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Posts Tagged ‘dinner party’A Dream Dress4Dinner December 20th, 2010 | Author: michael maher When D4D began, I am sure we had in the back of our minds some cinematically-inspired vision of that ideal dress for dinner event. You know, the kind of perfection only attainable through the expertise of a team of set designers, cinematographers, costume designers, etc. If someone had given me the assignment to be Director of this dream event, it might go something like this: Place: Our 3-story brownstone townhouse in New York City, say Chelsea, or maybe the edgier Lower East Side. For the big event, we’ll have all the furnture cleared out (put-who-knows-where, but hey, it’s a dream) so we can set up a collection of different-sized tables to seat about 85 people, taking over 1 1/2 floors of the townhouse. Time: A cold, dark December night, with all the warmth generated by the good cheer, the heat of cooking, and the candles everywhere, with each flicker of candlelight multiplying off every piece of crystal and silver in the rooms. Cast: Andra and I, of course, as the hosts: me, all in black (obviously) and Andra in her opera cape with some wild tights poking out below and some killer shoes. A world-class chef and kitchen team to prepare the meal and attend to the tables. And a guest list filled out with long-standing friends, newly-met table companions with interesting conversational topics, and everyone decked-out in fashionable but not ostentatious clothing. Action: A seven-course meal with perfect wine pairings and a delectable range of flavors, textures, and aromas, all brought forth in a manner that feasts the eyes as much as the palate. Amazing experiences shared in conversation at each table, with a collective denoument celebration to highlight the end of the dinner, and to set up the more intimate discussions as the event eases to a close. Cut! Sometimes dreams do come true, but usually they end up very different than the way you dreamt them…. Related Posts: Posted in Dinner | Tags: chef, cooking, Dinner, dinner party, dream, eating, fantasy, Food | 1 Comment » Tie It Up November 21st, 2010 | Author: Molly B So in my race to the finish on this stint, I want to hit a few important points. Again, because I had dinner during the work week, I prepared dishes that I had experience with. Thai steak salad is really easy and can be any type of salad but the dressing is important. Thai dressing does not have any oil, it seems weird but it gives the salad a really fresh taste. The recipe for the dressing is a variation on a recipe from The Dean and DeLuca Cookbook, which is a great cookbook to check out. You can toss together almost any combination of salad ingredients, grill some type of protein and add this dressing and it transforms it into something exotic. Thai Salad Dressing 1 teaspoons lime zest 10 mint leaves chopped ¼ cup of chopped cilantro dash of soy sauce Whisk together all ingredients
Coconut Rice with Butternut squash Another simple but interesting dish was the coconut rice topped with butternut squash. I stole this idea from my friend and colleague Liz, who offered both of these dishes individually on a buffet at her dinner party. First off, making coconut rice is as simple as replacing the volume of water you usually cook rice in with coconut milk. This is always a 2 to 1 ratio in my book. I also added a bay leaf and some grated ginger for an extra kick. One of the added benefits to making this rice is the leftovers, which make great rice pudding. The butternut squash was sliced, drizzled with olive oil and maple syrup and then sprinkled with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper and roasted at 400 degrees. I peeled and chopped the roasted squash into chunks and placed it on top of the rice. Although it was a double starch, the rice and the squash complimented each other nicely. The Table I wanted the table to be a little less formal but a little more graphic to appeal to Amy’s great visual sensibility. I had seen these weird octopus-looking citrus in the grocery store and look them up on the internet. They are called Budda’s hand and are not used in cooking but are used for fragrance. I combined one with oranges as the center piece and then placed the paper “tie napkins” on top of the plates flanked by black bowls. The table setting would not have been complete if it were not for the napkins. They were sent to me as a gift from my friend Yasmine, all the way from London specifically to use for Dress 4 Dinner. They come in four tie patterns and are called Dress 4 Dinner! My only regret was that I did not get a picture of either one of us wearing the napkin the correct way, as a tie. Related Posts: Posted in Dinner, Dress 4 Dinner, Food, Recipes | Tags: Dinner, dinner party, Dress 4 Dinner, friends, menu, Table Setting | 3 Comments » Eating With Skulls on the Table November 4th, 2010 | Author: Andra Watkins Our Halloween Dress 4 Dinner table would not be complete without adopting a suitable theme, one that embraced all the garish gloriousness of the holiday itself. So, I decided to put skulls on the table and set them aglow with a candle in the center. Because October in South Carolina can still be lovely in the evenings, we decided to have our Halloween D4D out on the piazza. We got to watch the sun set and listen to the neighborhood ghouls and super heros as they ran around collecting their haul of candy. Musically, we chose to set the tone with Halloween Party: 16 Scary Songs and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, all set up to play in stereo outside while we ate. It added just the right punch to the candy-themed meal, a shrieking undertone that contributed much to the conversation. I also found some candles that dripped blood and spider and black cat themed tea lights stuffed away in a drawer and decided to haul them out to add to the ambiance. Perhaps having skulls, blood and portents to bad luck on the table would keep us from stuffing ourselves? NOT. For dishes, I used a mixture of chinas. Accents were my wedding china, with the statement pieces given to me by my mother and her wedding china from the mid-1960′s. The dinner plates, from Franconia’s Silver Crown pattern, are hefty enough to be chargers but instead gave the perfect backdrop for the butterscotch salmon, pixy sticks and sweet potato tarts. As the candles melted down, we talked about family, about weddings, about politics and about life with friends we don’t get to see nearly often enough. Spooky only adds a dimension to the conversations that can happen around a Dress 4 Dinner table. Related Posts: Posted in Theme | Tags: candles, Conversation, Dinner, dinner party, Franconia, halloween, Silver Crown, skulls, table, table decorations | 5 Comments » All Hallow’s Eat October 22nd, 2010 | Author: michael maher Beyond the whole scary thing, there is something odd about Halloween: it is a holiday with a significant consumption component, but it is without a traditional meal association. This is something I am realizing just now, as I sit here trying to come up with ideas for our upcoming Halloween D4D. Think of the big American holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July—and you invariably think of the meal, whether it be a sit-down family dinner or a festive outdoor community picnic. You can even take it a step further, and match up a menu corollary…Thanksgiving Turkey, Christmas Roast, Easter Ham, Fourth of July BBQ. But Halloween? Now, I know as a kid I could think of no better meal than a seven-courser of…CANDY! Of course, you always had those ‘well-meaning’ (cheapskates) who tried to hand out healthy alternatives to candy, but we all know those ‘treats’ would be the left-overs from our Tootsie Roll Tasting Menu. But once we have outgrown our sweet teeth, or once our word association with “gum” shifts from ‘chewing’ to ‘receding,’ what kind of menu does Halloween inspire? Is this appropriate for a sit-down D4D? Maybe Halloween is the anti-D4D? Think about it…is Trick or Treat not a set of training wheels for Drive-Thru Dining! And nothing is more antithetical to dressing for dinner and sharing a meal with friends and family. Note: Just this morning I found this article that speaks to the surprisingly short history of candy and Halloween: http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/10/how-candy-and-halloween-became-best-friends/64895/ Related Posts:Why Is a Dinner Party Such a Fright? October 19th, 2010 | Author: Andra Watkins Throwing together a dinner party can surely be intimidating. There’s the planning, and the worrying about how everyone will mix, and the last minute snafus – not to mention the cost and how harried everyone is these days – all of which seem to combine to make people throw dinner parties OUT with the garbage. Who has time for them, anyway? It turns out, all of us here at D4D have come to love making time to throw a dinner party. Because of it, I’m not frightened of putting any combination of folks around a dinner table any more; I know we can handle whatever comes up. I’ve learned, too, that preparing a nice meal and serving it up for a couple of guests doesn’t have to involve a Thanksgiving-scaled production. Most guests truly appreciate a simple meal, because we’ve taken the time to think of them and share it in our home. And that leads me to the time factor; how much time does a D4D cycle take? We spend about thirty minutes per day maintaining the blog when it’s our turn, plus two-to-four hours preparing a meal. If the dinner party goes on for hours and hours, we don’t care. My greatest joy in all of this is finding myself sitting at the dinner table at almost midnight, the candles burned down to nubs and the food long-eaten, still enjoying the people and the conversation that the evening brought together. As to cost? In our household, we’ve put on a D4D with exceptional components for as little as $50. One of the key components of our mission is to do more with less and to use things we already have on hand to entertain. A dinner party doesn’t have to be a glitzy show. In fact, the more relaxed and easy we make it, the better it seems to turn out for everyone. Spend a little money; gain a lot of fellowship. So, what are YOU afraid of? We’re looking for a fourth participant in our D4D series. Here’s what’s involved:
If you’re interested, post a comment here, and we’ll contact you directly from there. We’d love to see someone throw down the gauntlet and challenge us! Related Posts:The Difficulty of Following Dessert October 18th, 2010 | Author: michael maher Think of the most exquisite meal you have ever had, which hopefully included some unbelievable dessert, maybe something as rich as Dark Chocolate Creme Brulee. Now try to recall the very next meal you had. Go ahead. Even if you can remember it, it is was very likely comparativley forgettable. Now you understand how we feel about having to follow Cheryl’s amazing D4D posts in this last cycle. It would be easy to just direct you to revisit/reminisce the last two weeks of the D4D blog stream, but that would be lazy, and cheating, and redundant. Undaunted, we are prepared to kick it into high gear and try to bring you a D4D that opens up new horizons…or at least isn’t a total flop as a follow-up. Problem is, this next cycle is currently without a plan, or a concept. All we know is who will be our guests. So, over the next weeks, we will let you behind the curtain, and share the raw and fluid process that goes into coming up with, planning and executing a D4D event. And since the dinner will occur on Halloween, it will either be a treat or a trick. Promise, no needles in apples, and no nastiness in popcorn balls. Related Posts: Posted in Theme | Tags: dinner party, entertaining, friends, halloween food, inspiration, planning | 2 Comments » International Standards September 29th, 2010 | Author: michael maher While the intent in designing this meal for our British guests was all about highlighting the unique aspects of a southern American meal and how different this former colony had really become, on second thought, plus ça change…. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Think of the classic British meal: Batter-fried fish, chips (french fries), and mushy peas…crispy deep-fried protein, crunchy golden starch and mushy green starchy vegetable. Now compare with the ‘southern-style’ meal of fried chicken, glazed sweet potatoes, and grilled okra. That’s right: crispy pan-fried protein, mushy orange starch, and crunchy green starchy vegetable. Just a coincidence? Throughout the British invasion, we were often remarking on the strange twists of language between British-English and American-English, but at the same time, we always seemed to understand each other at a more fundamental level. It seems similar food-wise. Steak and Kidney Pie? Easily Chicken Pot Pie. Bangers and Mash? Seems a lot like Shrimp and Grits, if you squint your eyes. If the Brits would make a non-alcoholic Trifle with bananas, it might certainly look a trifle like ‘nana pudding. Related Posts:You’d Think We Speak a Foreign Language September 22nd, 2010 | Author: Andra Watkins One of the most striking things to me in spending quality time with English people is that we speak completely different English. The language is the same, but it isn’t. I can’t count how many times I said, “What do you mean by that?” and vice-versa. Especially with food. In England, crisps are potato chips, and chips are french fries. Biscuits are sweet cookies, and mushy peas are not peas at all, even though they look green. Pudding is the universal term for dessert of any kind, and specific puddings are dense substances that look eerily like fruit cake to me. Cereal is porridge and almost always resembled wallpaper paste. I never managed to order the right thing at the proper time. Preparing a meal for them in our home, therefore, becomes an interesting exercise. At one point, I was tempted to take everything out of the refrigerator and go through each item individually, making flash cards for them with the different English descriptives up top. We finally gave up on the idea of explaining to them what they would be having and have just decided to wing it. Either way, the meal will likely be a “mystery meal” of sorts, because telling them what they’re having will only mean figuring out what each thing is really called in England, if it exists at all. I don’t know if that’s the Southern way, but it’s our way to handle this quirky language barrier. When it all comes out on the table, I hope they tell us their words for what they will be eating. Related Posts: Posted in Food and conversation | Tags: Dinner, dinner party, England, Food, language barrier, Southern food, Theme | 3 Comments » Spice Up the Setting July 29th, 2010 | Author: Molly B Temperature 85 degrees 34% Humidity One of the nice things about doing Dress4Dinner is that you can try to explore other aspects of dining that might not be your forte. As I have mentioned before, I am more of a cook than a host. Making food for people expresses my delight with their company. But there is much to be said for people who can provide the setting for an event. I thought for this D4D, I would actually try to spice up the table a bit. I do love the look of austere white table linens with white place settings but I can branch out! I have been keeping my eye out for something to add to my to my table for a while now. I have to say I have two problems- one is that I have very expensive taste and the other is that there is a lot of ugliness in the linen world. If only I had a sewing machine. The food I am serving, although derived from the concept about heat, is steering towards Mexican. I found a fun, less expensive alternative within two blocks of my apartment! (Pictured is my mock up of the table.) The “runner” is two “T” towels from Jonathan Adler on top of my Grandmother’s Irish linen tablecloth with the Our Lady of Guadalupe candles in the center which are from the bodega around the corner. I loved these candles they remind me of when I first moved to NYC and would buy them from my bodega in the Lower East side. With this much color, who needs flowers! Related Posts: Posted in Accessories, Dinner, Dress 4 Dinner, Theme | Tags: dinner party, Dress 4 Dinner, inspiration, Table Setting, tablecloth, Theme | 6 Comments » Beach tabletop May 7th, 2010 | Author: Cheryl Decorating a dinner table can be work or it can be fun. I like to scavenge around the house to find things that I don’t think of as dinner table elements and then press them into use…as Austin did with her cow creamers as vases. Since we are chez mer at The Fort and we are having a seaside extravaganza, I think we’ll stick close to that theme. The Fort is atop an ancient oyster bank so there are huge oyster shells littering the property. I’ve gathered some of them, washed them and now they are filling a simple glass vase as a centerpiece. Adding color to the assemblage are the shells I found this winter when we first moved to the beach. My favorites among them are the crowns of knobbed whelks and lettered olives. I’ve been collecting shells since I could toddle on the beach. Bill’s always hesitant to take me to the beach for a walk, because I can’t help from picking up every bit of beauty I find. As a child, I picked up everything that was big. Now I prefer to pick up something shiny, colorful or rare. But can be easily persuaded by shape. The lettered olive is the state shell of South Carolina. So it seems appropriate to use them in the central arrangement and scattered around the table. I’ll add a few candles and we’ll have a very beachy theme that will be wonderfully reflective in the candlelight. Related Posts: |
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