What started as dinner for an out-of-towner friend grew to include my sister and her husband, my lovely friend and neighbor from up the street, and even more out-of-towner friends. Before I knew it, Sebastian and I were pulling off never-before feats, squeezing in eight people at our little dining room table and serving three courses on a Thursday. Who knew school nights could be so fun?
Dan introduced himself to me by whipping up a peach caipirinha from my parents’ scanty liquor cabinet offerings. He had driven out to the farm in a rental convertible to meet his best friend’s new girl (that’s me). I asked him some very uptight question about where he learned so much about “mixology,” and he shrugged off an answer about “trial and error.”
Continue reading “Guest Cook: Dan’s 3 Course Italian Meal” »
When I read Elsa Maxwell’s informative romp How To Do It or The Lively Art of Entertaining earlier this summer, I doggeared approximately 47 pages for future reference. One of these pages contains advice on invitations for “the city woman who entertains often, at home, and with some degree of formality.” Let us say that this city woman is me. According to Miss Maxwell, it would serve me well to have 4×5 inch cards engraved as fill-in-the-blank invitations: Miss Sarah McColl requests the pleasure of [so-and-so's] company [for cocktails, luncheon, etc] on [such-and-such a day and time.]
Continue reading “Not Just Cardstock and Letterpress” »
If you’ve ever taken an early supper during which the restaurant staff changes the lighting scheme over from all-business lunch to starry-eyed dinner, you know that your dining companions instantly become twice as attractive. You don’t need a McMansion with dimmer switches in every room for an intimate effect; the basic element of fire will serve you quite well.
Continue reading “Fire With Fire: Simplest Lanterns” »
If there is one message I have hoped to impart on Pink of Perfection, it’s that life is too short to fuss. I lack the patience to fiddle with precious crafts and finger foods. While this means I am usually more than ready to roll out the drink tray as soon as guests arrive (and sample as much as I shake), it also means that I am forced to offer something humble like brownies for dessert. One topic we have not yet broached on POP, however, is the art of deception. Surely, it is possible to prepare confections that dazzle your guests, but are simple enough to whip up after you’ve had a few manhattans. Enter my two new heroes: Clinton Kelly and the cream puff.
Continue reading “Guest Cook: Clinton Kelly’s Cream Puffs” »
The only thing better than cooking for your friends is having your friends cook for you. And better still are those kinds of dinners when you show up – not with the hors d’oeuvres neatly arranged while cocktails are shaking things up in the kitchen – but when the cook is just clicking into action. The kitchen is my favorite room to hang out in, but it’s especially nice to lean against your friend’s windowsill drinking a beer while something is simmering on the stove. It’s all the comfort of being at home without the dysfunction of your family!
Continue reading “Guest Cook: Gregor’s Chicken Pot Pie” »
I recently took the F train to heaven: a trimming store in New York’s fashion district with thirty foot ceilings and ribbons as far as the eye could see. They had unknown yards of velvet, silk, vintage, organza, grosgrain stripes, solids and polka dot ribbons (and this is to say nothing of the bolts of lace, tassels and some true trimming oddities). I was like Maria von Trapp spinning wildly in the hills of Austria; it really took all my self-restraint to not grab a world-weary shopkeeper by her shoulders, shake her, and exclaim that she works in the best place on earth.
This month, POP is giving to Girls Write Now.
