Funeral Feast

People always talk about what they'd have for their last meal (ok, not always, but bear with me), but until I read this in Dining & Wine yesterday, I hadn't heard a healthy discussion of what to serve at one's own funeral.

We're obviously not all grande dames of Southern cooking, who were cared for by a young, fabulous chef in our final years, (although that would be great), but I think it's worth considering. If your funeral is a celebration of your life, or at least held in your memory, why stop the planning with the music* and the flowers?**

The menu for Miss Edna Lewis was as follows:

Cheese Straws
Benne Seed Wafers With Shrimp Paste
Pimento Cheese and Celery
Buttermilk Biscuits Stuffed With Smithfield Ham, Sweet Butter
Strawberry Preserves
Southern Pan-Fried Chicken
Deviled Eggs
Asparagus Dressed With Cucumber and Spring Herbs
Heirloom Tomato and Field Pea Salad With Garlic Mayonnaise
Sunday Night Cake
Miss Lewis's Coconut Layer Cake
Cat's Tongue Cookies
Fresh Strawberries
Blackberry Cobbler With Fresh Churned Vanilla Ice Cream
Old-Fashioned Tea Cakes
Homemade Lemonade, Iced Tea

Now, if mine were held today, there'd have to be a martini bar, right next to the oyster bar. I do love cheese straws, and I also want these spicy shortbread bites. If it's hot, Viana LaPlace has a lovely unplugged gazpacho recipe that could be served in a punch bowl - ask The Blue Fairy, who cornered the Pacific NW market on punch cups a year or so ago.

Mini round sandwiches with thinly sliced smoked salmon and a thin spreading of cream cheese, on pumpernickel if you can find it, Kate's onion tart, a salad by Kay, any one will do, and grilled scallops on skewers. For dessert, Lisa's chocolate chip cookies, homemade bread pudding - my fav recipe includes currants, homemade creme anglais and spreading the bread with butter and apricot jam - and my mother's pound cake. And I think that will do.

* Would Death Cab for Cutie be too precocious?
** Peonies, please & I'll do my best to leave this world in May or June.