Ham Hocks and Tapas

In half an hour I'm going to Faith's for my final going away party. This week has been full of goodbyes and this is the last big group one. Faith is having a "Ham Hocks and Tapas" party to send me off with "enough love to last three months (normative time for adjustment)." Why ham hocks and tapas you might ask? She wanted the food to represent both sides of my culinary life; the midwest and CA. Apparently ham hocks and tapas were the first samples to come to mind and we laughed so hard, the two became the name of the party. Also included on the menu: jello salad (jello set with fruit and popped out of a decorative mold), somosas (Indian cuisine), a California cheese plate and the dregs of my liquor cabinet, including a three year old unopened bottle of blue raspberry vodka given to me as a joke by my late great friend Kathy Finch. The major players for tonight are neighbors and a handful of Faith's friends that have become mine over the years. It should be a good time.