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This fuchsia and taupe table is just lovely, especially with the sand-colored glassware and monochromatic table. The pink is so heavenly that it would work against any white or neutral tableware, which most of us have. It’s a bit reminiscent of my Rose-Colored Inspiration, and that menu would work equally well with the brighness of this fuchsia table.

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Menu for a Rose-Colored Table

• Starter:
  • Spiced Nuts
• Entrees:
  • Polenta with Soft-Boiled Egg
  • Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranate Seeds and Walnuts
  • French bread with Chive Herb Butter
• Dessert:
  • Red Velvet Cake or Blueberry Crisp

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I’ve been trying to invent a margarita that doesn’t have any real sugar and actually tastes good. It’s been so tough, guys: I’ve been working on it and working on it . . . and working, and working some more because you really never know when a little tweak will make a drink far better and the only way to know is to taste every single test cocktail multiple times. Quality control is serious here at BB&B. Don’t let anyone ever tell you throwing parties isn’t terribly hard work.

Lime juice is stultifyingly sour, and there’s no way around needing a sweetener if this drink is going to taste good. I used Splenda as the sweetener, but please use Stevia or Equal or whatever your sugar substitute of choice is – or if you want a little real stuff, go for the honey or agave syrup. Whatever you like best.

Furthermore, if you’re a regular follower you know that I like cocktails stiff and tart. I used 2 teaspoons of Splenda in mine, and it made for a tart drink but still very quaffable. If you prefer sweeter cocktails, start with 3 teaspoons and keep adding until it tastes ridiculously yummy to you.

Raspberry-Lime Skinny Margaritas

• 4 raspberries
• 2-5 teaspoons Splenda
• juice from 1 lime
• 2 ounces (1 shot glass) good silver tequila
• 4 ounces (2 shot glasses) sparkling water

Place raspberries in a sturdy-bottomed glass and add the Splenda. Muddle together with a muddler or the back of a spoon.

Add lime juice, tequila and sparkling water and mix thoroughly. Pour into a pretty glass, if you like that sort of thing, and enjoy.

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Now, I’m not really a pink kind of girl. I rarely use the color and even more rarely wear it, but in the right situation and with the exact right shade of pink, it works for me. And it works even better in the dead of cold, hideous winter when everyone wants some warmth and friendliness in their life. This shade of perfectly pale pink gives winter some color without being garishly too much.

The pinks, gold, touches of glass green and a little cheery yellow/orange make me so happy!

I would use this color scheme for a girls luncheon, a baby shower, or for a more uncommon gathering, an afternoon tea for absolutely no good reason at all. Wouldn’t it be lovely to cover the table in a very pale pink tablecloth and gold candlesticks, then use a few tiny bud vases filled with kosher salt to hold up lollipops and name cards (or if you’re really ambitious, as in the inspiration board: cupcake pops)? I’d add just a few touches of green or blue glass vases or water glasses for some pop against the pink, et voila – you’re done. Nothing to it.

Add some friends, an assortment of tea sandwiches and champagne with a raspberry at the bottom of the glass, and it’ll be a lovely party.

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She just sold her debut novel for six figures to Grand Central Publishing. The folks there are either incredibly lucky or insanely smart – or both – because The Girl in the Garden is going to be huge.  I was lucky to read it for the first time several months ago because (full disclaimer!) the author is my best friend.  I started it just before bed, planning to do some nice sleepy reading for a few chapters, then go to sleep and finish it later.  I had to be up in the morning fairly early, and I was tired.  Well: two hours later I looked at the clock and realized it was really late and I’d better go to bed ASAP to have any chance at a functional tomorrow – and I still could NOT put it down!  I read until it was done because I absolutely could not go to sleep without knowing what happened.  It was completely worth it.  It’s a beautifully written family drama that will thrill and delight you, worry you, surprise you and keep you turning the pages until there aren’t any left.  So, buy it!  Though this is rather early – it will probably come out in summer 2011 – but never fear, I will remind you then quite incessantly.

Ahhhh....summertime reading....

Here is the official synopsis from Publisher’s Marketplace: “Kamala Nair’s THE GIRL IN THE GARDEN, the redemptive journey of a young woman unsure of her engagement, who revisits in memory the events of one scorching childhood summer when her beautiful yet troubled mother spirits her away from her home to an Indian village untouched by time, where she discovers in the jungle behind her ancestral house a spellbinding garden that harbors a terrifying secret.”

The Girl in the Garden will be a fantastic book club selection because there are so many controversial characters that can’t be pigeonholed into good/bad – people will have a lot of different opinions, I think.  Which, naturally, would make for a great dinner party or cocktail party.  I love themed parties like this, but hate for them to be too obviously connected to their inspiration.  For example, the novel is primarily set in India, but serving only Indian food would just be so expected.  And we don’t ever want to be predictable, do we!?  I won’t give much away, but there are other elements of the novel that gave me inspiration with a twist – two primary themes are inner beauty and childhood.  My menu is below, and flexibly works for either hors d’oeuvres or a casual dinner party (everyone will have to feel comfortable about eating with their hands).  You’ll have to read the book to truly understand why I chose these dishes ;)

• Samosas
• Hot Peel and Eat Shrimp with Saffron Parsley Butter
• Arugula with Pineapple and Pine Nuts, served in the pineapple
• Wedding Cake

I started with samosas, because although they are obviously Indian food, I love them and I refuse to leave them out.  We also needed a little something Indian in the menu.  The shrimp reminds me of the tropical climate of Kerala and in their skins, they are ugly on the outside but wonderful on the inside; a major theme of the book.  Also, you have to eat the samosas and shrimp with your hands, tearing off the unattractive outer covering to get to the tastiness inside, which takes us back to childhood and obviously follows our theme of inner beauty.  The plating of the pineapple salad follows it as well and is evocative of the garden wall, and since the fruit itself has a prickly skin but is sweet inside, it too adds to our theme.  Pineapple is also a tropical fruit, and – an aside – I thought I didn’t like pineapple until I went to Kerala and someone convinced me to try one.  Oh my goodness, I can still remember how sweet that pineapple was.  I’ve been completely converted to pineapple ever since, and love using it in non-fruit salad ways.  Finally, wedding cake (which is really any cake you feel like making as long as you decorate it nicely) for the ending the main character hopes to have – plus, back to our childhood theme: everyone likes cake.

Martha Stewart Weddings

I would serve this on a table designed with a combination of whimsy and practicality.  It’s going to be a messy meal, and one napkin is not going to hold up to that shrimp.  So, two strategically placed paper towel dispensers placed on the table where the candles would usually go will be amusing and purposeful!  Then, with the white paper towels keeping it from getting too crazy, dress up the rest of the table with color: bright pinks, yellows, blues, reds, oranges.  This would be a great time to use the idea of aluminum cans (labels removed) or old jars as vases, again bringing us back to childhood and a casual feeling, and the colors are evocative of India without going overboard with the connection.

Images on left from Martha Stewart Weddings and on right from Snippet and Ink

This is neither a table nor menu that would make sense served without a connection to The Girl in the Garden, and it’s so fun to have inspiration come from extraordinary stories like this one.  I can’t wait for it to be published so everyone can read it!

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It was gorgeous and a wonderful evening. Alexis was down from Connecticut for the day and stopped by to stay hi while I was stringing the flowers for the ceiling. Of course I invited her to stay for dinner, and she was such a wonderful addition to our party – and got to hear lots of stories about Fairfield (where we all grew up) that either scared or intrigued her! Ha!

It’s an artistic group, so it was really fun to create a colorful table with bouquets of color pencils over brown craft paper that begged to be drawn on. I used it as the easiest place cards ever – just wrote everyone’s names above their plates.

The flowers were simple, but added a punch of color. I bought four bunches of carnations in yellow and three shades of pink, and kept each color in its own vase rather than mixing them. It made the flowers look cohesive and at the same time, with the colored pencils, made the table as a whole very colorful.

I then strung blossoms on three long strands of thread and hung them from the ceiling for something more festive and with a little bit of South Asian flair.

We made gorgeous doodles.

And the food…Anna brought her gorgeous macaroons made with organic sweetened condensed milk, but I was so consumed with eating them that I completely forgot to take a photograph. Just imagine perfectly browned, chewy golden macaroons, and you’ll have a good sense of how lovely they were. Please continue for the post-mortem on my dishes.

Everything turned out really well except for the haricots verts, which I didn’t cook quite long enough.

I prepped as much as I could earlier in the day. It took me about 2.5 hours to clean mushrooms and chop walnuts for the pasta, make the zucchini rollup appetizer, make the butternut squash soup, do the dishes and clean up the kitchen. I then mostly followed my plan for the evening, except that I totally forgot to take the soup out of the fridge on time. Instead, I remembered and started heating it at the same time I put the pasta in the oven. However, luckily, the soup heated very quickly and the pasta took longer than expected to bake, so it all worked out just fine and we did have dinner fairly on time – I think we started eating a little after 8, which to me is a win for my 7:45 goal!

Zucchini Rollups

I admit I was a bit worried these would be too boring to open the show with a bang, but they were fantastic. I liberally salt and peppered the zucchini and grilled it slowly on my stovetop grill pan, which gave it rich grill marks and the softness needed to roll them up. My one tip: make sure you cut the zucchini thinly enough to roll it!  My first two slices were far too thick and I didn’t realize it until it was too late.  But don’t worry – they made a nice addition to my lunch.

Curry Butternut Squash Soup

I don’t know if it was just the curry powder that I bought, but I put in the amount the recipe calls for and found it quite spicy. I am very sensitive to spice, though, so – of course AFTER I put it all in, I realized this! – I should have started with half the amount and then seasoned to taste. I also found the soup very bland based on the recipe, so I added salt, pepper, Vege-Sal, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. I probably used a few teaspoons of salt, about a teaspoon of Vege-Sel, half a teaspoon of nutmeg, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I loved it with the yogurt and, best of all, it looked beautiful as the first course.

Corn Pasta with Gorgonzola, Mushrooms and Walnuts, Haricots Verts

I cut the mushrooms and walnuts during my prep earlier in the day, and couldn’t find a safe place to put the walnuts where they wouldn’t be tipped over until I came up with the toaster oven! So of course I had to take a photo of my geniusness, haha. The grownup mac and cheese tasted tangy and creamy – and the mushrooms were goooorrrrgeous!

Unfortunately I didn’t roast the haricots verts long enough – I just pulled them out of the oven when I took the pasta dish out, and while the bean I tried tasted nicely al dente, overall they were still too crunchy. I’m going to work on my recipe and I’ll post it when it actually results in haricots verts that taste the way I want them to.

It was a wonderful evening – thank you for coming, everyone!

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Survivorman Menu

Starter:

• Oysters on the half shell with lemon

Entrees:

• Roasted Arctic Char with Ancho-Shallot Butter or Salmon with Shallot Grapefruit Sauce
• Green Beans with Toasted Pine Nuts
• Barley tossed with butter and Vege Sal

Dessert:

• Berry Crisp

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