mike was called in to find he'd been cut down to part time and would lose a third of his income, not including benefits.
It was a cataclysmic event for us, and we both lost a lot of sleep over what would become of our family. Over the months we've had some crazy highs and lows. But although nothing has changed employment-wise, and although there's not much budgeting room for things beyond food and housing, we're still here. Still in our home. Still healthy. Still out of the clutches of pay-day loan sharks.
How do you mark an anniversary like this one? I think the only way is to mock it.
Hence Black Supper, 2010. But it's not what you think.
Yes, black has traditionally been the color of mourning. And true, the guy with the black hat in old westerns was usually the bad guy. But lately people have been messing with color symbolism. Take the Democrats and Republicans, for instance. For all the time I was growing up, Democrats were represented by red and Republicans by blue. In my young mind, that meant Democrats were wilder and hot blooded (like Communists!) and Republicans were rich blue bloods. But somewhere along the line, it switched. Now Republicans are represented by the wild color red and Democrats are the cool blue.
So messing with color significance is what I intended to do with the Black Supper. Instead of mourning and feeling loss, black will mean the same for us as it does for merchants on "Black Friday." That's the day everyone starts making a profit because it's the biggest shopping day of the year.
So yes. Profit. Money. In The Black. I'd do it with food to celebrate the fact that we're still eating.
To commemorate Black March 13, the meal would be entirely of black food. And hey, it turns out some foodies say black foods are healthy, too. So there's an extra plus.
Anyway, the appetizer was black sesame rice crackers with black olive tapenade or grocery-store grade caviar left over from New Years Eve, take your pick. For a salad, I boiled some black rice, added a few cut-up Black Mission figs and doused it with raspberry vinaigrette. The "vegetable" was black beans with onions, cumin, garlic and some home-canned salsa I needed to finish off. The main dish was a grilled sandwich of Black Forest ham and cheese (regular colored, sorry) on pumpernickel. I stayed with the Black Forest for dessert, with a trifle made with some instant dark chocolate pudding, some cherries from our tree cooked with sugar and thickened to pie filling consistency, topped with chocolate wafer crumbles. The drink was Point Black Ale (which was pretty good.)
And the after-dinner drink? A Black Russian, of course.
Where we raised our glasses: To full employment. To more fun. To less fear. To better times by March 13, 2011.