Theme dinner parties

Jun 25, 2009 5 Replies

We’ve had several dinner parties at our house with a close group of friends. Some of the menus have been based on recipes from cookbooks like: “A Treasury of Great Recipes” by Mary and Vincent Price (beautiful book) “Mickey’s Gourmet Cookbook” (with recipes from Disneyland and Disney World)



We also hosted a “cooking party” with an Italian theme, where each couple prepared a dish. It was a casual/formal affair where the men wore suits or sport coats. A friend and I were the servers, and we would change into our server jackets (tacky, maroon jackets that I had purchased for $1 each at a rental agency) to serve the food. We had name tags on our jackets – I was Ricardo, he was Davido, and Davido would always flirt with a very attractive lady while serving (it was his wife!). After serving, we changed jackets and returned to the table where the attractive lady would mention that the server was flirting with her.



Next up: In honor of Julia Child and the new movie with Meryl Streep, we’ll host another dinner party – but where to begin? My wife has every book ever written by Julia, and the menu could be difficult.



Wines: I’ll always dig into my cellar and find something appropriate.



Dick


Very clever theme.

I'd argue that two of her more famous recipes are for Vichyssoise and Coq au Vin. The latter is certainly a very wine-friendly dish. Nice idea, BTW!

Mark Lipton

Thanks for the suggestions Mark, My beautiful wife Linda is also a fantastic cook. She does have a penchant for collecting cook books, 1400 at last count. It's always interesting to open an old cookbook from the 1800s and find a hand written recipe for salt pork made in a barrel in the barn or other recipes that are "timeless". We will take your suggestions to heart, and I think this next party is going to be fun!

Dick (I'll supply the wine)

Sounds like some nice parties. Apparently Vincent Price was a real gourmet. The movie is from the Julia and Julie book, correct? I'd agree with the coq au vin idea.

"A Treasury of Great Recipes" by Mary and Vincent Price was published in 1965 and contains wonderful photos from their worldwide trips, menus from restaurants, and interesting personal information. The menu from Hotel De La Poste in Beaune had a wine list that made me salivate. Wines from the 1930s,

1950s and 1960s that are probably just memories now. Cozy up by the fireplace on a cold winter evening and read a "cook book"? Yes!

I think so, and I'm anxious to see the movie.

We'll check it out!

Thanks all, Linda and Dick (AKA Ricardo) :-)

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