When I have people over for a meal like this, they often ask me, how in the world I do it. Well, first of all, I LOVE to cook when it means I'm making a full menu and meal like this...and well, that kind of cooking is almost therapeutic to me. But secondly, I try to make it easy on myself. I don't know that Julia Child would be all that impressed with my French cooking...or Julie for that matter. But with a little help from Ina, it usually comes out tasting pretty much the way I remember from France. So I try to make as much as I can in advance, and I make as much as I can that pops in the oven and demands little hands-on when the guest arrive. So here's what I did this time.
On Friday, I spiffed up the house (I do most of my cleaning on Mondays). So I vacuumed and mopped and dusted the dining room table, cleaned the bathroom sink and put in a fresh hand towel. I then set the table for Saturdays dinner, and got out any serving pieces and dishes that I might need for the dinner.
Friday night, I made the appetizer and dessert. On Saturday afternoon, I prepped the main course and the salad, washing and chopping vegetables, dicing bacon, etc. I put butter and salt and pepper on the table (for all the Americans), filled up the water pitcher and refrigerated it, picked out the bottles of wine, and shopped for fresh French bread. Then in the late afternoon, I started the main course. While that was cooking, I plated the salads (except for the eggs), and while the main dish was in the oven, I freshened myself up and lit the candles, picked up any stray toys, turned on the lights on the mantle, turned on the music, filled the water glasses with ice water, and opened the wine. Then just 5 minutes before guests were to arrive, I reheat the appetizer and then popped them on a serving plate with some cocktail napkins and got the champagne and liqueur ready to make cocktails. I kept it all in the kitchen because that's where everyone was going to be anyway. So when the guests arrived, the appetizers were hot and ready, I poured cocktails, and we chatted while I poached eggs for our salads. We then sat down, ready to go. The coq au vin was out of the oven and on the stove keeping warm and while folks finished up their salads I put the chicken on a serving platter and brought it out. The cheese and desserts were ready to go without any prep. Everything went smoothly and I was never stressed, and we all had a great time.
Le menu
Kir Royale and les gougeres
Salade Lyonnaise
Coq au vin
Cheese Tray
Pots de creme au chocolat (chocolate custard)
Some other thoughts...
Usually the French serve coffee (usually espresso) AFTER dessert. We didn't make it to coffee...everyone was ready to roll into bed. We served a full-bodied red wine with dinner. Coq au vin is a specialty from Burgundy...so a pinot noir would be appropriate. I served two cheeses...one mild, one stronger (Americans are pretty skeptical of stinky cheeses). I served cheese on new plates, with a new knife for everyone and with more French bread. I was impressed, however, with my crowd. They all seemed very experienced with the French cheese scene.
2 comments:
sounds like a wonderful evening! everything looked fabulous!! but i must ask...where were your boys during all of this?? did you have dinner after they were in bed? that is always our dilemma...we seem to do better to have people over for dessert (so we can talk) as opposed to the chaos of little boys running around. But even getting up to that point is always a little stressful for me...especially if brian isn't home yet to help out. your evening, however, did not sound chaotic at all. yet again, tell me your secrets...
The boys ate pizza around 5:30. Michael then bathed them; then they brushed their teeth and got in their pjs and went downstairs for a movie. Witt was under mine or Michael's feet. The dinner guests came over at 7:30. And the kids went to bed at 8:00. It means babysitters for the dinner guests' kids, but sometimes it is just worth it for a quiet evening. Sometimes we do it early with kids...and in those cases it's always crazy, but a movie in the basement always helps.
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