Plowing through the lists
What luck! The morning of the party dawns cool and clear. There will be no snow or ice or sleet to make people nervous about enjoying themselves. I do a quick sweep around the front door and hope that when it’s dark you can’t see all the stains the cats make by dragging their kills and prizes to the step. I also hope that for once they will leave the door mat where it is and not pull it onto the gravel for a bed with a view of “nothing special, but different from what you can see from the doorstep.” Who would have a cat?
the table with just the chargers
On my lists are things like dust and vacuum everything, clean bathroom, take shower, makeup face and make hair stand up on end, carry trash up to the road, wash and bring in four garden chairs. Which things will mess up the results of other things? If I am showered and made up will carrying the trash up to the road make me smelly? These are the philosophical questions that are pondered by hostesses and no one else. What I need is a timeline.
I rearrange the items on my list to reflect what must precede other things and what could wreck the effect of work already done. Dust first, vacuum later. Don't set table until dusty work is done. Starting with the twelve hours I have remaining before everyone will show up, I assign jobs to times of the day. That way I won't forget to take the marinating lamb out of the refrigerator in time to bring it to room temperature before roasting it. The salads which were made ahead will also need to warm up for at least an hour. The heat needs to be turned up a few degrees at least an hour before a fire is made in the fireplace, otherwise the heat of the fire can turn the thermostat off. When a single person is in charge of all of these hundreds of details, a list and a timeline are essential. At least I find them essential. I am infamous for forgetting to serve the bread and leaving one dish in the refrigerator that my guests will never see.
I did everything on all the lists, even to applying enough makeup for the "Old Arab Lady" look I'm going for. I've known a few of those, not more than twenty. They do commanding and well-decorated very, very well, but their gems are real while most of mine are fake. No matter, it's all costuming.
Well before anyone is expected the flatbreads are on the kitchen table stacked in a flat covered pan, the handle wrapped in foil and ready for the oven. The dessert is cut into diamonds and arranged in a footed dish. I am gently enveloped (I hope) in 24 Faubourg and wearing six finger rings and earrings as big as chandeliers.
the table with alternating plates
I decorate and set the table. I decide that this one time it is more important that the table is pretty than that we each have two glasses. Executive decision: those are the decisions you take that are perhaps not quite correct but that suit your style this one time. Anyone who takes exception may not be invited again. My philosophy is that if you are not hurting anyone else, you may do as you please and design something that is quite different from custom. Whatever you decide to do is probably a custom somewhere.
Unlike when I cook professionally, the oven is set at the temperature called for to slow roast the lamb. The time required is not so many minutes per pound or kilogram total, but per the pound or kilogram of the largest of the four pieces that two legs represent in Italy. The temperature will be raised for cooking the spanikopita once the lamb is cooked, then lowered to warm the sliced meat and the flatbreads. When pushing out five courses for a lot of people I would have the oven set at high and adjust only the time things spend in that temperature. That way heat I need is always ready. The same for the cooktop. All the burners are usually on and I am just shuffling things on and off higher or lower temperatures. I feel like a dealer in a casino sometimes.
For this much more relaxing evening, however, I find myself actually polishing something that doesn’t need it before the first ring of the bell.
the table all set and ready
even Other Guy is dressed up for the party!
Tune in tomorrow for the party and the food.
