Pictures from our party appear at Blushing Hostess Entertains as well as wrap-up thoughts and the some of the lessons I learned. Swing by.
Check back here for a the recipes we enjoyed and some interesting cost comparisons.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
The way of things
Nothing stays to precisely to plan. What a lovely world I would have if it did. As the party approaches tomorrow I am reminded that flexibility will save a hostess when a lot of preparation and careful planning did not. I might have a list of complaints but instead I am pleased to mention that we overcame things which might have crippled another hostess with 24 hours to go (the menu appears here):
1. The rosemary sprigs available from two sources were either too wide or too soft and greenstick to make good skewers for both my marinated provolone and salami. Which was moot anyhow because the provolone was to crumbly to fuss with.
Solution: Salami stays on rosemary skewers in a variety of girths and the provolone goes on festive toothpicks.
2. The tablecloth I wanted was in the attic. I am very pregnant and my husband is deployed. the bottom staircaise step is broken and no one has been around all night. I cannot chance that I would fall and hurt myself leaving no one to care for my tiny girl nor hurt the child on the way. Therefore, I drafted a beautiful blanket we have long loved and decided I was glad for the change.
3. All of the tenderloin turned out rare regardless of what the meat thermometer read. One had to go back in and then be wrapped tightly in foil to come up to medium. That was after I maligned Stew Leonard's about the amount of fat still on the thing.
4. I wish the red velvet cupcakes were a little more moist because that is always the problem with red velvet cakes. I used another bloggers recipe which she raved about but should have used the non-traditional one I developed in the spring. It avoids this issue and others. I need to trust my gut implicitly.
5. The rentals arrived and I was disappointed with the wine cooler: I picked hammered steel and received an inexpensive and aesthetically lacking item instead. I have to remember always to check the cases before they leave the vendor. As luck would have it, our vendor here is top notch and they will switch it out tomorrow. Secondly, the coffee samovar silver plate is chipped in several places which is not great when you pay for the beautiful coffee dispenser and get something busted up anyway. Such is the nature of rentals, I suppose...
6. No matter what, guests will do things that make being the hostess harder. I can and will write volumes on this at Blushing Hostess Entertains but here is a tip to be sure you are always invited back: When you get the invite, respond promptly.
The day before or of the party, the food and set ups have been delivered or the caterer has already received a count. The booze has already been brought in. For the most part all the work has been done. And as you know, there is nothing the hostess detests more than waste (dirty, dirty word). Unless there is a sickness or the like, the last minute call out or not turning up at all are both not good.
I know a hostess who makes an excellent beef wellington and another excellent point: Those who call and say they may or may not "stop by" are the worst sort of guest. The point of being invited is not to keep all of ones' options open. One either is a guest or not, but not both. She is relentless in pinning people down and I would do the same if I had the nerve.
Catch you tomorrow.
1. The rosemary sprigs available from two sources were either too wide or too soft and greenstick to make good skewers for both my marinated provolone and salami. Which was moot anyhow because the provolone was to crumbly to fuss with.
Solution: Salami stays on rosemary skewers in a variety of girths and the provolone goes on festive toothpicks.
2. The tablecloth I wanted was in the attic. I am very pregnant and my husband is deployed. the bottom staircaise step is broken and no one has been around all night. I cannot chance that I would fall and hurt myself leaving no one to care for my tiny girl nor hurt the child on the way. Therefore, I drafted a beautiful blanket we have long loved and decided I was glad for the change.
3. All of the tenderloin turned out rare regardless of what the meat thermometer read. One had to go back in and then be wrapped tightly in foil to come up to medium. That was after I maligned Stew Leonard's about the amount of fat still on the thing.
4. I wish the red velvet cupcakes were a little more moist because that is always the problem with red velvet cakes. I used another bloggers recipe which she raved about but should have used the non-traditional one I developed in the spring. It avoids this issue and others. I need to trust my gut implicitly.
5. The rentals arrived and I was disappointed with the wine cooler: I picked hammered steel and received an inexpensive and aesthetically lacking item instead. I have to remember always to check the cases before they leave the vendor. As luck would have it, our vendor here is top notch and they will switch it out tomorrow. Secondly, the coffee samovar silver plate is chipped in several places which is not great when you pay for the beautiful coffee dispenser and get something busted up anyway. Such is the nature of rentals, I suppose...
6. No matter what, guests will do things that make being the hostess harder. I can and will write volumes on this at Blushing Hostess Entertains but here is a tip to be sure you are always invited back: When you get the invite, respond promptly.
The day before or of the party, the food and set ups have been delivered or the caterer has already received a count. The booze has already been brought in. For the most part all the work has been done. And as you know, there is nothing the hostess detests more than waste (dirty, dirty word). Unless there is a sickness or the like, the last minute call out or not turning up at all are both not good.
I know a hostess who makes an excellent beef wellington and another excellent point: Those who call and say they may or may not "stop by" are the worst sort of guest. The point of being invited is not to keep all of ones' options open. One either is a guest or not, but not both. She is relentless in pinning people down and I would do the same if I had the nerve.
Catch you tomorrow.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
48 hours and counting
And as you will remember, the Hostess is in thick of possibly the greatest hostessing experiment ever conducted in Northern Westchester: Catering one's own holiday nibble party for 70 guests. In Hostess Heaven, a number of Bedford hostesses who contributed to my abilities are clapping while several others of the live-variety are animated with fear on my behalf saying, "Are you crazy? Why would you do that?" and, "You know you can call William Nicholas, I won't breathe a word to anyone."
Crazy like a perfectly capable hostess, maybe. Crazy, like a hostess who has turned over desserts bought at William Nicholas only to discover a wide swath of mold. Crazy, like a person quite certain she can do the job better.
Crazy busy, also. As you know, the menu is finger food and this is hands-down the most labor intensive of all party types. And at dawn today the height of the food work began:
1. Pork shoulder in jerk sauce I made earlier in the week went to braise forever. These will eventually become the pulled pork in the mini tostones and jerk sandwiches.
2. The plantains were peeled, sliced, and fried-blanched off for the same mini sandwiches:
Crazy like a perfectly capable hostess, maybe. Crazy, like a hostess who has turned over desserts bought at William Nicholas only to discover a wide swath of mold. Crazy, like a person quite certain she can do the job better.
Crazy busy, also. As you know, the menu is finger food and this is hands-down the most labor intensive of all party types. And at dawn today the height of the food work began:
1. Pork shoulder in jerk sauce I made earlier in the week went to braise forever. These will eventually become the pulled pork in the mini tostones and jerk sandwiches.
2. The plantains were peeled, sliced, and fried-blanched off for the same mini sandwiches:
That's my coffee. It was really early.
3. Pineapples were trimmed, cut, bathed in maple syrup, butter, and lime juice and then dipped in brown sugar and lime zest before being grilled off.
4. Provolone and salami were cut and prepped in like-size bites to be added to the marinade from #5. for the mini-antipasto on rosemary skewers.
5. The marinade for the anti-pasto was finished and the cheese and salami added. They will marinate until Saturday when they will be strung on the rosemary.
6. The rosemary skewers were cut into 4" lengths and lower leaves stripped:
7. The shallot thyme cheesecake for the cheeseboard was made and baked off.
8. The cream cheese frosting was made and red velvet cupcakes were defrosted and
iced. Here they are waiting for their hats:
Then they were wrapped with Christmas ribbons and tried out in their stands. I hate it. Still thinking on this on. Try this exercise at home, you will have new respect for the Martha Stewart Living food stylists:
Understanding that these are not on the display where they will be served and that the tiered tray was undecorated and you are looking at the aesthetic WIP, there was still a lot to refine: I went through four platters until I finally found a Spode of the perfect size and I settled on small faux-holly to lace the bottom tier.
9. The lime meltaways were baked off and coated.
10. The pulled pork was transferred, covered, and placed in the fridge. I find it easier to deal with once it is refrigerated. The cooking liquid was separated for tomorrows sauce reduction.
Now I need to rest. Because I also cleaned and moved furniture, danced and ate apples on the floor with my eighteen-month old while laughing at Dora, emailed by deployed hero of a husband all kinds of pictures of all this happy activity and my daughter using the big dog as a pillow, and marveled at how much a my nearly seventh month along pregnancy can slow me down...
Good night, Pals. I surely have enjoyed visiting with you, as always.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Another Haunting of Bobby Flay's Dazzling Bat Cave (aka Mesa NYC)
Before Bobby Flay was a Food Network icon he was a New York restaurateur. A good one at that. A lot of people from all over go to his places now and I doubt many leave disappointed no matter how far aloft his cooking star has become.
My good friends and I begin each holiday season with a drink and some nibbles in the bar at Mesa Grill in New York City. There are a million places in our fair city this ritual could be held with satisfaction but we like Mesa because the place never lost the appeal of a place that does everything well but is completely over itself and having enough of a good time to allow the guests to have one as well.
And then they have the cocktail. The one we have at times travelled and traversed to get to: The Cactus Pear Margarita.
I love this photo because it has the dazzling, gauzy, glamorous glow of evenings in New York in this glittering holiday season.
I took this photo to my right at the end of the long bar where Dori and Becca sat. Had I turned to my left, had I not been someone who goes to Mesa now and then, had I not been a native New Yorker, had I been a person willing to be star struck over a guy you'll see around in New York... I would have leaned over to where Booby Flay stood next to me and said: Can I take a photo of you? But I am none of those things and he was tied up with a constant stream of people approaching him to get their Mesa Grill cookbooks signed and get a picture taken with Bobby Flay. Surely they had come a long way to New York in this fine season and were thrilled to find Chef working the floor in his own place. If it becomes pressing, I will ask next time. In the meantime Linda from Ohio's trip would not be complete without memorializing the moment she stood shoulder to shoulder with a legend.
So many flashes went off next to us for this holiday gathering that we were certain to be the most photographed bystanders in New York last Friday night. I will laugh if in future years tourist photos surface of Bobby Flay, that awkward girl who desperately tried to get his attention and a photo, and our shoulders in the background. Could that have been our fifteen minutes?
Because of the flashes we really had to work to sneak in a picture or two of our bar nosh addiction, the Mesa Grill Pretzel:
We had some delicious snacks which I highly recommend when you get to Mesa, which you should at least once in this life: Blue Corn Pancake with BBQ Duck and Habenero Sauce, Blue Corn Crusted Squid, BBQ'd Country Ribs with Mango Habanero Glaze, and BBQ's Pork and Oaxaca Cheese Quesdilla with with Hot + Sweet Cabbage Relish. For dessert we had some delicious strong dark coffee to go with our chocolate souffle pudding with pecan flatbread accompanied by a bowl of sweetened whipped cream and then and finally the Cookie Plate.
Delicious. Glamorous. Glittering. And star lit. Get there if you can.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Wiping the buckwheat batter from my cheek...
I realize the depth of my resolve. I know the truth of my heart: I can and will pump out a cocktail buffet for 70 with nary a chipped nail nor flyaway. But I will not arrive at that place until Saturday and the truth until then is this: If you do this it will help you to appreciate your caterer. Or, to feel victorious when all are assembled and happily noshing on their Jerked Pork with Chutney on Plantains and Tenderloin on Caper Crostini. I, for one will leap upon the granite, sparkling cider in hand, and proclaim the ability of Hosts and Hostesses everywhere. This would be so much easier to accomplish were I not nearly seven months pregnant!
But, why? Why does your Hostess insist on not calling the two fine caterers she has long nudged into action on her behalf? Why would the Hostess tempt the gods of entertaining disaster by coordinating, cooking, and baking entirely by herself knowing her absolute penchant for perfection and correctness?
For you, Cher. Because someone needed to try to prove this can be done at home by someone other than a professional. Because worse days than these could come our way and I want you to feel confident that you can do the work of exorbitant caterers, party planners, and florists.
I don't want you to look at Martha Stewart and Ina Garten and believe they are Hostesses of another caliber than you. However, I also don't want to fool you into believing not sweating the details nor trying to perfect any undertaking is an acceptable way to go about doing anything.
If, at this very moment you feel as though you could not run the entertaining equivalent of a laundromat, you are not alone. I am not with you but I receive emails, calls, and homing pigeon advises from those in the laundromat with you. It is my goal to encourage you to take those first steps towards counting on yourself as much as any professional, thus freeing you from shying away from having people in, in a time when it certainly could do all our hearts a world of good.
The only way to be great at this is to wade in as often as you can manage it. Call someone up, invite them over, make something, pour something, sweat it because it does matter how you receive another, and learn that you can enjoy it at the same time.
I will be back momentarily with photos, notes, and tales from the front lines of do-it-yourself large party planning and execution, but if you forgive me just now, the blini need wrapped and frozen...
But, why? Why does your Hostess insist on not calling the two fine caterers she has long nudged into action on her behalf? Why would the Hostess tempt the gods of entertaining disaster by coordinating, cooking, and baking entirely by herself knowing her absolute penchant for perfection and correctness?
For you, Cher. Because someone needed to try to prove this can be done at home by someone other than a professional. Because worse days than these could come our way and I want you to feel confident that you can do the work of exorbitant caterers, party planners, and florists.
I don't want you to look at Martha Stewart and Ina Garten and believe they are Hostesses of another caliber than you. However, I also don't want to fool you into believing not sweating the details nor trying to perfect any undertaking is an acceptable way to go about doing anything.
If, at this very moment you feel as though you could not run the entertaining equivalent of a laundromat, you are not alone. I am not with you but I receive emails, calls, and homing pigeon advises from those in the laundromat with you. It is my goal to encourage you to take those first steps towards counting on yourself as much as any professional, thus freeing you from shying away from having people in, in a time when it certainly could do all our hearts a world of good.
The only way to be great at this is to wade in as often as you can manage it. Call someone up, invite them over, make something, pour something, sweat it because it does matter how you receive another, and learn that you can enjoy it at the same time.
I will be back momentarily with photos, notes, and tales from the front lines of do-it-yourself large party planning and execution, but if you forgive me just now, the blini need wrapped and frozen...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
