cook and bake more often, thereby reviving the ancient custom of family mealtimes... and perhaps, one day, even give a dinner party...

is a staple of the poor person’s diet. tonight i made dinner for T and H.

fried eggs for T with chocolate chip pancakes (from scratch—with buttermilk!) and red/new potato home fries.

H and I added strawbs to our pancakes and subbed fresh sliced strawbs for the eggs.

I cut my finger slicing the potatoes, but it wasn’t too bad. That’s the hazard of cooking in! T and I have vowed to make food every night this week and not eat out once. we shall see!

the brunch party i hosted for my family was today! there were lots of obstacles, mainly the threat of a hurricane and one of my brothers and his wife weren’t able to come. The first part passed through Saturday and today was the most perfect beautiful weather. Sadly, my Josh and Stacie didn’t end up being able to come, but we still had fun.

My niece is a riot. She and the cat met one another with screams. They sneaked up on one another and scared each other—so funny. Plus, Chubbs has never seen a baby or a child before so she was a little freaked at the mini-person. Anna cried murder if the “moew-moew” got near her at first, but by the end of the day, they were old friends. (Still kept their distance, but there were no tears/running and hiding under the couch.)

We originally planned a short afternoon party. Start at one go until three or four, at the latest. No one left until after 6. We were having a good time. Mostly we watched the Ravens game and talked and watched the niece being kooky, but towards the end we went up on the deck and enjoyed the nice weather.

Menu was simple, but everyone seemed to like it. Organic fruit salad of nectarines, strawbs, and white grapes. Made-to-order farm-fresh omlettes—fillings included baby spinach, peppers, tomatoes and extra sharp white cheddar. Organic white and red potato home fries. Also, french toast made with thick slices of baguette. Hubby made an amazing savory tart with cream cheese, gorgonzola, caramelized onions and peppers. That was really the highlight. So yummy. For dessert, my mom made the deep, dark chocolate cake with almond frosting we have for every single fam’s b-day. (It was my dad’s today and lysa and jer’s anniversary is tomorrow.) Hubby brewed coffee; I brewed tea. We also had OJ, white grape juice, milk, iced tea…all kinds!

And best of all, our house was perfectly clean. We finished just in time. There’s still a bit of organizing to do, but a lot of clutter has been taken care of. Now, to keep it up!

Sorry to ramble on and on and on, but I just had such a great day, and I love being hostess. Finally have a nice apartment! It’s teeny but perfect for us. We’re so very happy.

i am mailing 4 invitations to the fam today to come for brunch on 7th september to celebrate dad’s b-day and my bro and sis-in-law’s anniversary (one day apart). we’ll do omlettes and pancakes and fruit salad, methinks. my mom is bringing a cake.

so, everyone will get a chance to see cute apartment. of course, if the weather is bad, we can’t sit out on deck which has the most room and view of city skyline, so we’ll see what happens… weather wise. borrow H’s table to put out on the deck is the plan for now. here we go, commence testing out official small-scale party. going to break out linen napkins and everything!!!!!!!!!!

if all goes well, may have to give a dinner party for friends soon, on a nice night before the weather turns.

but the K, G, H party was a smash. I worked very hard making things spic and span – it’s not perfect, but the apt. looked good! I made my special hors d’ouevres by opening a box of crackers and putting out cheese platters. I got to use the awesome cheese plate my in-laws gave me for my bday, made out of a refurbished wine bottle—very cool. I also sliced pita and spooned some hummus into a dish. So far from gourmet… but well, opening is my specialty. That’s why I married a chef.

Good news is, in-laws come for dinner this week so now i can make our place perfect over the next few days. I’m excited to finally be finished.

Yay party!

We went grocery shopping today and bought a modest amount of yummies. Not quite ready for dinner yet (we’re late eaters) so i make a salady snack out of grape tomatoes, white grapes, goat cheese and raspberry vinaigrette. It all just sort of happened. It’s so delish. Serendipity! Don’t want to tamper with it, but it could use a bit of crunchy texture next time. Nuts, perhaps?! What a world…

a housewarming brunch buffet for a Sunday in late June. Pending a large enough apartment to do as such. invite will be on a small square card, inserted into our moving announcement. picture it in century gothic font:

Please join us for a
Housewarming Brunch Buffet
Sunday, the twenty-second of June
stop by anytime
from ten a.m. until two p.m.

R.s.v.p.

This is what I lie awake all night thinking about. Paper and fonts. And I love it. yay job I’m slightly obsessed with!

I thought it might be fun to do sugary kids cereals (think fruit loops, cocoa krispies, smacks and the like), pancakes or waffles, fresh fruit salad, and eggs with mimosas and bloody marys.

I have linen napkins, and I know which fork to use.

dinner 4 times last week. A new world record (in my world).

shame on me, they weren’t at a table, so we’re going to add that element this week.

Last night, made din-din for hubby so it as ready when he came home. vegetarian “hamburger” helper and spinach. We’ve had the helper for two years, just sitting there. I am trying to use up our food before I’m forced to buy more. But there it is! It was about as good as it could be.

“There is some accommodation to modern living arrangements in Miss Manners’ rules. Not much, but some. She once conceded that paper napkins are not incorrect at picnics, but she wouldn’t dream of having them at her own four-course picnics. Modernity has always taken advantage of her. While she was fussing over the details of mealtime manners, some sneaky people were working on abolishing the concept of mealtime altogether.

‘Grazing’ is the name she has heard applied to the increasingly popular habit of declaring all waking hours to be snack time, thus eliminating the sustenance motivation to have formal meals. Freed from the physical drive to show up at [the] table, grazers have simply killed the ceremony of traditional communal eating. Grown-ups who live this way lay pretentious claim to being too busy for meals, and never mind the time they find to mope about the lack of fulfillment in their lives. More frightening, there are children who are actually being brought up that way. Some are permitted to wander away at will from family meals, and some are actually fed on demand all day long and then never required to attend a meal at all.

If this continues, such ritual statements as ‘Not now- it’ll spoil you appetite for dinner’ and ‘If you don’t have room for spinach, you certainly won’t have room for dessert- and guess what I baked?’ will be incomprehensible to future generations.

Also, civilization will erode even more drastically than it has already. The dinner table is the center for the teaching and practicing not just of table manners but of conversation, consideration, tolerance, family feeling, and just about all the other accomplishments of polite society except the minuet.

We shall have to reestablish regular meals. Miss Manners promises not to nag you about what to eat at them (the world being too full already of those who will tell you, whether you ask them to or not, how to achieve salvation through nourishment) as long as you observe the ritual. Nor will she inquire how the food is cooked, or whether it is cooked at all, rather than unwrapped. If she catches you with a carton or a cooking pot on the table, you will be in trouble.

Mealtimes, for those who have already forgotten, consist of breakfast, luncheon, and dinner (tea optional). They take place at tables.

Participants time their eating so that changes of course occur at the same time for everyone. Except for performing the mechanics of meal serving and a certain emergency that is never discussed, no one is allowed to leave the table until the conclusion.

People who do not participate in such with some regularity are not leading a civilized life. Besides, they will forget or never learn the skills necessary for the one form of meal the meal destroyers deem important: the one in the fancy restaurant on the company’s expense account.”