10 Bits of Wisdom

One dinner down. Only 49 to go. The ship that is my culinary adventure has been launched and has set sail for her destination on the rosy horizon. Only thing is that it sorta resembled a Bass Tracker than the swank yacht I had envisioned. But nonetheless it has begun. The food was enjoyed heartily by the guests, and that’s the important part. An intimate evening for two turned into a few more, which is good considering the ridiculous amount of food I had prepared. I’d like to make some observations. Ten to be precise. After all, this whole project is one big learning curve. Improving my cooking skills, but more importantly learning to throw a good dinner party—two separate goals. I’ve always been a big fan of incremental improvements and linear progression, so I guess the best way forward is to document the good things and the bad things, take note and move on.

1) Multi-tasking in cooking is not my forte. Let’s admit that and get it out there and over with. Much improvement could be made here. Not counting the pie which I had made most of the night before, I began cooking for last night’s launch even dinner at 10:30AM. Yes, a full 8 ½ hours before stated “dinner time”. Oh, yeah. And we didn’t eat until more like 8PM, which meant I was an hour late. No biggie, but clearly I gotta figure out how to gracefully pace and plan things so that they roll off like a tidy assembly line instead of in fits and starts. This means a lot more prep-work should be involved in the future. Who the hell really knows how long it takes to cut up all these ingredients all ahead of time? But the more mis en place the kitchen is, the easier the cooking part is. No servants in my house except sometimes my boyfriend, should he be looking to do something. Definitely screws things up when you’re trying to cut up stuff in the middle of cooking something else and then you have to keep running back between the stove and chopping board and you end up with a half burnt pot of this and still unfinished chopped up pile of that. So I shall endeavor not only to prepare ingredients so they’re ready to go, but also try to actually put a timeline of how I’m going to cook each dish so they all end up being ready effortlessly (yeah right—whatever) at the appointed time.

2) Make the bread to be done more than an hour ahead of dinner so it doesn’t hog the oven when other things might need going in and also so it can cool and is easier to cut. Enough said.

3) Make a playlist of music and have it already worked out so folks aren’t forced to watch crappy Thai TV soap operas that happen to be on or listen to whatever some guest wants to pull up on Youtube. Ambience is clearly affected by music and keeps things flowing.

4) Get some easy snacks out for folks on the table when people are having their drinks and waiting for dinner to be served. None were had and therefore some people were starving, especially after the dinner didn’t start until late.

5) Recipes can be adjusted. Follow your instincts. When you think the chicken spaghetti has enough broth in it but the recipe insists that it should be enough to cover the top layer, maybe meet somewhere in the middle. The soupiness of it didn’t detract from it per se, and might have made it easier for my Asian friends to palate (i.e. less rich/dense), but it was still a bit much liquid for me.

6) Do not set off the smoke detector in the room which is connected to the building’s fire alarm monitoring system. The maintenance man knocking unexpectedly and then coming in with a ladder to reset the damn thing really puts a buzz kill over a dinner. Especially when said building employee then has clear sight of my explicitly banned but otherwise dear four legged daughter Dim Sum. Hope he didn’t report her to the powers that be, or the puppy police will be on us! And all this from some smoking butter when sautéing the mushrooms. Looking back on it, it was a bit of a hoot, but not cute, nonetheless.

7) Hey buy some plates, bowls and glasses fool. Pretty much ran out of everything. Dessert was served on paper plates, and soup out of small water glasses. So much for presentation. Still tasted good, but still. Duh.

8) Perhaps making a point of NOT slicing the side of your hand open with a crappy knife so that blood runs down your arm. OK, so good knives are on the way, but was it really the best way to crush a clove of garlic banging it with the flattened knife, when I had just bought a perfectly good stone mortar and pestal? Use the things you’ve got mary! Blood sucks. And wet bandaids aren’t cute. Thankfully this was hours before anyone arrived, so I was free to cuss myself in solitude.

9) Take note that a dinner at the last minute can always get bigger with the addition of a few more guests. It didn’t cause a problem last night but still, worth remembering.

10) Never ever underestimate the wonderful feeling you get when your good friends are being happily fed with food they really enjoy. It’s all about the food yo.