“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”–Pablo Picasso

Yesterday we had a big dinner in my house with different healthy and delicious meals. We invited several friends and our nephew, a Moscow musician. He comes every March to Florida as an artist of the Russian National Orchestra, a returning favorite and established Orchestra in Residence  with renowed Grammy Award winning conductor, Patrick Summers and Constantine Kitsopoulos, recognized as musical genius of opera and symphony conductor; the most beloved and celebrated musical ambassadors of our time, Grammy Award winning soprano Renee Fleming and virtuoso, master of piano Conrad Tao; the stars of the American Ballet Theatre and jazz extraordinaire Eldar Djangirov. From March 5th till March 13th) Floridians enjoy a week of celebration of music, literature, film, art and dance. Such an enlightening time of global culture!

Festival of the Arts presents 2010 line-up “From Russia With Love”-a tribute to Russian artistry in dance, music, literature and film. I’ll write more about this Festival of Arts in my Saturday post because as Charlie Siemon, Chair of Boca Festival of the Arts said, “We have endeavored to put together a program that is not only exceptional but has something special for everyone.”

Usually musicians have two rehearsals a day, then a concert in the evening. If they have a couple of hours, these guys walk about 15 miles to the beach to enjoy their free time on the ocean. They all are slender and don’t have any problems with weight.

Do you know what is their secret? They walk a lot everywhere because the organizers of the tour don’t provide them with any transportation, but only for work, to go to rehearsals and concerts. From one side it is bad because they are not provided a bus in spite that there’s almost zero of public trasportation in South Florida, especially in Boca Raton. From another side it’s healthy because they have to walk anywhere they would like to be. Of course, shopping is on the priority list. They check every day with differents stores for bargains to buy. Their budgetr is very modest, but no matter what, they always buy and bring presents to their loved ones from America.

Don’t think that these top professional musicians got paid top dollar, on contrary. So, believe or not, they save on foods. It is not so bad again, but healthy because they don’t indulge themselves in fast and fat, processed foods that can “swell your body” in no time to the ugly proportions.

Don’t get me wrong, even if they try to save, they don’t buy cheap foods. They became very familiar with ‘our green supermarket, Whole Foods.  These young musicians shop there most of the time and buy small portions of healthy foods which is enough to keep them satisfied and energetic. And it shows well. They are good looking, healthy people of normal weight. However, being a whole month on a tour in the United States, far away from their home in Moscow, they definitely miss homemade foods. Wouldn’t you? Of course, you would, too.

So, back to my dinner. I prepared lots of appetizers like guacamole with tomatoes and red onions; French goat’s cheese with red grapefruit. This combination is amazing! I also made  devil’s eggs with fresh cucumber, and salad with tomatoes, red,yellow, orange bell peppers, walnuts, cranberries, apples, dill and my own olive-lemon dressing. Then I served a hot white beans soup and Alascan wild caught cod’s white and juicy fillets adorned with absolutely fabulous Machego cheese, lemon, and plenty of fresh organic herbs. Our dinner was complimented with a great wine from Tuscany, smooth and light on the palate.

You can say, how can you eat so much? Well, it only looks like a lot of foods have been served. First of all, it was a wide assortment. This way, you don’t get bored with the same food and don’t eat too much. You just bite or nibble it.  Secondly, it  enriches your taste buds. Besides, when you have in front of you so many delicious foods, you eat a little of each, because you would like to try all of them. The most important, you eat in moderation.

Source: Text and 3 Photos: “Salad”, ”French Goat’s Cheese with Grapefruit Slices”, “Devil’s eggs”  by Svetlana Konnikova

Copyright 2010.