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Convivial Dinner Party: Boudoir Picnic (Not Just for Valentine's Day)

Ooooh, Valentine’s Day -- sexy food, sexy wine, sexy talk, and (God willing, wink-wink) sexy sex.  Now, if you want to fight traffic, curse parking, and really shell-out the cash, go for it.  But, the pressure & obligation of unattainable aspirations never end well.

Hows about a Boudoir Picnic?  Easy prep, easy presentation, easy bites & easy cleanup make an easy lover -- one that has the energy, time and mind-space to focus on more important things.

The Boudoir Picnic

A successful picnic in bed requires plenty of good wine and delicious food that is easy to eat (no cutting, not messy, no dishes) and very satisfying (without being heavy).  Don’t forget a corkscrew, napkins and wine goblets.  Definitely some great mood music; maybe a dvd.  (But, with only two hands, whoever is most limber might need to get creative to control the remote.)

Champagne Food

Begin with Champagne or have various bottles throughout the evening.  Sushi goes really well with Champagne, and so does smoked salmon, oysters, French fries, potato chips, Chinese take-out, popcorn and strawberries (all which happen to fit within the boundaries of easy boudoir cuisine).

Red Wine Food

A serious bottle of red deserves to be the star, complement it simply with fabulous cheeses & a hand-torn baguette, crostini with various spreads, pizza, or kabobs, and then dark chocolate truffles.

Mmmmmmmmmm.

I Almost Forgot How Much I Like Girls

It’s easy to get caught up with the day-to-day, and put aside those situations which make the day-to-day actually worth living.  Case in point, I was invited to dinner with women of various careers in the culinary arts; women I knew from a lifetime ago.  It was utterly delightful!  I’d forgotten how satisfying it is to be in the company of women with similar interests. 

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Convivial Dinner Party: Winter Supper for Close-knit Friends

Warm up an otherwise cold January evening by gathering a few close friends for supper.  Stoke up the fireplace, turn on Paolo Conte, light a zillion candles, and feast on Italian comfort food.  

A casual, mostly do-ahead menu lets you be with your guests, instead of the stove:

Bagna Cauda Piedmontese

Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Steamed Clams with White Wine & Fresh Herbs

Grilled Bread

Crab & Prawn Potstickers with Chipotle Crema and Ginger Martinis

Mixologists are the new hotties of the food world; and when they & restaurant chefs work symbiotically, we are all rewarded with fabulous, mind-blowing cocktail pairings.

Mixing cocktails is actually quite easy and gives you control of the overall flavor, thus, the overall pairing. Just decide on a dish, devise a flavor that goes well with it, use that as the cocktail's main flavor profile, and then play with the subtleties -- secondary flavors, acidity, sweetness, bitterness, etc.

Dreaming up food & cocktail pairings is pretty fun, then experimenting with flavors and textures is -- well, when you nail it, it can be extremely satisfying.

For my last dinner party I served shrimp & crab potstickers. I wanted a matching cocktail with simple, clean, refreshing flavors. Lemon really sings with seafood, fresh ginger went with the Asian theme, and both flavors are clean and refreshing. I tinkered around with a ginger martini recipe I found online, then added Lime Perrier for texture and to reduce the alcohol level, and lemon verbena to put it over the edge. I gave the combo a test run and that was it -- that was the match -- it was just the flavor profile I was looking for.

Crab & Prawn Potstickers with Chipotle-Lime Crema
(If memory serves, pretty close to what I did the other night -- and it made about 40)

Late-Summer Dinner Party Menu

Taking a few days off after “the summer from hell” will make a girl giddy. Giddy enough to quickly arrange an intimate gathering, swing by the local farm for ingredients, and grab a dusty bottle or two from the wine cellar.

Didn’t take many photos - I was terribly remiss; but if you’ll indulge, I’ll give a few details. The evening was just beautiful -- warm, with a few clouds and a slight breeze; the music was soft Latin jazz; the double-doors to the back deck were opened wide, leading to the table set in Provencial hues with lots of candles, and even more wine glasses; the view was tall evergreens & neighboring horses.

Eric & Renee were the first to arrive on the scene, bearing gifts of wine, chocolate, cheese & a baguette. After the kiss-kisses and hugs, Brett shook up the first batch of ginger-lime martinis. A few moments later, our dear friends Kimberly & Darren, armed with even more wine, appeared just in time for me to forcefully scrape a reluctant first batch of potstickers out of the pan and shatter the martini shaker to the ground -- and it was going so well up to that point. But, knowing that every party has a few glitches, the glass was swept away, the pan was changed, and all was right with the world.

Cru Cellar Treasures Wine Club

What do you say when invited to an exclusive wine club dinner party featuring delectable food, rousing repartee with prestigious foodies, and rare bottles from their private collections? "{sigh!} I suppose I could shuffle a few things around to fit you in..."

Cru Cellar Treasures, a local wine tasting club started back in the ‘80s, gets together once a month to indulge their most passionate obsession -- wine. Usually meetings involve swirling, sniffing, swilling, and sizing up eight or so blinded vinos, but once a year, they have dinner together. The annual affair is normally held at one of Seattle’s top restaurants, but this year, wine expert Ed and personal chef Bennie volunteered their home, cooking skills, and two neighbors (to help serve) for the festivities.

Easter Baby Barnyard Feast

“I dunno. Maybe rabbit,.... a baby chick and a baby lamb? What if we ate all the baby animals associated with Easter? THAT would be hilarious,” said the Kid.

Andrew's Party @La Medusa Sicilian Restaurant

Darren, Karra, Andrew & Kimberly

My friend Andrew is classically debonaire - he reminds me of a 1940s movie star (especially when he calls me “doll”).

New Year’s French Dinner

This year it’s all about France - I’m polishing up my accent, dusting off my passport & booking a flight. My heart has always belonged to France, I think it’s about time I go find it.