Tables of Joy

The holiday season will never be long enough. Arrives on a quick, cold breeze and seems to be gone before I can even consider being entirely pleased with the decorating, inviting, entertaining, and correspondence. Today I told myself I would start in October next year instead of early November. I am anticipate that too will not been soon enough; there are good reasons the magazine and apparel industries work a year ahead: But oh, all the greatness that could be conceived if there were nothing but a perpetual Christmas season for me. I could reach a whole new level of compulsiveness if I never had to stop for another holiday. But I fear guests at the summer solstice party will be put out by Christmas wreaths. In this quirky little corner of the world, however, if you do these odd things for may years in a row while wearing pants with embroidered hounds on corduroy, you become "eccentric" which is far better than, "weird" and a good deal more esteemable than, "cooky." Not, that anyone here in eccentric North Salem misses the party if you are weird or cooky, they just spend a good deal more time remarking on your nuttiness at the post office, Kingsley's, and church.

Alright. But anyhow, Pals of mine. You're here for the goods and while I was largely not cooking this holiday, I made careful notes...

Christmas Eve at my Mother's lovely home was lovely. We do not keep a feast of Seven Fishes but we have traditionally dined on seafood regardless. This was the menu:

Before dinner cocktails in the kitchen:
Egg Nog with Dark Rum
Champagne and Chambord Cocktails
Truffled Mousse with Cornichon
Sopresseta, Cheeses, Crackers, and Breadsticks

Christmas Eve Dinner:
Potted Crab
Steamed Lobster with Drawn Butter
Clams and Mussels in White Whine Broth
Baked Haddock
Panzanella (Tomato Bread Salad)
Triple Chocolate Mousse


Fresh flowers and crackers for the place settings are important to our family tables.
Had we remained in the South on this evening, we would have overflowing bowls of camellia.

The potted crab was only okay, I took this suggestion from another blogger. While it was easy and full of wonderful lump crabmeat, it was not the prettiest or the most time-forgiving when it takes the guests a few minutes to get to the table.

The dishes selected for the drawn butter await await being filled in the kitchen before dinner.

The triple-chocolate mousse is my favorite nostalgic dessert from celebratory and birthday dinners with my family at Crabtree's Kittle House in nearby Mt. Kisco, New York. I will discuss the recipe at Blushing Hostess tomorrow but be advised, when using this method one needs to account for at least a solid hour of time for the dessert to come to room temperature. The dark chocolate layer at the bottom was still a bit harder and colder than I would have liked.

But on the whole, served with melba sauce, it was a delicious, rich, and a stunner.

And this is the Christmas Day dinner table at me sister-in-law Kelly's home last night. Such a grand evening. While I want to recount all of the food to you very accurately, I know I was able to make limited strides in trying all the hors d'oeuvres but they looked fabulous.

Hors d'oeuvres
Sauteed chorizo and mini-crostini
Bread boule with spinach dip
An extensive cheese selection
Cherry Tomatoes with Crab

Dinner:
Prime Rib au Jus
Fresh Pork Roast
Braised Carrots and Green Beans
Pan roasted New Potatoes and Glazed Onions
Chocolate Chip Cake and Whipped Cream
Assorted Pastries

Cocktail Open House Wrap Up: What I have learned

This weekend's party was big and well attended but was intended to be even larger: Twelve people begged off the night before or day of. We won't even discuss those who neither called nor attended. The invite was "regrets only" since the party was an open house which anticipates people coming and going throughout the afternoon. Regrets. As in: If I don't hear from you, I'll see you there. I won't make mention again of how very much I detest waste...

In any event, we have not sent a regrets-only invite in many years around here, and I while I love the concept, we probably will not do this again. We have a couple of other fabulous invites to great annual holiday parties on the fridge and they all require an RSVP by the week before. While none are open houses, the potential for waste in food, set ups, liquor, and space is an equal danger and I would prefer to have these be more accurate at future events.

The subject of whether the culture has ventured too far from good manners to issue a regrets-only invite is beyond the scope of this post but I genuinely hope this is not the case. I know one regimented Navy-spouse hostess who does not fool around on this point: She said she keeps a scrapbook of all her gatherings with her guest lists, menus, photos, and notes. She told me that she returns to her notes on old guest lists and does not reinvites those who have not RSVP'd or showed, "Life is too short," she said, "not to concentrate on inviting those who really would enjoy attending." I find it difficult to disagree but I am still thinking this over. It will take some time to speak to other hostesses and service people and get their feelings on the subject.

We had several passed hors d'oeuvres which found different fates:

1. Pulled pork tostones: The pork shoulder and ten plantains yielded about 8 dozen which was far more than I needed and still left half the pork shoulder unused.

2. Mini antipasto on rosemary skewers: Beautiful and extremely frustrating. They did not thread easily, could not hold both the sopresseta and the cheese causing the cheese which was far too crumbly to need real toothpicks. Myself and several other vinegar lovers really liked the marinade, those who do not care for pickled items did not. This is unavoidable: Not all foods at a party will cater to every palate.

3. Lobster stuffed mushrooms: Were a great hit with guests and yours truly. They were easy to make and freeze, tasty, and perfectly bite sized.

4. Salmon and creme fraiche on buckwheat blini: I just ran out of time on these and did not have the counter space in the two hours before the party to execute this item. I do not feel they were missed. I will probably make these into a great pot luck item for something I am going to this weekend.

In hindsight, I would keep the mushrooms and would certainly make the tostones again for an even larger party. For this number I will reduce the passed items to three items and continue to test recipes for something people enjoyed as much as the mushrooms.

We also had a small-bite buffet on the dining room table intended to be safe at room temperature over several hours:

1. Grilled tenderloin with horseradish sauce and caper toast: Was popular and I thought, delicious. These two peeled tenderloin cuts came from Stew Leonards butcher and I would recommend them to you. The will remove the silver skin and tie them for you.

2. Spiral sliced brown sugar ham with buttermilk biscuits and mustard assortment: There was a lot of discussion in the family before hand as to whether sliced or whole hams have more flavor. It may very well be true the solid ham is the better of the two, however: I am seven months pregnant with a lot of guests to think of, an ambitious labor-intensive menu, and another infant to care for. I no more want to slice up a ten pound hunk of pork than I wanted to make individual souffles for 70! I was okay with the pre-sliced ham and in the end people enjoyed it.
The cheddar and parm biscuits were the most popular and a significant investment in mustard was not at all necessary and I will pass on it the next time.

3. Grilled pineapple display: I thought it was a great food display item and it was tasty but I think it was too intimidating for people who had not seen this method before (very popular in the 1950's and not really since) and they did not know how to approach it. I still love it and will try to put this big crazy thing back in vogue single-handedly.

4. Bread stick and palmier display: Different venues than ones own home can mean different priorities. There was a lot that needed dealt with in the two days before the party which were not food related. Bread sticks and palmiers need to be made the same day and this became impossible. We went with Grissini Bread sticks and a cracker assortment from Balducci's who choose their items painstakingly. They worked fine.

5. Cheese station: One of the issues we had logistically was that we needed to reduce the size of the dining/ buffet table to accommodate more sitting space. We had to pull two large leaves from the table causing us to reduce the space allotment for the two largest space concerns: cheeses and dips. Beautiful displays for these gems require multiple bowls or vessels and eat up space. I was forced to pull the delicious shallot thyme cheese cake and the liver mousse altogether. Margaret suggested I label the cheeses in the future: This goes to the Hostesses own sensitivity to cheese types in the end and I do not have one. I am an equal opportunity cheese consumer and will try anything, I continue to be hopeful others feel likewise.

6. The bar: The punch worked out well and everyone returned for seconds. There was a good deal of booze in the punch but it was not discernible evidently. We had stocked a lot of hard liquor which was not as popular by far as wine and punch, as we suspected. Nonetheless, Mom is a believer that one should always have a stocked bar and mixers on hand and is not comfortable with the concept of well drinks. I have to agree that if you can afford it it is the only way to cover all the booze bases.

That is a brief bit of my thoughts. Tomorrow I will discuss the issue with the rental items once I know the end of the story.

Check in at Blushing Hostess over the next few days for the pictures. Happy party planning, ya'll.

So you want to serve something... Party Planning Crash Course Part 3

Alright then, we will be needing something to eat and drink at this party of ours. Whether you have ten or a hundred people coming to a party, you need to create a menu and the food and service ware in advance. If you are a novice at this sort of work, I suggest you consider committing to this at the time the guest list is created and simultaneously drawing up a work list for yourself against a set timeline.

Here are a few tips for first time do it yourself hostesses after you have set a budget for your spending:

1. Create a manageable menu.
a. If you are alone on party day, consider buffets of food served at room temperature which is small enough for appetizer plates or pretty napkins: You will not run out of oven space, burn things, or have to run around with a canape tray.
b. account for your time in a realistic way: Determine how much you can realistically prepare in advance and freeze, cook in the days and hours before advance, and what should be purchased.
c. Be sure you have enough food and emergency fillers (Cheeses, charcuterie, breads, bread sticks, and crackers. If something goes wrong, these will save you a world of heartbreak.
d. As a rule of thumb, plan for 4 to 6 hors d'oeuvres per person. The less the food displayed, the more hors d'oeuvres you will need. If small desserts are planned,
I plan for two servings per person (I can always wrap up the leftovers and send them with the last guests).
e. If you are on a very strict budget, consider more fruit and veg than meats, cheeses, and fishes or use a cost club to help offset these higher costs.
f. Determine what drinks will be served: Liquor is a significant draw on the budget and I am not a fan of stocked bars unless a caterer is involved with a bartender and liability insurance. It easier and more efficient and cost effective to have a signature drink and/or a punch as well as well drinks (beer, wine, soft drinks, bottled water). Just remember: setting up a bar, mixing punch, and heating ciders takes time for which you will also need to account.

2. Determine how all these items will be served and cleared. You may find you need to reassess the guests and/or menu based on these circumstances:
a. do you have enough room to display all the food you want to serve and allow the guests to move about comfortably at the same time?
b. how many plates, glasses, serving plates, and linens you own and your budget to rent those you don't
c. how much space you have to place these items next to buffets and bars and whether you have room for a bussing table which will make an easy location for guests to place their used items once finished with them
d. your ability to manage used plates and glasses which must be removed right away from whatever odd place the guests have selected to place them.

3. Make a list of the rentals you will need: Dishes, glasses, serving platters, coffee services, bars, heating ovens, linens, tables, chairs. Many party rental companies have websites you can review and a seemingly endless array of beautiful touches for your event. Dish and glass rentals make clean up a breeze since only dishes need rinsed before returning. They will also deliver and pick up for an extra fee. Book as far in advance as you can.

4. Consider whether you need to hire help for that day: Servers, kitchen hands, bartenders, babysitters all need to be booked well in advance. While it pays to make contact with a hard working teenager or two in the neighborhood who can work in the kitchen or sit, caters can arrange for bartenders, cooks, and professional servers or you can contact a local favorite restaurant to see if any of their personnel are interested in a side job on a night off from the restaurant. Based on the help you have been able to secure, review your menu plan once again to be sure it remains manageable.

Returning now to our Tree Trimming Open House, the menu has thus far seen seven iterations and will still likely see a fourth passed selection (one fell out when my trial on turning Alinea's Bacon, Apple, Butterscotch literally went up in a blaze of haute glory) as well as a flushing out of the Milk and Cookie Display (easy to make ahead and freeze). Not to mention changes which will occur when our family reviews the food plan, which, for the Hostess is the stress equivalent of a thesis defense since we are serious foodies and/or partyers. We are considering the following as our menu:

Passed:

1. Marinated Mini Antipasto Skewers
2. Mango and Chicken Jerk Tostones
3. Stuffed Mushrooms with Crab and Porcini

Buffet:

1. Savory Palmier, Homemade Breadsticks and Pretzel Display with Pepper Buttermilk Dip and Hummus
2. Spiral sliced Black Forest Ham with Rosemary and Cheddar Biscuits, Peach Chutney,
Mustard Assortment
3. Beef Tenderloin on Caper Butter Crostini with Horseradish Sauce
4. Hasselback Fingerling Potatoes with Blue Cheese Dip
5. Skewered Grilled Pineapple and Bacon Display
6. Shallot Thyme Cheesecake and Crispy Flatbreads
7. Cheese and charcuterie board

Photo: Martha Stewart Living

Dessert Table:

1. Red Velvet Cake
2. Milk and Cookie Display

Photo: Domino

Bar:

Photo: Martha Stewart Living

1. Red and white wine, rose champangne
2. Punch and Broken Leg Cocktails
3. Soft drinks and bottled waters
4. Coffee service

Photo: Martha Stewart Living