Dinner parties and wine

Last night we both watched the finals of The Restaurant in which couples were competing to open a restaurant with Raymond Blanc. They had to plan, cook and serve a meal to customers on the Orient Express.
One couple offered only white wine; no red. This went down badly with some customers when it came to cheese course.
When you have a dinner party at home we are now far more relaxed than we used to be over wine to go with various courses. See the section on wine and dinner parties on my website. The golden rule has to be to give your guests what you think they want.
A lot of people like red wine with their cheese course. Anyway, in my view, you just need to have a chilled white wine on the table and an uncorked red. Serve your best wines at the beginning of the evening and have spare bottles in the fridge if they are white and breathing if they are red.
The main thing is to enjoy yourself and help your guests to do the same, or else, what is the point?
Take a look at Dinner Parties for Beginners and see what you think.

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Eat, Drink and Be Merry

There must be a ghost!

I think there must be a ghost in my house!! Yesterday there was a crash and a horrible smashing sound ! I found to my horror that a shelf in a cupboard had suddenly given way and crashed onto the shelf beneath smashing 6 gorgeous Derby Crown China cups and one irreplaceable Spode one! The replacement cost will be pretty high!

This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened to me. A couple of years ago a picture suddenly dropped down onto a mantle -piece smashing a Crown Derby loving cup and a little cup and saucer (also Crown Derby) made and especially decorated for a great uncle in 1886.

Then I also remembered a dinner party I gave a long while ago. I had 10 guests and had put 12 dinner plates onto a rack over the cooker to warm. Suddenly, just as I was about to dish up, all 12 plates suddenly fell off the rack and smashed! The rack had given way! The result was chaos. Guests helped me scramble about the floor picking up pieces; someone cut their hand and I had to go in search of a sticking plaster. Then I had to scrabble about looking for any plates at all to serve 12 people! We ate from a motley assortment of china, earthernware and even a pyrex plate!

Everyone took it in good part. The meal was late arriving! It was a bit over done, some people were eating from dessert plates! No one minded! It was part of the fun!

So, the best laid plans of mice and men........etc. etc. and if confirms my belief that the secret of a good dinner party is to choose your guests with care! (and make sure your shelves are secure!)

For a beginner's guide to dinner parties click here. I have been able to put together hints and tips because I learnt the hard way!

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Beginner's guide to dinner parties - make a schedule

I am of the opinion that the most important part of your dinner party is to choose the right guests. Then you must choose the right food. Chose something simple, delicious and that won't take all your time and energy, so that you can pay attention to your guests.
Make a plan. Make a time guideline working backwards. from the time your guests are due to arrive.
Allow time for your guests to have a pre dinner drink. Allow yourself 5 minutes to dish up and serve the first course, about 8-10 minutes to clear this away and serve the main course and about 5 minutes to clear the main course and serve dessert.
Prepare as much as you can in advance. Use your schedule. Set your table well in advance. Then, as you begin to prepare the food pretend you are on a cookery show. Peel, chop, sift, measure, etc. everything in advance.

Then you can relax and enjoy your guests and your evening!

Please see our website where we have written a beginner's guide to dinner parties.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Dinner parties for beginners - how to upset your mother in law!

I have learnt the hard way. The very first time I invited my mother-in-law to dinner was a real disaster! I cringe now when I think how silly I was.
It was in the early 1960s (yes, I know I am quite old!) and I was at a stage of trying out all kinds of new recipes when the rest of the country was content with good old "meat, spuds and greens". For some reason I decided to do egg curry!
Now, at that time NOBODY I knew had EVER eaten curry. I had a recipe and I just about walked my legs off to find "curry powder" and this strange new savoury rice called "patna rice". Eventually, I found some in a little shop in town. I cooked my egg curry.
Unfortunately, my mother-in-law was a VERY traditional lady who had afternoon tea at exactly 3.30 every afternoon using china teapot , cups and saucers etc. She was more a roast beef lady - and she was straight out of a Jane Austin novel, if you get my drift.
Bright eyed and bushy -tailed, I served the meal. My mother-in-law took one look at the food, looked at me reproachfully (as if I had shot her or something) and slowly and with great dignity got up from the table and left the room closing the door quietly behind her!

I have added a section to our website entitled "Beginners guide to dinner parties" which I hope you will take a look at. It is full of hints, tips , warnings and suggestions. Maybe you can think of some more.
Please take time to visit our website where you will find all kinds of cooking hints, tips and information as well as cutlery and catering products.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Choose your food.......

When chosing food for your dinner party yet another thing to take into account is the weather. You wouldn't give anyone steak and kidney pudding on a hot day, would you?
The choices of menu are endless. You could have, for instance, an Italian menu, or a Chinese or an Indian........but if you do will your meal be better than one from your local takeaway?
You could cook something really elaborate, but do your guests really want you to be fiddling about in the kitchen rather than sitting and enjoying their company? Wouldn't you rather do something fairly simple and be relaxed rather than something which is going to turn you into a nervous wreck.
My own view is play safe. Go for something simple or something you can cook in advance so that you can join the evening too!
What do you think?
If you visit our website we now have all sorts of tips, hints and cooking information to help you.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

dinner parties and what to eat....

Choosing your menu for your dinner party will depend on:

• the time you have available
• your level of expertise and experience
• what you think your guests will like
• your budget
• what's available.

If you are a beginner my advice is keep it simple. Ask your friends if they have any particular likes and dislikes (you don't want to find out they have a nut allergy after you have given them walnut and date pie, do you?) and do as much as you can in advance. Don't bankrupt yourself. You don't have to spend a fortune. Don't try and impress and be too pretentious - you'll wear yourself out and drive your guests up the wall! Just concentrate on trying to help everyone enjoy themselves.

It's all in the planning.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Make sure they arrive on the right evening!

When you invite people to your dinner party make sure that you choose a good time. People who are at work during the week often don't want to turn out again after a busy day at work. Weekend is the best day for them. However, it may well be that friends you know well would welcome the opportunity to eat at your place and have a night off from their own kitchen. If so, invite them early. Be considerate. They could come soon after work and enjoy a pleasant evening and go home at a reasonable hour ready for work next day.
One last tip. Just make sure everyone writes the date in their diary - and it is the same date. When friends turned up for dinner at our place once I still don't know whose fault it was that they turned up on the wrong day!
I only know that heating a quiche from the fridge and having salad with it and ice cream afterwards wasn't quite the meal I had intended! At least we had a good laugh! Does this only happen to me?
I put a whole lot of stuff about rescuing cooking disasters on our website this week, do take a look - nobody's perfect, are they?

>Eat, Drink and Be Merry