We have folks over for dinner pretty often–once or twice a month, say. We use real plates, but it tends to be just one family at a time, except on special occasions. However, my wife and I both like to cook, so the food’s usually pretty great–last night, for example, my brother and sister-in-law came over, and I made chili con carne for most folks, broiled portobellos topped with creamy eggs for her (she’s vegetarian), as well as corn bread and homemade peach pie for dessert.
Sounds like fun. Things like that make me want to get married. I kind of just want the wedding and to break out a husband for things like this. Maybe I can find a man who wants to get married and we’ll in seperate houses until parties arise.
My wife and I love making dinner parties. We are pretty much the only ones in our circle of friends who do. We live in Manhattan, which has a much bigger restaurant culture, so our friends usually return our invitations by inviting us out somewhere.
For us, throwing dinner parties really is a hobby. We do use fine china and lead crystal glasses, and typically serve 5 either a 5- or 7-course meal. It usually takes us a few days of planning and several shopping trips: we go to a bunch of specialty stores all over town and have no car, so we are limited by what we can carry on mass trans. We’ve done 7-course meals with up to about a dozen guests. Any more than that and we’d be seating people in one of the bedrooms.
One of our monstrosities usually starts at about 4 and ends at midnight. Friends bring wine and spirits. We don’t dress up because both my wife and I spend hours in the kitchen doing hard labor before and during the party. As far as I am concerned, dressing up is for people who have staff. We don’t. Our friends bring wine and spirits, and play with our son while my wife and I take care of business.
Our copy of Modernist Cuisine just arrived this week, so we are already talking about a blowout party to subject our friends to whatever insane recipes we decide to try.
Sure you can be queen as long as I can be a lady in waiting and get to borrow a crown you don’t like so much. As long as it’s not the Scroll Crown, because no one likes it.
(This is really turning into the “Things Yara Likes Thread” or for short “Yara Mi Gustas”.)
Do you bring good wine? If so, we can definitely be friends.
The book is definitely an investment. But like I said, food and cooking is a big hobby for us. I imagine the cost of the book is a fraction of what we are going to spend on space-age kitchen gear over the next year or two. We don’t have a car or a TV, but damn it, we will have a centrifuge and a homogenizer.
It’s like you sent out dinner party vibes to the universe, Yara. Just this morning the current hostess of our “wine & food pairing” parties (who is a month or two late in getting to her turn, but it’s cool) sent out an e-mail saying it’s party time.
Now I have to figure out if I can go (she picked a tough date for me) and what to take.
Only chump man-children don’t own suits, and don’t wear them to job interviews, weddings, funerals and the like.
I went to a funeral a few weeks back for a 35 year old guy, and with the exception of some of his rural relatives, every non-dipshit looking man there had a dark suit on, including all of my friends, who are predominantly architects and IT guys.
We don’t dress up, but we love having people over, sometimes for small dinners and sometimes for bigger barbecues (and by barbecue, I mean we’ll roast a pork shoulder and have carnitas, empanadas, a bunch of sides and a nice sorbet with sopapillas or something). Sometimes we use china and sometimes not, it depends on the gathering.
My personal favorite so far was when we invited one couple over (we’re planning to do it again for more people) and had a wine versus beer pairing dinner. We had a cheese and appetizer course, salad, dinner and dessert, each paired with one wine and one beer, with a friendly competition over which one went better with each, since my husband picked the beers and I picked wine. It was a ton of fun and we’re planning to do it again soon.
I thought the same thing, based on my parents’ social lives with their friends and relations. I love hosting dinners/holidays. I love planning the food and cooking, although most of the time I make way too much. My biggest issue is that we don’t have good seating for a lot of people, unless we do a casual couches-and-chairs thing.
I live in Boston. I’m in your age range. I love food, wine and cocktails. I’ll leave my small children at home and I promise not to talk about them. I’ll bring a nice hostess gift.
We have dinner parties all the time, and we do dress up (although not all the men do), because after dinner it becomes a dance party. Our house has three large rooms with hardwood floors that are connected without walls, so it’s a good space for that. We have a friend who’s a DJ and he sets up his sound system.
Generally we serve Peruvian and Colombian food, but if I participate in the cooking I make Thai food. The dinner part is first, with only our closest friends. (Usually the occasion is someone’s birthday, or Valentine’s, or “fin del verano.”) Then at about 11:00 or so the other people start coming in for the music and dance. We have to lay mattresses up against the windows facing the neighbors, so as not to disturb them–it’s an old craftsman house with pretty solid walls, so with the mattresses you hardly can tell what’s going on inside.
It’s definitely not the nuclear family, Madmen-type dinner party. It’s more of a communal thing (and that helps a lot with the clean-up). I guess that’s the difference between New York and L.A.?
I don’t blame you. If your passionate about a hobby, spend all the money you can afford. I like your system. Spending on what you use and cutting back on what you don’t. If it weren’t for True Blood, I don’t think I’d own a tv. (I’m not huge on tv, but I love movies.)I watch all of my dvds on my computer.
I am the Roman Goddess of the dinner party. I wonder if I’ll get followers.
Sucks about the date. I’m hoping you can work something out. If not, maybe the cycle will keep going.
There’s a lot of chump man-children in my family. :o There’s a lot of women-children in my family, too. That’s why I stay away.
Did you say cheese?! I love cheese and empanadas.
Your parties sound awesome. Another reason I need a husband, I’m not so good at babecues. I think it’s a skill you’re either born with or not. (Man or woman.)
It’s weird. It skipped a generation in my family. My parents are both antisocial and I wasn’t allowed to have a lot of friends over. However, my maternal grandparents threw GREAT parties. If you were invited, you could bring like 10 friend and they didn’t mind. I loved that. I like when I have parties having enough for the guests to bring home and having enough for left overs.
Seating can be an issue. I rent at the moment and want a place with a dinning room when I buy. For know, I just use the leaf for my table and add these stools I have that look vintage.
When I move, I’m getting a nice dinning room set.
I will. This thread is making me want to go on a cross country trip.
I’m 24 and I hold dinner parties. I don’t make superspecial food for the one or two people who are vegetarians and they’re just fine. So long as you honor all allergies seriously, go for it!
If they don’t like it, you need to find a new crowd. Some people are happy eating Cheetos and wiping their hands on their tube socks for all of eternity.
Protip: don’t do a potluck. Your friends - especially if they’re in their 20’s - will bring some garbage they bought at the grocery store.
You might be right about the grilling. My husband couldn’t cook a bit when we first moved in together, but he gradually picked up the basics. He was, however, never a great cook.
Then my parents bought us a nice grill when we bought a house. It was like you could hear angels singing the first time he threw a couple of steaks on the thing. Now he smokes pork, spends all afternoon making us ribs, and did his first brisket for our last barbecue. He’s constantly trying new rubs, making new marinades, and experimenting with new techniques. He’s also become quite a good cook in general, all since we got the grill.
I’m a decent enough cook, and I don’t shy away from complicated recipes, but I can’t grill like he does. I don’t think I ever will.
