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:

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.