The Art of the Dinner Party

Mind if I just hang around & pick up a few tips from the experts, soz?
Not exactly my forte, either!

I'll be back.

Ah, an expert at last!

one word soz.

Bar-b-q

In the summer that's fine. In the drippy, drizzly, sleety, messy Columbus winters, not so much.

Also the minor point of not owning a barbeque grill.

But maybe that's an investment to make. (Looking forward to the return of Noddy.)

You poor deprived child.

I shall therefore refrain fro giving you my famouse beerburgerbbq recipie lest you are tempted to go out in that ungodly weather and test them out.

I'm flattered at the optimism. I've refused to do dinner parties for the last 45 years because neither the first Mr. Noddy nor the second Mr. Noddy would stay out of the way and let me run things. I still can remember the Secret of Dinner Parties:

Practice.

Before the Department Head (& Wife) are invited, hone your menu on junior faculty members--or even graduate students.

There is no shame in repeating a successful menu--or even doing an unsuccessful menu right the second time. After all, these people aren't coming to dinner every month. Repetition is not necessarily boredom.

Then you can move slowly into variations. Keep the side dishes, but change the entree. Have new sides with a tested entree and a made ahead desert.

Surely you aren't the only Junior Faculty Wife at the University to be struggling with "grown up" menus? A bit of research might uncover someone with whom you could swap "maid" duties with to cover last minute preparations.

Cooking ahead is a good idea. In my world any advance preparation that clears the decks so that a disaster can be redeemed, is pure genius. I count on disasters.

At other people's dinner parties, keep an eye out for your hostess's little tricks and short cuts--and by all means, ask for advice. People love giving advice and sharing wisdom.

Practice.

Dinner party fool signing in...

I cooked for a holiday party where I invited 125 people, ok, I already said I was a fool, and something like 119 showed up... to my one bedroom second story over a house apartment. Luckily I'd invited the landlords who lived downstairs. They forgave me. I cooked up a storm, but it was buffet style and not serious dinner party foo foo.

I cooked for my own wedding party - fool of another sort - for about 45 people, again buffet. That was probably around the time of ... damn, I'll remember the book's title in a bit. Started with S.. back when I remember the name. Aha, the first Silver Palate cookbook by Rosso and Lutkins -

Silver Palate I

My idea of a dinner party is max ten people and preferably something like six.
Doing a real dinner for something like 40 is both very expensive and a giant extravaganza re time and thought.

Given you may have something like, oh, 22, it's still a big deal.
Makes me think of the old chile relleno casserole recipe...

Personally, I like control, re theme as opposed to this and then that.

On the more formal side, it's tricky orchestrating a meal around, say, 22 different sets of preferences re Eek, Fish; Meat, Immoral; Veggies, Overcooked, what are these Concrete things? You expect me to eat soup standing up? Pasta is fattening, I won't touch it. Ewwwwww, cream cheese is wiggly...; Salad is for Rabbits...

Have fun...

I can hear the faint whispers coming from up above the ceiling fan. They're chanting "Caaaaatering. Caaatering, Soz," and have a distinctly Canadian accent.



I really miss Cav when these kinds of questions come up.

Starting to think of old fashioned biggish dishes -
chicken cacciatori, reheated; beef stroganoff, Danish meatballs. Macaroni and cheese casserole. Previously made big pan of lasagna.
Something I like but probably no one else will - Potato, hot ital sausage, cabbage casserole; thinking of Dys, pinto beans with ham (send 'em off farting away).

Several lemon chickens (see my thread re Bugialli recipe), some poached salmon, some cheese souffles...

for foolproof cheese souffle, there is a recipe in the OLD joy of cooking, the one around 1971, that involves bread in the souffle. Can't really do at the last minute for many. Cheese souffle wouldn't work but maybe something like corn pudding would.

Well, never mind.

Our A2K expert is UL, she really knows what she is doing re dinner parties.

I haven't gone over 8 adults yet -- I don't think I have the facilities for more than that for a sit-down dinner. (Perhaps dinner party isn't the right phrase, I basically mean a gathering where dinner is served and good silver is used and there are more than four adults.) Buffet could work for a really biggie though.

Noddy, with a few of these people we do get together more than once a month, sometimes as often as 2 or 3 times a month. The wife in one couple is a Very Good Cook, from Poland, who loads the table with dish upon dish and all of them scrumptious. They keep insisting ordered-in pizza would be fine when they come here but I just can't.

I do ask her for tips but her recipes are extremely complicated and she's been cooking them for 20 years or something. She does repeat, though, which gives me courage to repeat if I hit on something particularly good.

Practice, yes. At home too, without the party, just getting more used to this kind of thing. 10 seems like a lot of meals to me but in the scheme of things I know it's a bare flash in the pan.

I was talking to E.G. about this and he reminded me how much cooking he's done, too, including orchestrating one whole meal that turned out very well. He reassured me that he considers this stuff equally if not more his responsibility since they're "his" friends/ co-workers (though several of them are mutual friends now). He also reassured me that this one uberwife notwithstanding (I do like her a lot though, don't want to hold her culinary prowess against her), there was a party I missed recently where the guy did almost all the cooking, that there isn't a general expectation of the wife being responsible for this stuff. Good.

My amnesia re: E.G.'s participation in meal planning and preparation gave me an idea that I like, starting some sort of cooking journal. What we served, how it went, what turned out well and what could be improved.

But yes, practice, that's the heart of it, I'm sure you're right. If I want to feel natural I just gotta do it more.

Butrflynet. Maybe when our ship comes in. And for the big parties, later on especially (tenure, department chair, whatever), probably. But for these smaller reciprocal gatherings, home-made food feels more appropriate.

Maybe I should start a whole 'nother thread on the faculty spouse business. Sometimes it feels as codified and regimented as being a Geisha...

Ooh, Osso, bring on the recipes. That's definitely 90% of my angst. What to prepare that's tasty, not too complicated, will be enough for everyone, and can be prepared ahead of time...?

Your recipe too, dadpad. We can get a barbecue. They do seem handy.

A lot of those dishes Osso mentioned are ideal candidates for a slow cooker. That would help you find a lot of extra time for preparation of the table and the rest of the house.

Variations on the fondue theme are always good. You can make savory sauces for veggies, have a pot of hot oil for frying meat on skewers and have a chocolate fountain with fruit for dessert. All can be prepped ahead.

A lot of what I just rattled off is very old fashioned.
Now that I know what you mean by dinner party, I'll think harder. Some of my best successes have been spontaneous... often risottos (but I don't mind cooking while people mill) or pastas with salads. Which reminds me of the time I overcooked the pasta - which I rarely do, really, really - during the last game of the world series...

Lemon chicken, previously mentioned
Roast chicken with balsamic vinegar...
Or, the famous 40 garlic cloves roast chicken,
or roast chicken stuffed with lemon and onion...
This is of course dead in the water with a vegetarian guest.

mashed potatoes
green beans (various ways to do those)
perhaps a small soup dish first, or simple salad, say butter lettuce and good home made dressing.. or both.
Ice cream or sorbet, from store, for dessert.

There was the after theater party when the director was crazed at one in the morning for tempura, and a bunch of us went to the store and he orchestrated the almost disaster.



I've been known to get everybody helping make homemade noodles...

Really, it sort of depends on the people...

I can easily see doing a whole wok thing. In fact, one of our landarch parties was put on by one of the students, a sophisticated and wealthy woman who had two built in woks in her kitchen island...
anyway, she was a fabulous cook; woks are fun. Stir fry is fun. Practice first.

I used to cook trout a lot and it's not expensive. Buncha people don't like fish though.

Paul Bocuse's scalloped potato recipe, reheated for party (it involves heating milk, and using a thin-slicer to slice potatoes into heated milk, then putting them in caserole dish, very simple, probably involves some salt and pepper and butter. Me, I'd add paprika once in casserole dish.
I can't quote the recipe, that's one cookbook that went in exhub's stack...

I've done my share of dinner parties - formal and informal, but I've stopped
years ago and am a bit rusty.

I usually had several small courses, always nicely decorated, and they
seemed to work well.

Salad can be prepared ahead and put already individually on plates,
soups can be made days ahead and just reheated. Side dishes are
easy and fast prepared in the microwave.

I also like to cook lamb, duck, etc. in the oven along with potatoes
and other vegetables. It usually gives a better taste and everything
cooks at once.

Your best tool will be a hand held blender for making great creamy
soups, and excellent tasting sauces, plus it goes quickly.

Dessert: buy a sponge cake, frozen raspberries and a good vanilla ice cream
(none of that nonfat substitutes). While you microwave the
raspberries, cut sponge cake into pieces, put some ice cream on
top and the hot raspberries on top. Takes 5 min and tastes great,
yet is not too filling.

Appetizer: Cheese/meat trays are as decorative as they are simple to prepare in advance. Bruschetta with a hint of mint is almost as durable and a bit fancier.

Dinner: Pillsbury pop-open rolls are a no-brainer and universally enjoyed by all. Slow cooked Prime Rib, and baked potatoes are as delicious as they are damn near effortless. A meat thermometer pretty much guarantees good results and it's tough to mess up a baked potato. Flash-fry the thinnest asparagus you can find in copious amounts of butter with a hint of garlic at the last minute. If being watched; glaze pan with a tiny bit of white wine and you'll look gourmet (yes tiny; you don't want to actually taste it :wink:) Add sliced almonds to complete the gourmet facade. Pre-dish sour cream, butter and fresh horseradish and you're done. If vegetarians will be present; cook fettuccini in advance until it's almost done, then shock it with cold water. 60 seconds in boiling water will finish it and any jar of marinara will suffice. (Alfredo is better; but requires more attention and it will not keep.) A dry red wine matches both meat and red sauce (but you'll want a chardonnay if you do Alfredo). Kendal Jackson or Clos du Bois are universally available, reasonably priced and dependable. Novices will enjoy them and even experts will respect the choice. (They don't really go bad, so DON'T RUN OUT).

Dessert: A quality ice-cream cake pleases every time! (Banana flavored with a dessert glass of EOS's Late harvest Moscato would be sure to impress.)

Know where your kitchen towels are and keep extra napkins handy for the occasional spill... in order to minimize the embarrassing mishap's distraction. Kleenex should be conspicuously placed and at least one waste can assessable. A jar of mints is never a bad never a bad idea, either.

Less light from more sources is always better and candles are the best. Easy listening background music eliminates uncomfortable silences and paves the way to turn up the "party" should you choose to do so after dinner… the louder you play music, the louder your guests have to speak--> which in turn somehow makes them think they're having more fun. Really :wink: Adjust subliminally for maximum effect.

Gee, nine at night and now I want cake and ice cream and raspberries...







which reminds me, there is a raspberry chicken recipe that is a nice one in that Silver Palate book.