Making those lists and checking them twice
Every party starts with me as a list, then the lists mate and make more lists, better lists, lists that appear to be a chapter from a science fiction novel in a foreign tongue, perhaps Finnish.
The first list was people. I could fit eight people but I had a list of sixteen! It’s Christmas, I thought, lots of people will be away or busy. So I called and of the first 10 only 2 were busy and that was the end of the guest list this year.
The next list was a menu. My first idea was British food, but when I tried to discuss what exactly that is with my UK food discussion group, World War Three broke out and I left the conversation more confused than when it started. I’ll quietly do British food another time without mentioning it in public. At one point, I said, “I should just do Arab food and let al Qaeda come after me for my mistakes. It would be safer.” So I am making Moroccan food.
Being the net savvy, modern dame that I am I started looking around the internet for ideas and recipes. I've been to Morocco and I ate most of my meals with a Moroccan family, but they were not feast meals, so I'm pretty ignorant of what to feed feasters. I found a terrific page! It says what the meal should be. Unfortunately, I could not bring myself to serve a first course of chicken, a second course of lamb and a third course of meaty and beany cous cous. So I am making phyllo wrapped spinach-cheese Greek Spanikopita and saying, "close enough." That will be served with two Moroccan salads, one of eggplant/aubergine and the other of spicy beans. Then the lamb cooked Moroccan style will be served with a vegetarian cous cous, which is something I ate in Morocco, the cous cous that is. A plea is made for Baklava, but I served that just a few weeks ago so I am making a different Middle-Eastern dessert that is a custard baked in a phyllo wrapping.
The suggested first course was Bstilla, and it does sound wonderful, so I'll make it for a meal in which it will be the important dish. Have a look at that page. I found it worth saving.
It's always a relief once I know what's on the menu. The cooking part is comfortable for me. It's all the rest of it that drives me somewhat mad. The one thing that never bothers me for the 20th December party is what to wear. I always wear an embroidered black velvet caftan that I liberated from Hecht and Co. the first year I did this Afghan party. A person needs some fixed points in life, you know. Other than piling on tons of jewelry in honor of all the Sultanas that went before me, a shower and more makeup than is strictly proper on a woman of my age will happen in the morning and I won't look in the mirror again. All that stuff is on a list and already checked for readiness. Mine is not as glamorous as this one because the embroidery is black on black.
The next list is the shopping list. I did that Wednesday night and went to the shops this morning. For once I found everything, but then we have five Arab butchers in town! You may have to go to all of them, but you will find everything it takes to eat like a Tunisian, a Libyan, an Algerian or a Moroccan. Except the melon between the dinner and the dessert. Does that not sound a bit much?
So now the table is planned, the bay branches cut for it, the silver cleaned, candles stuck in solidly, the filling for the first course is made and ready to wrap tomorrow and believe it or not, with some elbow grease tomorrow, there's going to be a party!
I hope you have a wonderful party Judith, I love the idea of the story telling. Can’t wait to hear all about it. Ciao bella
This was an exquisite post. Thank you for explaining your thinking and your preparations. This is exactly the sort of thing blogs are best at, and you\’ve hit a home run!
@Buck:
Thanks! I know some really young people read here, so I thought it might be useful to put it out there, because 45 years ago when I gave my first dinner party everything got done at a different time, the cream turned to butter and I forget to serve the bread.