SARAH URIST GREEN: This episode of "The Art Assignment"
is brought you by Squarespace.
A couple of weekends ago, John and I
decided to put to the test J. Morgan Puett's art assigment
to host a Scramble Scrabble Dinner.
We came up with a list of friends,
shared the video with our guests, set a time and a date.
And soon enough, we were consuming azul tuna sushi.
We decided to gather our group a couple of days
before the dinner itself so we'd have time for shopping.
Morgan advised us to limit the game to two to six people.
But we wanted to have a bigger party,
so we invited a larger group but had
only one person play the game if they were part of a couple.
First, we gathered around a piece of linen
I bought at a local fabric store.
And armed with Sharpies, began by writing out our full names
and scrambling the letters to make
names of foods and ways of preparation and display.
Then the game began with one of us playing a word then working
around the table clockwise to add words Scrabble-style.
Words we'd sketched out before were only a loose guide.
And of course, when you're working off other words,
the possibilities expand.
We kept going until the group felt
we had enough words to make a dish
and then started over to create the next courses.
Whenever questions came up, we decided the answers as a group,
always keeping in mind Morgan's advice
to try to resist the traditional.
Last, we sketched out the dishes as we imagined them
from the scrabbled words and decided
who was going to be in charge of which course
and who was going to make a playlist for the evening.
Then we parted ways until the main event.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Before everyone arrived, John and I planned our dish
and made sure to hoosh the table in a way
that Morgan would approve of by spreading out our game
tablecloth and displaying clippings we'd
taken from around our yard.
With the words "sushi", "share", "azul", "manner", and "mince",
John and I decided to make sushi using fresh, sushi-grade tuna
and salmon over blue rice with a little spoonful
of minced, green onion vinaigrette over top.
We presented it on platters for sharing
and assumed everyone would use their best
manners in eating it.
Lauren and Andy worked from the words "hen",
"onion", "fry", "grate", "lemon", "garnish", "ouzo",
and "nest".
They made an absolutely delicious avgolemono soup
with rice, served in a nest-like bowl with a fried chicken
wing on top and a glass of ouzo to enjoy it with.
Next up, Anne-Marie and Stuart played with the words "beer",
"greens", "fats", "season", "yam", and "hominy"
to create braised greens served over stewed yams
and hominy-- all in a souvenir beer glass.
Elisabeth and Michael' used the words "tacos", "corn", "thyme",
"lean", and "sauce" to make thyme-roasted corn and mushroom
tacos served with homemade tomato sauce.
Then we cleared our palettes with a refreshing drink
made by Zulaiha who played off the words "lassi", "fizz",
and "zaatar" by making a fizzy mango lassi sprinkled
with zaatar.
We were all leery of the zaatar, but it
was a huge hit-- a surprising bit
of spice that served as a foil to the sweetness of the drink.
Last, not least, Rosianna closed out the meal
with a desert fashioned from the words "grits", "fruit", "tart",
"sear", and "mint".
She made a delectable, seared apple tart
with a grit crust garnished with mint.
It was a truly delightful meal.
After doing the Scramble Scrabble myself,
here's my advice.
Invite people who will approach this challenge
with abandon and embrace the spirit
of the hoosh, defy convention, and make it weird.
We all made dishes we'd never made before.
And having the freedom to adapt and stray from recipes
is central to the pleasure of this.
Don't worry about getting it wrong or breaking the rules.
Use the steps as a rough guideline
and feel free to improvise.
Oh, and last of all, do it.
This challenge involves some planning for sure,
but it's worth the effort.
You'll have a fun evening, eat new foods,
and even have an artful tablecloth left over
to remember it by.
And we all know that nothing really happens
unless you document it, right?
Take some pictures of your Scrabble Scramble Dinner
and share them on your social media platform of choice
with #theartassignment.
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