#50: Host a dinner party for new friends

This past Saturday was the culmination of weeks of planning and scheming and general excitement and nerves. It was just a dinner party for eight. But when we start planning these things, we kind of go whole hog. (Not literally; we had vegetarians in the group.)

Something beautiful is about to happen

The first thing we planned was the guest list - a difficult task when there are lots of people you like in this town. The goal was to come up with a manageable number of friends who had something loosely in common with each other, and also to set it up so that we had some familiar faces as well as new friends we'd like to get to know better. We arrived at kind of a dream combination: two new friends, two friends we'd like to see more of, and two old friends we see somewhat frequently.

Fun with place cards

After we found a date that worked for all eight of us, the next item was the menu. As I alluded to above, we needed to make this meal vegetarian. That was a bit of relief, to be honest, because one thing that stresses me out in cooking for other people is under- or over-cooking the meat. Not an issue here. Here's what we came up with:

Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, grated Parmesan and toasted almonds. Creamy parsnip and leek soup; a Melissa Clark recipe (her new book has been a frequent source of inspiration for me so far this year). It's creamy but light enough to serve before dinner, and I highly recommend adding a squeeze of lemon to brighten it up even further. I also baked up mini bread loaves using the versatile Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.   

For the entree, homemade ravioli, stuffed with ricotta, Parmesan, smoked gouda and sun-dried tomatoes, served with roasted red pepper and tomato sauce and sauteed mushrooms. I stole the filling idea from Cassano's Italian grocery store, and Joel got the sauce idea from a friend of ours who is about to finish culinary school and start cooking full-time in the Bay Area. It all felt very legit.

Just a few words about homemade ravioli: worth the time! I used Tyler Florence's recipe for the dough, though I ended up adding a bit of water. The only hard work is kneading the dough by hand for 10 minutes, but your arms will look awesome later. And once you assemble the ravioli, you can freeze it until you're ready to cook it. AND you can use it as an excuse to buy a fun new kitchen tool.

Dessert was blackberry sorbet in meringue nests. Sorbet is so easy. And meringue nests are fairly easy, too. It's a fun presentation. And you can make both of them several days in advance. Both recipes were courtesy of David Lebovitz, a man I trust for good dessert ideas.

Pretty little wax flowers

Cocktails got their own menu. As guests arrived, Joel served Kir Royales (champagne + creme de cassis) and then other options, including negronis and an adaptation of The Blinker (we called it the Tail Light) using bourbon, grapefruit juice and creme de cassis. We had port with our dessert, and later, another round of drinks, this time featuring the Fancy Free (bourbon, maraschino liqueur, bitters, orange garnish). Perfect for 3 rounds of Celebrity (pretty much the best after-dinner party game ever invented).

We reorganized the living room, put out fresh flowers, set up a music playlist, and once everyone arrived, it all became very real. And so fun. Nothing went wrong - no broken dishes, no over-cooked pasta, no burned sauce, no allergic reactions, no knife accidents. You could have filmed this thing for the movies - the conversation, the laughter through candlelight, the classy cocktail toasting, the nice-looking people. In those moments you know that the effort is so worth it. Bringing people together and sitting around a table is one of the most wonderful things in the world.