Planning a Dinner Party

I have been asked how I plan a dinner party by many people. So here is a blog devoted to one of my favorite things...entertaining.

(pics to come)

#1 First and most importantly is the guest list. Joel and I like to throw dinner parties about once a month. As we have a few dozen people at any given point that we want to get to know better, we have to be very organized. We actually keep a google spreadsheet online that we share. When we meet new people that we want to get to know better, we add them to the list. Often we will have one or two couples over at a time, and we prefer this when first building a relationship. When we know someone better, we like to have them over in a large group. In our spreadsheet we keep a list of names and dates of dinner parties in an attempt to make sure we are including everyone. We also like to make sure we have compatible personality types, which is a lot of fun. (This may sound like the hight of snobbery, but with only so many parties and so many we want to meet, it is our ideal solution.) We try to invite about a month out, though on our less proactive months, it is a week or two out.

#2. Le Menu. Ok, so this part is really tricky for me as I have a hard time knowing what I am going to want to eat well in advance of the date. I usually pick whatever genre of food I am into at the time, like say Indian and try to narrow down the dishes the week of the party. Though I have been know to...ahem...change my mind the morning of the party. Who knew I would want braised oxtails instead of butter chicken? Planning ahead is appreciated by guests who want to bring wine, but if you aren't inspired, you aren't inspired. I take into account allergies (ALWAYS ask new guests if they are allergic to anything.) I pull from seasonality of ingredients and try to create a menu that flows. Here is an example of a dinner menu I might make:

Fresh Crab Spring Rolls
Grilled Asian Long Beans
Thai Chicken Coconut Curry
Sticky Rice
Passion Fruit Mousse

#3. After the menu, it is time to shop. I typically don't combine party shopping with weekly grocery shopping as a rule. For one thing, I like to hit 5 or 6 stores to really get all the ingredients I want. If I am fully in the zone, I can't be bothered to think about what I will be eating the following week! I should mention at this point that all my dinner parties are on Saturday for this reason and start at 7. I shop the same day I prepare everything so I can really make a fun day out of it. I make a full list of everything I want and which store to go to as well as my route so I can maximize my time. Here I also do a little budgeting for money and time. For the above menu, I may hit:

Shuang Hur
Penzy's Spices
Coastal Seafood
Kowalski's
First Grand Ave Liquor

#4. Time budgeting. After figuring out how and where I will get my groceries (sometimes I have pre-ordered hard to get items), I will figure out how much time each dish will take to make. I make a simple sketch of when to roughly start each item. For example:

Passion Fruit Mousse (make at 4 pm)
Shower/set table 4:30- 5:00
Grilled Asian Long Beans (prep at 5:00, cook at 7:30)
Thai Chicken Coconut Curry (start at 6:00 pm)
Fresh Crab Spring Rolls (assemble from 6:15 - 6:45 pm)
Sticky Rice (soak night before, cook when last guest arrives)

#5 After shopping and returning home I immediately jump into the kitchen with a cold beer or glass of wine and begin to cook. I like to have most everything done before guests arrive. Or at least things that don't require reading a recipe. For this reason I will start with any baked goods and have the app ready to go as well. I set the table before everyone shows so one feels they have to help with that.

#6. As guests arrive it is important to be able to focus on them a bit, though I am usually still cooking and moving around the kitchen for an hour until it is time to eat. It is important to me that the evening is about fun and friendship and connecting with people. The food is an undercurrent, and while it is fun when it turns out, if it doesn't it shouldn't mar the evening too badly. I tend to make things for the first time for dinner parties and I can always count on one thing being a total flop. Sadly for my last dinner party it was, alas, the braised oxtail. :)

Some extra tips:

• Find out about food allergies ahead of time
• Have fun non-alcoholic beverages on hand and chilled
• Always have two extra bottles of wine available
• Have an appetizer ready if you don't plan to eat for an hour
• Try to take a shower an hour before people arrive...really hard to plan for but you will feel less covered in food
• When inviting guests, we like to invite a couple we know really well, a couple we want to get to know better, and a couple who would find the other two interesting. We take into account how sweet and quiet some people are and how funny and conversational others are. Your guests, not surprisingly, will largely dictate the success of your evening. And I have some unfortunate stores about this as well!
  
• And lastly, make sure you can laugh about your food if it takes a turn for the worse...here is where the extra two bottles of wine will come in handy. More wine anyone?
  

Dollars for Food

Joel has asked me on occasion, "how much money is enough money?". I have consistently told him that the day I never have to carefully watch how much money I spend on groceries will be the day I feel rich! I probably spend more than most two-person households on groceries, so I am not complaining. We don't eat out a ton, but most things I make cost more than a cheap meal at Chipotle. To help me manage my spending, we recently signed up with an awesome online budgeting system called mvelopes (mvelopes.com).


As I am so excited about it, I thought I would share it with you. Basically, every time I spend money the transaction is pulled from my checking account and put into my mvelopes account. I drag and drop the expense into the correct category (most of the time it is for groceries). This way I can log in at any time and have a very good idea of how much money I have left for food each month. I feel a little bit freer to splurge on some exciting things...knowing that I have some extra cash and um, vice versa. Beans and rice anyone?

Where can I get a great a great wok?

A friend asked me a few weeks ago where he could run out and grab a great wok. First of all, kudos to you! Secondly, here are my thoughts on where to find one:

Cooks of Crocus Hill (surprised?)

Two locations:
877 Grand Ave
St Paul, MN
(651) 228-1333

or

3925 W 50th St
Edina, MN
(952) 285-1903

I also love Hockenburgs Food Service Equipment and Supply (open to the public as well). I was there yesterday picking up some cambros and super huge Asian soup bowls and noticed their woks, though I think they were pre-seasoned.

701 Kasota Ave.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414
Phone: (612) 331-1300

Ask Cook's for their carbon steel woks. I think they are less than $20 bucks, but make sure you buy the lid as well. Some recipes will ask you to steam in the wok and a cookie sheet over the top of the wok is a poor substitute. But I wouldn't know about that...

Carbon steel is very light and heats up quickly, so it is ideal for cooking food at a high temperature. The down side is that it will rust easily. After washing make sure you dry immediately. To help prevent rust, you will want to season initially and then every few months or as needed.

Here is the way I seasoned my carbon steel wok, though there are many different schools of thought on the right technique...most work.

1. Heat the wok for a few minutes until its entire surface is hot.

2. Using a heat-proof brush, apply a thin layer of peanut oil. (Make sure you have plenty of ventilation for this step.)

3. Tilt the wok from side to side, subjecting the entire surface to intense heat to burn the oil into it. After burning a few minutes all around, turn the heat off and let the pan cool completely to room temperature.

4. When the wok has cooled, sop up the excess grease in the center with a paper towel.

5. Turn the heat on high and let the wok heat for a few minutes until wafts of smoke can be seen lifting off its surface. Turn the pan from side to side and again "roast" every inch of it to further burn in the first layer of oil. Then, brush in another coating and proceed as before to burn this second layer into the pan. After a few minutes, turn off heat and let pan cool completely to room temperature.

6. Repeat the last steps several more times, alternating heating with cooling, each time burning in the previous layer before adding another layer. Make sure to sop up excess grease that tends to collect in the center before each reheating to prevent a thick, gel-like coating from forming there. After several coats of oil have been burned in, the wok will begin to turn dark, though the coloring may be uneven and splotchy. When the wok has developed enough of a tacky, oily surface that does not look dry when heated up, you may begin to use it for cooking.

Before you use your wok, make sure you heat the wok over high heat for several minutes first.

At the beginning, your wok will require a little more attention and care. Following each cooking session, rinse only with plain water and never use soap on it. If there are bits of food sticking on the surface, use a soft sponge and work the area gently – just enough to remove the food particles.

I have seen recommendations that you never dry your wok with a towel, but instead dry the wok over a burner set on high heat. Heat until the wok is smoking and if the surface does not look shiny and oily, brush in a thin coating of cooking oil, letting it burn thoroughly into the metal. Let cool, sop up the excess grease before putting away.

(steps shortened and modified from http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/wokcare.html)

One last note. I found a great site on pad thai making and have used this recipe many many times... http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2007/01/pad_thai_for_be.html

Have fun!!

Why you should run out and buy citrus right now!

Have you noticed the blood oranges and the Meyer lemons in the grocery stores? Citrus is currently in season and you can get the best tasting lemons, grapefruit and oranges now. It is time to make lemon tarts, lemon preserves, limoncello, grilled grapefruit, candied orange peel...you name it!

How do you know what is in season? Well, aside from visiting a farmer's market and looking around, here is a quick cheat sheet (click on the spreadsheet for a larger view):


*some data taken from Anatomy of a Dish by Catherine Young

Favorite Twin Cities Grocery Stores

I will post soon about how I plan a dinner party, but when I do, I usually hit 5 or 6 grocery stores that day. Where do I go? Here are some of my local favorites:

Fish - Coastal Seafoods. The ONLY place to buy fresh seafood in the cities.
Meat - Mike's Butcher Shop. I usually go here to buy my meat. Though if I lived closer to Clancy's Meat Market in Linden Hills, I would go there.
Asian- Shuang Hur which is right around the corner from me. When I am in Minneapolis I go to United Noodle.
Produce - The St. Paul Farmer's Market when it is open as well as Kowalski's and Lund's.
Wine - 1st Grand Ave Liquor or Solo Vino. Tim at 1st Ave is really knowledgeable about beer and can help you find exactly what you are looking for.
Indian - Patel Brothers 1848 Central in Minneapolis
Middle Eastern - Holy Land for their incredible hummus (and other spreads), olive oil by the gallon, and pita bread
Italian - Cosetta's for fresh pasta, great sauce and great cheeses.
Spices - Penzy's. Odd that I would make a special trip for spices, but I definitely make the trip.

So far this is what I can think of. As I have more ideas I will add to this list.