Entertaining 101 for 2011

A good place to start when planning a successful dinner party is with special cocktails, specifically a vintage cocktail which is both glam and delicious. A little nostalgia always works and vintage cocktails set the stage for an evening of surprises culinary and otherwise. You could consider Gin Fizz, a Brandy Alexander, or even a Hemingway Daiquiri (white rum, maraschino liqueur, grapefruit juice, simple syrup, and fresh lime juice). Memory- lane cocktails as professional bartender Brian Van Flandern explains in his new book Vintage Cocktails (www.assouline.com) capture an earlier time, the era of the Rainbow Room and the Stork Club. His book is crammed with recipes from the 30s and 40s when bars were smoky and bartenders wore tuxedos.

Those who enjoy having friends over and entertaining guests know that having a well stocked home bar is essential. There are no hard and fast rules for what to have in a home bar and most people simply build a collection based on what drinks they and their guests most often enjoy. But if you're starting from scratch and are looking to create a well-rounded bar ready for any occasion here's what you'll need to get started.
Few things are better than enjoying good food, good friends, and good weather, and entertaining outdoors is a wonderful way to enjoy all three at once. Here are some tips to make sure your backyard get-together goes off without a hitch.
There's a lot to like about the Park Avenue lifestyle, especially as it is captured in the book "Park Avenue Potluck: Celebrations," published by Rizzoli. This book takes us inside the apartments facing the broad boulevard with a European feel, to tell us, if not everything, then just enough, to entertain Park Avenue style. Hint: there may be a cook for hire involved, and you'll want to get out the china, write place cards, and dust off the napkin rings. As for what you'll be serving: The ladies are not cutting-edge professional chefs, so this is not the place to find culinary revelations on par with "Momofuko." Rather the recipes are for comforting dishes, not too healthy or unhealthy, and presented simply but beautifully. Vetted by New York Times food writer Florence Fabricant, these are gold-plated go-to dishes. And some, such as Coco Kopelman's baked latkes, are a real find.








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