CHANNELING MARTHA STEWART

 

 

CHANNELING MARTHA STEWART

 

Cocktails… I love them! (I am a food & drink columnist, after all.)  I love cocktail parties.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking cocktail parties you may have seen in classic, black&white “Thin Man” movies when martinis reigned, or those 1950’s cocktail parties featuring food fare centered around hors d’oeuvres of onion dip, pigs-in-a-blanket, deviled eggs, and numerous Kraft toppings on Ritz crackers, especially Kraft’s cheddar cheese.  Brie on sliced baguette?  What’s brie?  What’s baguette?  Can’t find those in a Piggly Wiggly or A&P back then.  Then there were the legendary party hostesses in that by-gone era such as Pearl Mesta and Elsa Maxwell who threw elegant soirees for royalty and the WASP 400 which were featured on the society pages with pictures laden with Beluga caviar on toast points. Toast points? 

The 50s transitioned into the 60s and 70s...  the culture began to change, but cocktail food fare remained stagnant, doomed to the dip dungeon.  As a Woodstock generation budding writer in NYC, I admired the wit of Nora Ephron and the writings of NY Times Vietnam war correspondent, Gloria Emerson (full disclosure, both were acquaintances of mine).  But then Martha Stewart raced across my admiration radar with a bountiful blip.  No, I never did jail time, (though I was paddy-wagoned twice in ’68 in Chicago), but before her stint in the slammer, Martha introduced America to a life and entertaining ‘style’ … not for those ladies who held grand cocktail and dinner parties for the glitterati, but for the average American woman (OK, men, too) who wanted to tastefully (literally and figuratively) host a memorable party at home on a middle-class budget.  Martha’s knowledge of home design, cooking, gardening and, yes, marketing still astounds me.  Why, you might ask?  Well, even if you don’t, I’ll tell you.

As much as I love going to parties, I love, love, love throwing parties!!!  For twenty years my husband and I (in NYC, later LA) threw an annual Oscar party for 20-30 people.  To feed the crowd cheaply (we’re both writers, need I say more?), I’d make big bowls of baked ziti and green leaf salads, with nibble sides like chips and cheese and crackers. This was pre-discovery of Martha.  But it was our annual Christmas Eve holiday party held for over two decades in LA that became a tradition for 30-50 of our friends and their families. That’s when I began to channel the marvelous Ms. Martha.  Gourmet and design on a budget.

My husband during our (well, his more than mine) TV/film careers in LA had morphed into an incredible cook at the time chefs were becoming household names.  Over the years, Richard did his own Martha-channeling and moved from making basic turkeys, honey-baked hams and simple salads, into French cassoulets, gourmet beef or turkey chilis, fancy pastas, and not so simple salads, all on a budget for our open house (I did my Martha-thing by decorating every room). 

 

 

 

I even started a blog (this blog) honoring his culinary growth. www.mydinnerswithrichard.blogspot.com – but I digress...   

When we left the freeways behind and escaped to Ojai, our first months in town were lonely… we hadn’t met too many people and the thought of spending the holiday season without our LA friends was depressing.  Had we met enough people to perhaps throw a little holiday cocktail party that would end early enough for folks to party hop elsewhere and take away my holiday doldrums?  We invited 20-25 people we sort of knew and two long-time L.A. friends who had trail-blazed our move to this stimulating people-populated valley paradise.  I decorated and Richard planned his cocktail food menu.  Much to our surprise, every invitee came and a new annual tradition was started.

Whether the weather be warm or cold, a hosting trick I learned from Ms. Martha is to always keep the bar separate from the food so guests don’t congregate in just one area…  so, if it’s not raining, I set up our self-help, full self-service bar (or wine bar – depending on our budget) outside...

...with the cocktail food arranged inside on the dining and coffee tables.  

 If you can’t put your bar outside, put it in another room or across the party room from the food.

Besides a crudités platter (now with brie and other “exotic” cheeses, meats, nuts and fancy olives), we have offered stuffed endive leaves, pate - not expensive French pate, but my family’s make it yourself, Pate Therese (https://mydinnerswithrichard.blogspot.com/2009/10/holidays-are-coming.html), or for your vegetarian guests, this faux chopped ‘chicken liver’ spread https://mydinnerswithrichard.blogspot.com/2010/10/faux-chopped-chicken-liver-for-my-faux.html 

  and new and improved deviled eggs, truffled  (https://mydinnerswithrichard.blogspot.com/2009/12/welll-ill-be-truffled.html ), and other budget finger choices... 

plus Richard’s poached whole salmon filet, served at room temp with his homemade champagne or dill sauce to be scooped onto toast points (yes, we’re now “on point”), and a delicious creamy dilled shrimp hors d’oeuvre to spear with a toothpick and pop in your mouth (recipe below).

 

Always re-inventing herself, I still check out Martha’s latest cooking/design advice and think it’s cool she’s teamed up with Snoop Dog, which opened up a whole new smorgasbord of “edibles.”

This holiday season, channel your inner Martha, my dears, during this most wonderful time of the year. Throw a budget friendly cocktail party – your friends and family will eat it up.

 

DILLED SHRIMP

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups of mayonnaise

1/3 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup dairy sour cream

1 large red onion thinly sliced

2 tablespoons dry dill

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 lbs. cooked medium shrimp

 

In a large bowl, mix mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugar, sour cream, onion, dill and salt.  Stir in shrimp. 

Cover and refrigerate overnight. Stir once or as many times you want.  We’re not stir-free here…

Serve with tooth picks… along with other nibbles, or even a few of Snoop’s edibles.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays...