Just in case you weren't jealous enough, I get to have dinner with very special people today. That's right, John and I are having dinner at the Farm - the one made famous by Catherine of Aesthetic Alterations . She is cooking up a storm, and all I have to do is bring the olives. Pretty exciting!
I love eating food someone else cooked! I also love cooking. I am surprisingly uncritical of my own or anyone else's cooking, even though influenced by some of the best cooking in the world at my French grandparent's. I am absolutely convinced that you have nothing to lose by entertaining anyone with a meal. If the food is amazing, they will think you amazing. If the food doesn't turn out, they will be sympathetic, since everyone has had a failure of their own. And it might convince them to entertain, since "my food couldn't turn out as bad as that". Quote from a guest (after my Carne Adovada turned out a little too spicy) who was afraid to have people over due to overdeveloped perfectionism gene. (And shouldn't she have said "turn out as badly"?)
It has been years since I've entertained for anyone but family. I'm always fretful of people's food preferences (and avoidances).
ReplyDeleteIt takes all the courage I can muster, but we do two or three dinner parties a year, mainly with people who routinely invite us around as well. It is truly wonderful to be a part of this. I always think of it as 'playing grown-up'! Bill normally likes to do the cooking, amazingly. I guess he likes playing 'chef'. I read recently that BADLY is not a fully integrated adjective. You can read about this yourself if you like (it's fun):
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Hey Terri! I love having people to dinner, but hate cleaning up for it. I am very into organization, and so my drawers are neatly arranged, and anything that needs to go back into the drawers and shelves, sits in piles until I get around to putting it away properly. And I find if I know a person well enough to have them over, I am aware of any lifestyle choice, (vegan, no pork, etc), and just refrain from serving shellfish or organ meat to everyone else, I am fine. Although one of my favorite dinner guests is Jewish, and the last Christmas dinner I served her family didn't include Ham, and she was very unhappy. She loved having Ham, and could pretend she was just being a gracious guest.
ReplyDeleteOh Shelley, my husband is often the chef when we have guests. He cooks the best salmon. What is your husband's speciality?
Thanks for the link and laugh. I love Richard Lederer. Although in the case of how my dinner turned out, it can be said that "badly" is correct using the integrated test - for a dinner to turn out as badly, it is a badly turned out dinner. You wouldn't say a "bad turned out dinner". But the point is that I never feel bad about how my dinners turn out - taste wise. Political arguments and food fights are another issue!
Beryl, I don't know if he has a speciality but the thing he cooks most often and that is the most reliably good is beef bourguignon. We eat meat so occasionally that I'm always pleased to see this on the table!
ReplyDeleteI love beef bourguignon! I could never be a vegetarian.
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