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Sweet Home Dinner: Thoughts

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Some of my dearest friends are coming over for dinner next weekend. After months of failed attempts to find a night that mutually works for all six of us – with jobs, travel, social schedules, and the usual busy life stuff that everyone has, we’ve finally succeeded.  I’m especially excited because this is the first dinner party I’m throwing after starting Brown Butter & Bourbon, so I’ll write about all the planning and execution from start to finish. These are friends I grew up with in Iowa and after we all scattered around the globe for a while, we all moved to New York.  Because I moved to Jackson Hole during high school, I missed those pre-college years with them, so it has been wonderful to reconnect and get to know each other all over again. It’s such a warm feeling to discover that you already know someone you actually really like and want to hang out with more often!

So, where to start?   Of the five, two are on gluten-free diets and at least one is vegetarian, so this will be a gluten-free veggie meal. I know that to carnivores that sounds like it will be really boring, but come on, guys: just because there’s no meat or wheat doesn’t mean there won’t be filling or have a ton of flavor. Because it’s fall and getting chillier, and because I rarely make soup, I think a lovely soup would be perfect to start. Ellie Krieger makes a butternut squash soup with curry powder, which sounds like it has a spicy kick and switches up the usual squash soup flavors.

Butternut_Squash_Soup_med

Then, a dish that has always gotten rave reviews and is quite filling is tagliatelle baked with gorgonzola and walnuts (sort of a very grownup mac and cheese). Clearly pasta has wheat in it and is therefore forbidden, but I’m thinking of making the dish with rice pasta, which is gluten-free. The only hiccup is that I’ve never tried rice pasta and have no idea what it tastes like, so that’s something I really need to taste before serving it to guests.

If the rice pasta doesn’t substitute well, maybe a little breakfast at dinner with eggs florentine over polenta and baked oven fries on the side. Ooh that sounds good, but I have to think about how to execute poached eggs for six people. Other ideas: eggplant parmesan (too typical?) or a lentil and veggie frittata (with quinoa and maybe a balsamic reduction?).

truffles

Lastly, balsamic vinegar truffles (taking a cue from my Black and White Inspiration), which will be rich enough to end the meal, yet small enough to enjoy without guilt.  I can also make them the day before and then forget about them, which is always a good thing.

I haven’t even gotten to decor yet, though I keep thinking of bouquets of crayons and butcher paper – sometimes decor dictates the menu, but with so many food restrictions, I’m going to figure out the menu first. So: I need to try rice pasta and then make a decision.

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Survivorman Inspiration

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I was watching Survivorman today – yes, I know, I’m supposed to be super girly because I spend time making things look pretty, but strangely enough I also enjoy learning what to do if I’m dropped into an arctic tundra or rainforest by accident – and he was on a rocky beach somewhere that looked very Alaska-like with icebergs not far away.  He hadn’t had food in four and a half days (he’s so much tougher than Bear Grylls, I can’t get over why everyone doesn’t see that) and then he caught four huge Arctic Char in the ocean, cleaned them, and hung them over a branch to air out.  Then he ate the raw meat like sushi.  It was awesome.

This does relate to dinner parties, and not by making sushi.  When he put the bubble-gum-pink fish up on the branch, it was so beautifully contrasted with the grey ocean and huge iceberg cliffs in the background, and I thought, “What a gorgeous table setting on which to serve a pink fish like that.”  It would set the bright color of the fish off perfectly and also give the table a quiet, contemplative, ocean feel which would be lovely for a deep wintry evening.

Clockwise from top left: Brides; Laurie Peacock on Elizabeth Anne Designs; Kate Kelly Photography on Snippet and Ink; Martha Stewart Weddings

For the menu, I’m naturally thinking of an ocean/beachy theme.  Dessert took me a while to choose (feeling that fruit would end the meal nicely, but not sure which fruit), but then I realized our Survivorman could conceivably find berries in the woods and the warm color would look lovely on our grey-blue table.  So, without further rambling:

Survivorman Menu

Starter:

  • Oysters on the half shell with lemon

Entrees:

Dessert:

MMMM so yummy, especially the oysters to start – I’m so obsessed with oysters, and this menu just sounds like it would bring that salty ocean taste with just the right touch of warmth to balance it out.

By the way, did you see that Will Ferrell episode on Man v. Wild?  Bear and Will basically went on a long hike in the snow, climbed down an extremely short litle cliff using a rope, camped out in a shelter that Bear built, had plenty of food and were picked up the next day.  Not exactly Survivorman-level surviving.  Which, fine, he’s a movie star and it was impressive that he even did that.  But instead of acknowledging the semi-lameness and admitting that it was awesome that Will was even out there at all, they spent the ENTIRE time congratulating themselves on how hard-core and intense they were.  It was…ridiculous.  And I’m using a nice word for it.

So Bear dipped even lower in my esteem that day.  However, that said, I would really enjoy being friends with someone named Bear (just think how many conversations you could start with “Well, Bear says…”, “Bear?”, “Oh yeah, you don’t have a friend named Bear?”).  So he can come over for dinner and defend himself any day.  I’ll use this color scheme.

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Black and White Inspiration

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Something about these simple stark white hydrangea bunches against the black dresses is really inspiring me – except as accent colors, black and white are so rarely used on tables.  How fun would it be to have such a dramatic table?

Bonnie Tsang on Snippet and Ink

I LOVE white hydrangeas.  I love all hydrangeas, truthfully, but white ones are so versatile, soft and welcoming.  Using them or another fluffy flower like peonies, rather than a  a more delicate flower like white orchids or roses, will lend the black elements on the table some softness that keeps it from being too stark and Sixties mod.  It’s such a harsh color scheme that I would further soften it by adding wide black ribbons to the vases with big bows and long trailing ends.  Rather than a black or white tablecloth, which would make the table too light or too dark, black napkins draped over the side of the table as placemats would add the black element without overwhelming the entire table, and white plates over them would balance the darkness.  For accent colors, I’d like some gold – perhaps a few burnished gold candlesticks with white taper candles on the table – and a little greenery either in the vases or place cards.  I LOVE these simple pear place cards.  So fall-y and simple, and absolutely gorgeous.

The presentation and style of food could either lean towards the more simple and modern if you want to accentuate the clean lines and stark colors of the table, with a carefully presented salad followed by a simple piece of fish.  Or, you could contrast with the table and warm it up with comfortable food such as roast chicken.  Both could end with homemade passed truffles, which will look beautiful on the black and white table (and I just really want to make them!).

More Modern Menu

More Homey Menu

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Fall in Atlanta Menu

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A few days ago, I watched Anne Burrell make Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Radicchio, Pecorino, and Fried Capers, which looked soooo yummy and perfect for cool weather. It also sounded like it could be paired with a lot of various dishes, which is something I always like when thinking of menus.  It will add the saltiness and bite component to the group.  She paired it with stuffed calamari, but I know a lot of my guests are a bit squeamish about calamari (though I love them) so I generally stay away from such tentacled things in the interest of making all my guests comfortable.

calamariSorry, that photo is really unappetizing. But really, we all need to be comfortable with how our food looks before it’s cooked, right? Consciousness about where our food comes from and all that? I really like eating calamari but wow, it is extremely unattractive. So, moving on to my calamari-free menu…

Cauliflower is kind of a plain vegetable, and I’ve found that many people think they don’t like it because it doesn’t have a definable taste – but really it just takes on the flavors of whatever you add to it, which makes it a lovely base for a dish with strong salty flavors like capers and Pecorino cheese. Anne also swears that roasting the cauliflower and making it all brown and crispy makes it taste heavenly, and we all know how we like browning things here at BB&B!

cauliflower-cocoa-2Khymos

I think this might be just the thing for a meal during my upcoming visit to Atlanta. My dad has a horse farm outside of the city, and it’s a gorgeous place with a few hundred acres on the Chattahoochee River – you would never know you’re half an hour from downtown Atlanta and ten minutes from a huge suburban Whole Foods. It’s so funny: whenever I leave Manhattan, I’m always shocked at how big the grocery stores are! I guess I just get used to the citified tiny sky-high aisles into which they pack everything they can and, while they somehow stack more than you’d expect, it’s impossible for NYC grocers to carry as many products as an enormous genuine classic Americana supermarket. It’s a treat to wander around wide aisles with a cart and buy lots of things that are heavy knowing you don’t have to physically carry them home as I usually do here – just throw them in the car!  It’s so exciting. And then, when you get home, there’s a kitchen with a lot of counter space and a big oven to cook in! It’s really a genius system and very exciting to the city dwelling cook – though it probably seems insane to be so excited about such things to everyone else, and all I have to say is fine, there are definitely some things New York just cannot match (though we do have home delivery and skyscrapers, so there!).

Back door to the house - with Siddy, the world's sweetest but dumbest dog, and a sign I find particularly amusing in light of my dad's extremely hippie past

Back door to the house - with Dewey, the world's sweetest but dumbest dog, and a sign I find particularly amusing in light of my dad's extremely hippie past

So I’m looking forward to a fun weekend in the country with nothing to do except ride horses, cook and sleep.

Fall in Atlanta Menu

The spicy arugula and sweet orange should match well with the salty cauliflower salad, and chicken just sounds goooood. I always like to have a dessert, even with simple family meals, but I don’t know how much time I’ll have to make a complicated dessert and anyway my family is on a super health kick these days (the P90X craze has hit them). So I’m going to go with a simple applesauce made with sweet apples in season and maybe just a little tiny hit of honey only if necessary, but no other sugar added. I might jazz up the whipped cream a bit – I’ll write this recipe as I make it! So stay tuned :)

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