Posted by Robin Bellinger, May 7, 2008 at 2:00 PM
The first time I really sat down and read Entertaining was when I was planning my wedding. I opened it looking for ideas and closed it thinking, “Yes, I could make all the food for our wedding, wouldn’t that be personal and fun?” Everyone talked some sense into me, thank goodness, and my self-catering ambitions were quietly dropped.
Don’t let this story deter you. Among the delusion-inspiring accounts of “Desserts for Forty: Soirée Dansante” and “Cocktails for Two Hundred: Country Fare,” one can find in this book ideas for relatively simple dinners at home. Last week I made tomato soup and French bread. I was too tired to make the green salad I had planned, but with a piece of Gruyère the soup and bread made a very pleasing meal indeed.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robin Bellinger, April 23, 2008 at 2:15 PM
When I was five, my mother bought a new kind of cookbook because she was entranced by the pictures within: here were elegant parties and rustic feasts; there was the author working her massive garden, feeding “part of [her] flock of rare and unusual chickens,” and tending her honeybees; and finally, sealing the deal (for our family, at least) there was a basket of gingerbread gnomes with red hats patiently awaiting a Christmas party.
The book, of course, was Martha Stewart’s Entertaining, and this year it is 25 years old. It is fascinating to look back at the original book to see how much styles in food, flowers, and presentation have changed. (Also how much more honest Stewart is now about her massive staff: the early books make it seem as if she is doing all that cooking, gardening, chicken-rearing, bee-keeping, etc. single-handed.) Some arrangements still look perfectly lovely, and some treats are still worth eating: Alexis’s Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies have been among my very favorite cookies since the first time I tasted them.
Continue reading »
