dinner party

Ideas for Setting a Memorable and Beautiful Dinner Table

Filed under: Dining

A dinner party is a perfect opportunity to show off your personal style, taste, and flair for decorating. It's especially fun because it's on a small scale so you can be braver than you might be otherwise and try something new and different. There are very few rules, here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Go with a monochromatic color theme Decorating the table in nothing but luxe shades of one classic color theme like all in whites, silvers, or shades of gold can add an impressive visual impact to the meal. To keep everything from blending together choose elements that have different hues, textures, and patterns for lots of visual appeal within the single color family. Don't be afraid to mix matte pieces with glittered or sparkling ones.

Choose a theme Themes are always a fun and interesting way to decorate almost anything, and dinner tables are no exception. Holidays lend themselves especially well to themes (i.e. use personalized Christmas ornaments in place of name cards) but other themes like winter (everything in smooth white and glittering crystal), contemporary chic (minimalistic, simple, and clean with lots of geometric shapes), or just mix and match whatever you think looks good together and call it eclectic.

Focus on one spectacular piece If you have one amazing or particularly impressive item, like a centerpiece or set of glassware, then decorate the rest of your table in a way that complements and draws the eye back to it. The approach will vary depending on what your highlighting but in general the focus piece should contrast with the rest of the table either in color, texture, or pattern, and everything else should somewhat match each other.

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Setting a Formal Dinner Table: What Goes Where?

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Hosting formal dinner parties isn't an everyday event for most of us, so don't feel bad if you need a refresher course on how to properly set a table. Here are a few basics.

Start with the dinner plate, which we all know goes in the center, and place a salad plate or soup bowl on top of it. The charger, if you're using one, goes underneath the dinner plate. To the upper left of the dinner plate goes the bread plate and butter knife, and to the upper right goes the water glass and wine glass (and the coffee cup, but it usually isn't placed until the dessert course).

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How to Host the Perfect Fondue Party

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

The word fondue comes from the French verb fondre, which means "to melt," and the practice actually originated in Switzerland as a way for both peasants and nobility alike to use up hardened cheese and/or stale bread. Nowadays there are fondue recipes for every course of a meal, from cheese to meat to chocolate, and hosting a fondue party has become a popular and easy way to have a classy social gathering. Fondue can be served as an appetizer, dessert, or even a full 3-course meal.

Cheese Fondue Traditionally cheese fondue is made with a blend of 2 or more cheeses, wine, and perhaps some spices or other seasonings. Offer an assortment of bread, vegetables, and fruit (granny smith apples pair surprisingly well with cheese) cut into bite-sized pieces for a first course, and maybe a light salad or broth-based soup if desired.

Communal Cooking is the center of the main course, along with seasonings and dipping sauces. Cubes of beef, chicken, shrimp, and seafood can be individually seasoned by your guests and cooked at the table (in a fondue mixture of butter, cooking oil, and seasonings) to suit their personal preferences. A variety of dipping sauces can provide even more flavor options, as well as plenty of fresh vegetables and bread for balance.

Chocolate Fondue As a final course anything goes when dipping into chocolate (the sky's the limit!) but one of the most popular choices is fresh strawberries or bananas. Other dipping choices for dessert include squares of cheesecake, brownies, angel food cake, and even marshmallows. Graham crackers and cookies make a nice option as well, along with possibly offering caramel or marshmallow-based dips.

Etiquette
Fondue is a communal experience and although traditionally all guests would eat from and then dip their forks repeatedly into the same pot, today's society dictates a different approach (unless of course you're all family and don't mind). Instead try having guests dip into the pot with the fondue fork and then use a separate fork to slide the bread, meat, or fruit onto a plate before eating it.

Finally, offer a variety of recipes, plenty of items to dip, and don't be afraid to experiment! Part of what makes fondue an interesting experience is the opportunity to blend, mix, and experiment with different flavors and flavor combinations.

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Good China, Bad China

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Normally "fun" and "bone china" do not go together, since elegant place settings are standard when china is concerned. The Good China, Bad China collection, by Peter MacCann from thorsten van elten, retains the classic look of plain, white china with a simple twist, which would be revealed as the plate was cleared of food during a meal. At the center of each plate is one of the 7 Deadly Sins or 7 Seven Contrary Virtues. Plate pairs are Humility against Pride, Kindness against Envy, Chastity against Lust, Temperance against Anger, Charity against Greed and Diligence against Sloth. Abstinence and Gluttony make up the serving plates. Serving plates aside, half the fun of the meal will be deciding which dinner guests should get which plate. We recommend giving the sins to the guests who have a better sense of humor, so as not to bring down the mood of the party. The plates are £25 per pair and the serving plates are £50.