Dinner Party Tips

I'm still recovering from the excitement (and the wine!) at Saturday night's first-ever dinner party. I'm proud to announce that I pulled it off -- it was even better than I had anticipated (then again, I had pretty low expectations). The guests all showed up. People seemed to like the food and to enjoy themselves. And I had a lot of fun too.

All in all, I'm very proud. Considering that less than a year ago, I could barely defrost a microwave dinner or follow the directions on the Amy's macaroni and cheese box, I have come a long way. I'm mostly relieved that all of my guests showed up and I didn't burn anything!

Still, there's always room for improvement.

I've learned so much during this adventure. If you're hoping to throw your own dinner party, here are some Undomesticated Me tips:

1. Plan a detailed scheduled for the day of the party, leaving time for last-minute errands. I was so busy cleaning the apartment and buying baguettes on Saturday that I waited until too late to start prepping the food. I had to scramble at the last minute to halve the Brussels Sprouts and scrub and quarter the mushrooms. I barely had time to put on makeup and get dressed (not to mention time for the clothing crisis!)

2. Make sure you have enough serving dishes and cutlery. I ended up renting a table, dishes and silverware and I still didn't have quite enough bowls (luckily, I found some from a different pattern, but at least I didn't have to resort to using the kids' Disney princess bowls).

3. It's nice to entertain without kids. I know it's a hassle to get a babysitter and it's not cheap, but it's worth it to have a night out without the kids, right? It was certainly a treat for me to have adult chat without having to worry about any meltdowns or freak-outs (my kids were perfect angels and went to bed without any struggle).

4. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Realizing I was in over my head, I asked Avo to prepare salad dressing (a wonderful garlic vinaigrette). Then I had Mr. Di Franco plate the salad. What a team!

5. It seems obvious, but don't forget to invite an assortment of interesting guests and not just the usual suspects. I went out of my way to invite people I wanted to know better and who I thought would get along, not necessarily old friends.

6. Keep color in mind when deciding what to serve. Honestly, I never considered it when planning my menu, but in hindsight, I wish I had injected some color -- maybe in the form of glazed carrots?

7. You can never have too much wine or cheese. I bought a wonderful selection of cheese, but it went pretty fast (whereas I bought way too many baguettes). I only bought one bottle of wine and even though guests generously brought wine, we cut it pretty close. A little more wine would have been a good thing and we could always have saved leftovers for another night.

8. Don't be a perfectionist. I had planned to make whipped cream to top the apple spice cake and brownies for dessert. But I didn't want to stress about whipping up whipped cream while I was enjoying dinner. Besides, the vanilla ice cream a la mode was sweet enough.

9. Try to relax and enjoy yourself. At the end of the party, OTBKB's own Louise Crawford said "It was so nice to see you enjoying yourself. So many times you go to a party and the host spends the whole night in the kitchen. Guests don't like that. They want to see the host enjoying the party." So true.

10. Guests will appreciate the fact that you invited them and cooked for them. And you'll get a kick out of cooking for other people (I promise!). It may be a lot of work, but the end result is worth it.

One guest e-mailed the day after the party to say "Great food, guests and conversation. Wonderful success! You have arrived as a hostess!"

I e-mailed back, "I'm not sure I've arrived, but at least I'm in the driveway."

I had so much fun planning the first-ever dinner party that I'm already undertaking another challenge: a Very Belated (6 years late!) Housewarming Cocktail Party. I'll be sure to let you know once I set a date.

Oh yeah, one last final tip: Don't forget to take pictures! I forgot, but luckily there were a couple of photographers at the party. Hopefully, they'll send me some good pics soon (Hugh and Ken, if you're reading this, get on it pronto!)

Dinner at Eight

Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock can shine at the Academy Awards tonight. I had my moment in the spotlight last night. There was no red carpet, but the guests got gussied and looked fabulous up for my First Ever Dinner Party.

I’ll give you the full report in due time (although you'll have to be patient because there's too much to include in just one blog post). But, rest assured that nothing burned and nobody was injured in the course of the evening. In other words, it was a roaring success!

After loading up on groceries at both Fairway and The Park Slope Food Coop on Friday, I started to panic.

"Do I have enough food?" I asked no one in particular as I surveyed six pounds of meat, more Brussels Sprouts than I've seen in one place before, and a tub of ice cream that could barely fit in our freezer. I have never cooked for so many people before, so it was hard to judge how much to buy.

I resolved to pick up some last-minute items on Saturday (including baguettes), but I continued to fret.

"Should I serve the cheese at the end of the meal like the French or at the beginning of the meal?" I asked Avo.

Avo, who is an unabashed Euro-phile (he crosses his sevens!) was surprisingly insistent that we should have a cheese table for people to graze on (paired with wine, of course) when they arrive. He even had the brilliant idea of printing out labels for the cheese and sticking them on tooth picks so people know what they’re eating.

Thanks to the "cheese guy" at Fairway, I picked up quite a selection (descriptions courtesy of Fairway):

Le Petit Billy --Unripened, unashed selles-sur-cher. Named after the village of Billy in Berry. Pasteurized goat’s milk),
Brillat Savarin -- The first triple-crème, created in the 1930s by cheesemaker Henry Androuet, named for the 18th century gourmant and politician, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. Luscious, sweet, faintly tart. Pasteurized cow’s milk.
Kerry Gold Vintage Irish Cheddar -- The Irish cheese crafters that produce Blarney and Dubliner, limited production. Only the very best are allowed to bear the vintage label. Pasteurized cow’s milk, cheese cultures, salt and enzymes. A connoisseur’s cheddar, rich, firm, smooth body.
Spanish Cabrales. Cabrales cheese is only from cabrales and 3 villages of concejo de panamellera alta, in the southeastern principality of Austurias,
in the northside of the picos de Europa mountains. Pasteurized cow’s milk
Le Chatelain -- Camembert from Normandy, lower temperature pasteurizatioin ensures big, fruity flavor, as close as you’ll get to the A.O.C. original. Pasteurized cow’s milk.

For good measure, I also tossed a container of smoked salmon pate into the shopping basket at Fairway.

"You bought it?" asked Avo. "Why not make it from scratch?"

"Well, The Joy of Cooking says it's very French to mix in some quality store bought things like pate."

"Sounds like a rationalization to me! If the French do it, it must be okay."

Well, it works for me.

Then I proceeded to stress about dessert.

I had planned to make the apple spice cake from The Joy of Cooking and offer it up a la mode (Haagen Dazs vanilla). But the recipe serves eight and I had twelve people coming.

What to do? Of course, I'd bake my reliable brownie recipe. It's a crowd pleaser and I already have the ingredients on hand.

"I thought you wanted to make something gourmet," said Avo.

"But everybody likes the brownies. And I've done them before."

"They're just so pedestrian. I just thought you were going to really challenge yourself."

He's right – this dinner party was supposed to be a challenge, but there's no reason I should make it an insurmountable challenge.

To be continued...Check back soon to find out if the guests showed up on time and... if the cheese was a hit...and if dessert impressed...and if everybody had enough to eat and drink.

Last Minute Scramble

Tomorrow is the big Dinner Party day and I have still have so much left to do. Luckily, my friend Kathryn has offered to give me a ride to Fairway so I can stock up on last-minute items (which pretty much includes everything). I plan to prep as much as possible today, so I can focus on the stew tomorrow.

I also need to clean the house (although the kids will undoubtedly wreck it before tomorrow night). Plus, I still haven't decided what to wear. My folks bought me an apron ("The Dinner Miracle: It Only Happens If You Believe") that I'll don for the occasion, but I still need an outfit suitable for an aspiring domestic goddess. It's too late to shop, so I'll have to scavenge through the closet and see what I can come up with.

I'm wondering if I should assign seats and create place holders. Experts say that the key to a successful dinner party is inviting the right mix of people and sparking a lively conversation. I have a feeling that this group won't have any problem finding something to gab about. Still, since they are mostly new friends of mine (and a couple of people I've never met before) who don't know each other, it might be fun to seat people according to interest.

Should I put the two photographers together and what about the foodies? I have a feeling that Mr. Di Franco, the girls' music teacher, is going to hit it off with Giulia Melucci since they're both Brooklyn-bred Italian-Americans who love to cook. I'm also guessing that the British film critic will get a kick out of Avo's tales of old Hollywood stars he met as a kid. Even I enjoy hearing his story about how Peter Sellers offered to buy him a gold digital watch, but his mom made him refuse the offer -- and I've heard the tale countless times before.

Of course, the girls are excited to greet the guests. "Mr. Di Franco will get to see our room and he'll see our pajamas!" We'll let them stay up past their bedtime so they can say "hello," but then hopefully, they'll say "good night" and leave the adults to wine and dine.

Just writing about my expectations for the night is getting me excited. I hope I'm not disappointed. It is, after all, just a dinner party. Still, it's my first-ever dinner party and a girl can only have one of those.

Anyway, I promise to report back as soon as I recover from the festivities.

Practice Makes Perfect?

Whoever said "practice makes perfect" clearly hasn't tasted my apple spice cake.

On Sunday afternoon, I practiced the recipe before Saturday's dinner party.

I'm usually a chocolate gal, but I was inspired by a dinner menu recommended by The Joy of Cooking, which suggested beef stew with apple spice cake for dessert. It sounded very grown-up (and also homey and comforting in cold weather), so I figured I'd give it a try.

Since I had all of the other ingredients, Avo was a doll and ran out to get me some tart green apples and some buttermilk.

Ruby helped whisk together the flour (I used a combination of all-purpose and whole-wheat), light brown sugar, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg and salt while we waited for Avo to return with the missing ingredients.

NOTE: I'm too lazy to type in the whole recipe, but if you're interested, it's on page 933 of the 1997 edition of The Joy of Cooking.

Avo sauntered in to deliver the goods just in time. We proceeded to stir in the buttermilk and vanilla (I decided to skip the optional rum or brandy) and then mix in the chopped apples (I omitted the chopped walnuts or pecans).

We poured it in the pan and popped it in the oven (which had been pre-heated to 350 degrees). I set the timer and waited.

Ten minutes passed and I suddenly realized I forgot something...something important.
I double-checked the recipe and, yep, indeed, I did forget something important. In my haste, I neglected to mix in the 1/2 cup vegetable oil with the buttermilk and vanilla.

Since Avo had already taken off for the gym and I was too embarrassed to call my mom to ask her what to do, I made a bold decision on my own. I took the cake out of the oven. Even though it was already getting firm, I mixed in some canola oil.

When it was finished about a half hour later, the cake looked, well, greasy.

"It's very moist!" said Avo. Instead, he could have easily said, "What is this greasy thing pretending to be a cake?"

Nobody minded once we served it with some vanilla ice cream. And now I'll be sure not to repeat the same mistake on Saturday night. Hopefully, practice will indeed make perfect.

Dinner Party Practice

The Joy of Cooking has a section devoted to Entertaining which I referred to recently for advice about dinner party etiquette. They have two simple rules when it comes to planning the menu:

Choose food that can be prepared ahead of time, so that you can spend more time at the table than over the stove, and never, ever, make a dish for company that you haven't made before and mastered.

Along those lines, I thought it was only wise to try out the Slow-Cooker Beef Burgundy (from The Best Slow & Easy Recipes) that I had planned for Saturday's dinner party.

I have barely ever cooked with meat before and I have certainly never made a stew, so the task was a bit daunting. For some reason, I feel like making stew with a slow-cooker is less intimidating than using a big pot on the stove. Avo continues to scoff at the gigantic Crock Pot that is taking up valuable space in our cupboard, but I am determined to put it to good use.

On Friday -- during the snowstorm -- Avo was sent home from work early, so I dispatched him to United Meat Market to buy 5 pounds of boneless beef chuck eye roast, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces. Why cut the meat myself when the butcher is happy to do it for me?

"Bacon!" bellowed Ruby, who is hog wild about the stuff. She begged for a taste when I cooked up the bacon (I couldn't deny her).

"How do you mince carrots?" I asked Avo.

He took one look at me trying to chop carrots with a bread knife and rolled his eyes.

"Why don't you use the Cuisinart?" he asked.

"Um, yeah, of course, good idea. In fact, can you mince the onions, carrot, garlic and thyme for me?"

Sweetheart that he is, of course, he agreed to be my "sous-chef" and prep the veggies and herbs.

After cooking the onions, carrot, tomato paste, garlic and thyme in the bacon fat, I double-checked the recipe. Oops, I forgot an essential ingredient: a bottle of Pinot Noir. I quickly got on the phone to the mom of one of Jesse's friends and made a barter arrangement -- You can drop your kid off at our house for a few hours as long as you bring me a bottle of Pinot Noir. Deal.

When I got to the end of the recipe, I panicked when I realized I didn't have any frozen pearl onions. Avo said he couldn't find them at the co-op. I decided to boldly ignore the recipe and do without them. What other option did I have?

Once I dumped the mixture to the slow cooker and stirred in the chicken broth, soy sauce, tapioca, and bay leaves, I "nestled" the beef into the crock pot.

"How do you nestle beef anyhow?" I asked Avo rhetorically.

"Beats me. I think it just means be gentle with it."

I put the lid on and set the thing on high.

"You sure it's plugged in?" asked Avo, who almost seemed as if he was hoping to catch me in a glaring mistake (he really does hate the crock pot).

Luckily, it was, in fact, plugged in.

Nearly seven hours and a roasted Brussels Sprouts tossed with bacon later and dinner was served.

The girls got a kick out of setting the table "fancy" with a table cloth and cloth napkins. It was a lot of effort for just one guest, my grown-up nephew. But it was worth the effort since now I can confidently re-create this dish on Saturday.

Even Avo had to grudgingly admit the meat was flavorful, tender and delicious. We didn't even miss the frozen pearl onions.

So I guess the crock pot has gotten a reprieve...for now.

Dinner Party Countdown

The countdown has begun for my first-ever dinner party which is less than a week away. Of course, I’ve had friends over before, but usually, they were impromptu affairs – beer and Thai take-out with old friends.

This time, I’m going all out. I already sprung for the fancy letterpress invitations and now I’m sparing no expense in planning the big event. I’ve inquired about renting a table and chairs and am thinking I might spring for the table cloth, linen napkins, place settings and silverware. I’m not sure if I’ve got any other options unless I want to serve dinner on paper plates with plastic cutlery and paper napkins (I don’t).

After taking requests and mulling over the suggestions, I have finally decided what I’m going to serve. I’m tempted to be sheepish about it and hold off until I report back afterward. But I know that I can’t keep a secret and I don’t want to keep you waiting.

So here is the (tentative) menu:

1. Green salad
2. Slow-Cooker Beef Burgundy from The Best Slow & Easy Recipes
3. Roasted Brussels Sprouts Tossed with Balsamic Vinegar and Bacon
4. Baguette (but of course!)
5. Apple Spice Cake from The Joy of Cooking accompanied with Vanilla ice cream (not homemade, I’m afraid) and coffee/tea
6. Cheese Course

I may serve some pate and grapes to start things off. As you can tell, I'm trying to keep things relatively simple and stick to dishes a few quality dishes I can prepare in advance.

I don't want to be stressing when the guests arrive. I'd rather be spending time enjoying my guests than scrambling in the kitchen.

As the wonderful writer Laura Shaine Cunningham wrote:

The best dinner parties are those where the hostess appears not taxed, but relaxed. What do guests truly want? To be welcomed, and to talk. If the dinner is too studied, it can become a funeral for food — guests taking choreographed sips and nibbles, conversation as strained as the purée.

A little imperfection makes everyone feel at home. The slapdash but happy hostess has happy guests.

Along those lines, I am guessing that my guests will feel at home because this slapdash hostess is destined to be imperfect and hopefully, happy.

.

First-Ever Lasagna

When Avo was freelancing, he had more time to prepare dinner. In particular, he liked to make a big pot of soup or a pan of lasagna and then freeze it so we'd have leftovers handy whenever we didn't have any dinner plans.

Now that he's got a full-time gig, I've decided it's up to me to keep up his good work. So the other night, I made my first-ever lasagna using a recipe for Beef and Sausage Lasagna from the late, great Gourmet Magazine.

"How does this recipe look to you?" I asked Avo.

"I use the recipe on the box of lasagna noodles and it works just fine," said Avo. "Don't get too fancy. And whatever you do, just double the garlic."

I ignored Avo and went with the Gourmet recipe, although I left out the veal and doubled up on the beef chuck.

I used the no-boil lasagna noodles, which ended up being too crunchy. Not sure what I did wrong, but it couldn't have helped that I removed the tinfoil twenty minutes -- not the ten minutes the recipe recommended -- before removing the lasagna from the oven.

The result was a wee dry.

"We'll still eat it, right?" I asked Avo.

"Yes," said Avo. "And don't worry. I think you have many more lasagnas in you," said Avo. "It's a good thing to experiment with."

Actually, despite the a little extra crunch in the noodles, the lasagna was quite tasty.

"It's good and I made it!" I exclaimed.

"So you cut off the casings on the turkey sausage?" Avo asked.

I nodded. It gave me the heebie jeebies at first, but I quickly got over it by pretending the meat was wet, slimy Play Doh.

"The Paula I married never would have done that."

I'll take that as a compliment.

I wonder if there will come a day when Avo takes it for granted that I do such things. I still can't believe it myself.