BRINGING BACK THE DINNER PARTY WITH LUSCIOUS DISHES, DÉCOR AND DRINKS
From the category archives:
Wedding planner extraordinaire Mindy Weiss made this short video of home entertaining ideas. I particularly enjoy how extremely over-produced it is – Mindy waking up in her jammies in full hair and makeup? Really? – but still, fun to watch and get a few ideas from an expert!
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Tom Philpott’s solution to our fast food crisis: everyone should learn to cook! Naturally, I feel like I just got a little pat on the back for learning to cook – but then, I’m not someone who typically goes to fast food restaurants (excepting my beloved Taco Bell, obviously).
Take something like cooking skills—it is something that you learn generationally. I don’t want to hark back to some golden age—I mean, Julia Child grew up with servants—and so it isn’t like everyone used to cook and now they don’t. There has always been a class thing around food. But cooking is something that we learn most commonly from our parents, and it is something that can be lost in a single generation. And that skill has been widely lost and regenerating it is no easy task. The culture of convenience is so widespread and ingrained that it will be super hard to change.
His take on the politics of it all is fascinating, and a new viewpoint I haven’t heard before.
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Take a look at these gorgeous flowers on minimalist tables – simple to do and they make just as much of an impression as large bouquets!
http://www.thesweetestoccasion.com/2010/04/tablescape-ideas-from-pale-and-interesting/
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The Economist
I have never made bread at home, probably because I like immediate gratification and bread takes a reeeeally long time. This bakery is inspiring me to develop patience, though.
http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/story/bread-going-green
As customers trickle in and out, many comment on the bread, which tastes pure and anachronistic. It is the kind you wish you could make at home. “I’m so glad someone is making such wonderful sourdough here,” says an elderly man. The sourdough are proved – i.e., left to rise - for up to 48 hours, which allows the bread to develop in flavour and texture. “It’s also healthier,” explains Glendinning, “because as gluten matures it becomes more fragile and easier to digest, unlike supermarket breads.”
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The table covering was just a runner of blue paper, over which I placed ribbon-wrapped candlesticks and a paper-wrapped vase filled with yellow and white flowers.
The candlesticks I wrapped with the cutest yellow and white polka dotted ribbon. Using a lot of double-stick tape, I started at the top and wound it around until the bottom was covered and looked billowy and lovely. SO easy. Just make sure you have a lot of ribbon – I must have used 5 yards per candlestick.
I wrapped the vase with this thick Japanese-style paper that I found, and I think it ended up working really nicely with the polka dot candlesticks. You wrap a vase just like you would a present, and just cut the top corners so you can fold them down with tape and make a clean top edge.
Tomorrow: the brunch menu!
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My family is visiting NYC for the weekend, so naturally we went shopping yesterday while enjoying the perfect spring weather. At Rockefeller Center we found this chocolate shop window: (please excuse the slight fuzziness – all I had was my iphone)
It’s an explosion of jewel tones, of rococo fabric and flowers – and wouldn’t it be fun to just have a table covered in every color under the sun? Forget the color schemes and coordinations: just use COLOR. Love it.
Happy Easter and Passover, everybody!
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For my Easter brunch table, I have the most gorgeous deep robin’s egg blue paper to use as a tablecloth. I’m going to pair it with all shades of yellow, yellow, yellow.
Isn’t it fabulously lucky that mimosas are a light yellow? I think I might make my placecards just be pretty nametags wrapped around the stem of a champagne glass filled with a bubbly mimosa. A lovely way to arrive at a party and find your seat.
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