Each family has its own Vineyard specialty, a beloved summer-after-summer tradition that everyone cherishes and remembers during those empty winter days in February. Sometimes it is the patriarch’s birthday party. Sometimes it is the matriarch’s birthday party, especially if the house belonged to her family. Sometimes it is a Fourth of July or a Labor Day event when far-flung family members assemble to celebrate. One of our friends, who is not French, gives a lavish annual dinner party with many guests in honor of Bastille Day.