Speaking of memorable conversations reminds me of dining beside a lawyer I had just met. He leaned over, gazed into my eyes, and asked, “What is Barbara really passionate about?” After some panicked hemming and hawing about literature and gardens, I collected myself and asked him the same question. His sincere answer, “Office management”!!!
Oh, Barbara! I'd taken against him as soon as he addressed you in the third person, but his own answer was so proudly appalling that I actually felt a perverse admiration for him then. I used to know someone who used to wander around parties cornering complete strangers with "Tell me your hopes and dreams," apparently not having noticed that it reduced every single person he asked to dumbstruck silence. Maybe his own hope and dream was to get a coherent answer to the question.
Very nice. I remember the spag bol parties. And lasagne. And mackerel paté. Still do dinner parties, of course, here in the UK, and, as you say, the menu has changed. We do lots of Middle Eastern food: mezze to start, lots of fresh veg and salads, and simple meat and fish dishes. Simple puds too, with fruit. Can't beat a good meal with friends.
I don't remember mackerel pate, Sheila, but I'm impressed you made lasagne. I do a cheat's version these days, in which you break up the lasagne sheets and cook them in the sugo in a saucepan on the stovetop, then cover them with broken-up mozzarella balls and broil them under the grill. It tastes delicious but is not such as you'd serve to the haut ton ...
Well, Patti and I do the meatless Ottolenghi lasagne recipe. It takes hours to cook, what with that terrifying list of ingredients, and is delicious. Once every five years, I think.
Elizabeth David was a wise woman, cousin Hendon. And thank you for giving me a new fact with which to entertain myself next time I get hauled in front of the sacred pit. Some male conversation, after all, is worth engaging in.
I love dinner parties! I used to throw one every second Friday when my daughter was small: always three courses, sometimes the main something to be prepared in advance but generally always starting with pasta. How the hell did I do it? But I loved it. Now if it's my turn to make family dinner it seems to take me an entire day just to cook one course!
Speaking of memorable conversations reminds me of dining beside a lawyer I had just met. He leaned over, gazed into my eyes, and asked, “What is Barbara really passionate about?” After some panicked hemming and hawing about literature and gardens, I collected myself and asked him the same question. His sincere answer, “Office management”!!!
Oh, Barbara! I'd taken against him as soon as he addressed you in the third person, but his own answer was so proudly appalling that I actually felt a perverse admiration for him then. I used to know someone who used to wander around parties cornering complete strangers with "Tell me your hopes and dreams," apparently not having noticed that it reduced every single person he asked to dumbstruck silence. Maybe his own hope and dream was to get a coherent answer to the question.
Heard at barbecues in the Midwest. “Ya, how about them Twins?” Bon mot indeed.
Male cooking. Male conversation.
Hummm… think I better have a dinner party soon. Would be all the more interesting if you could come!!!
Very nice. I remember the spag bol parties. And lasagne. And mackerel paté. Still do dinner parties, of course, here in the UK, and, as you say, the menu has changed. We do lots of Middle Eastern food: mezze to start, lots of fresh veg and salads, and simple meat and fish dishes. Simple puds too, with fruit. Can't beat a good meal with friends.
I don't remember mackerel pate, Sheila, but I'm impressed you made lasagne. I do a cheat's version these days, in which you break up the lasagne sheets and cook them in the sugo in a saucepan on the stovetop, then cover them with broken-up mozzarella balls and broil them under the grill. It tastes delicious but is not such as you'd serve to the haut ton ...
Well, Patti and I do the meatless Ottolenghi lasagne recipe. It takes hours to cook, what with that terrifying list of ingredients, and is delicious. Once every five years, I think.
Barbeque is the only Taino word in English (sacred fire pit)--the only thing the practice has to recommend it.
"Life is too shrt to stuff a mushroom." Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David was a wise woman, cousin Hendon. And thank you for giving me a new fact with which to entertain myself next time I get hauled in front of the sacred pit. Some male conversation, after all, is worth engaging in.
My view of barbeques is simple - food poisoning à la mode.
I love dinner parties! I used to throw one every second Friday when my daughter was small: always three courses, sometimes the main something to be prepared in advance but generally always starting with pasta. How the hell did I do it? But I loved it. Now if it's my turn to make family dinner it seems to take me an entire day just to cook one course!
I guess we were younger, Louise, but didn't we have fun? I wish I'd been at one of yours and you'd been at one of mine. Next lifetime ...