Introducing 'My Little Apartment Restaurant'
Also known as hosting a dinner party.
Hosting dinner parties is the closest I’ll come to owning a restaurant, and what I love about that is I don’t have to worry about going bankrupt or high employee turnover (hello, I worked back of house at a restaurant for a grand total of 1 week before I realized it was. not. for. me. So, I’m intimate with this latter point). There’s no other way to put this, but hosting dinner parties is simply very fun. I love handing friends a cocktail, getting them water (still or sparkling?), setting out small bites to eat (marinated olives and nuts), having music playing, offering them newly minted slippers since we’re a shoes-off household (sadly, only one person has worn them so far), etc. ‘My Little Apartment Restaurant” will be a series where I’ll talk about everything I’ve made, lessons I’ve learned, and advice I can share.
Starting off, here are three areas that I think might be commonly felt among the dinner party hosting masses:
The more prep work I can do beforehand, the better! I do love working in the kitchen, but I like hanging out with my friends more. What I consider the main criteria for a dinner party recipe is that it won’t require too much hands-on work/babysitting while your guests are at your house. If you see a dinner party recipe from me, know that the whole dish, or majority components of the dish, can be made ahead of time.
Everything can sort of pile up at once, even when making things ahead of time. One phrase that I’ll live and die by is “cooking is cleaning”. When prepping for a dinner party the sink will fill up very quickly, dishes will get stacked on free, much needed counter space. Cleaning as you go will help when the hopefully “chaotic good” stress makes its presence known.
I am absolutely terrible at giving my guests “tasks to do” and have basically nothing to offer you in this arena. It’s extremely hard for me to delegate because 1) I have specific ideas for how things should be done and presented, 2) I feel guilty asking guests to help, and 3) NYC kitchen. If you have advice on how to get better at this, please help me. lol
In the coming weeks I’ll be covering dishes for the dinner party autumn series that include:
Roasted Carrots w/ Orange-Coriander Sour Cream
The other night some friends came over for dinner and the week leading up to it, I had no idea what I was going to make (exciting!). I thought about making a meatloaf which I’ve never made and don’t think I’ve eaten before. (Side note: I’ve been interested in classic midwestern dishes that are often looked down upon, though they must be classic for a re…
Apple Cider Braised Short Ribs
I love braised short ribs because, well, it’s a dish that excites every one of my senses and because it’s very hard to mess up. I’ll never say that flavor doesn’t matter, but you could come up with dozens of ways to flavor your braised short ribs and as long as it cooks in liquid for at least 3 hours, it’s going to be so tender and fall apart-y that all…
Cherry Vinegar Dressing
Vinegar is one of those sneaky, transformative ingredients that can both brighten and bring depth to a dish and is why I’m kind of always on the lookout for new ones to try. Like this dark cherry vinegar I bought on a whim, lucky for me. It sat on the counter for a little while until I discovered its full potential as an ice cream topping (reduce it dow…