Kids, I am having a dinner party on Christmas Eve, and I am drawing a complete blank, here. All I know is, I am definately serving the traditional treize desserts, (13 desserts) to finish the meal. What I don't know is, what to serve for dinner. I had thought maybe oyster stew, as it seems traditional, but I don't know.

Y'all have wonderful taste, I know. Please help me out here - what should I serve, what should I include in the 13 desserts (since I am eschewing the traditional candied fruit and going for more American desserts), and what should I do for a centerpiece?

12-12 guests, and I am feeling kind of uninspired - I want this to be a memorable party, but I think these people have eaten all of my usual recipes! Won't you Martha me with some brilliant ideas?

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Answers

13 desserts is traditional? Damn, I gotta tell my Mom that.

I can't be too helpful because, well, I suck. Except that I know a lot of the cooking magazines out for December tend to feature traditional Christmas menus. I think the current Gourmet does.

If you want old-timey traditional a goose is your friend. But that would involve finding a goose (maybe not too hard in Chicago and I know you can internet order it) and cooking a goose. Plum pudding, also good and traditional, and I know I just read a magazine with a recipe which discussed that modern day plum pudding has no plums but raisins. That may have actually been Martha's magazine.

Centerpieces, I always think several pillar candles of different sizes, intertwined with silver and/or gold tinsel on a mirror is a pretty Christmas centerpiece. Or a big glass bowl full of colorful ornaments (sans hangers).

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Ooh! Ooh! I like this topic.

Kristen, I'm all about starting the meal off with oyster soup/stew. I know that my mother makes amazing oyster soup, and it's really easy: make a white roux (butter, flour, and milk when the butter and the flour are mixed, but haven't started to brown), add whole milk, salt, white pepper, lots of green onions, and your oysters. Cook until you think it's all done, and add flour and milk until you get a consistency you like. The trick is to keep stirring with a big spoon or whisk, because if the bottom of the soup browns, it will just be sad, sad, sad.

In terms of new recipes, I highly recommend the December Southern Living. For real. I know you're in Chicago, and all, but they have some great recipes and decorating ideas that your friends might not have had in the past.

Tell us about the treize desserts! In the December issue of Gourmet, they had the most beautiful candied fruits that I have ever seen. In my life. They're mail order, and they're expensive, but they are just beautiful - like the ones in France and Spain. A whole peeled pear, but candied. Amazing. Other desserts? Since you need to make 13, I'm thinking some things that you can make in advance, and some things taht are store-bought. I adore doberge cake, and you can't go wrong with a yule log, and you could make fudge, pralines, cookies, etc., a week or so in advance (store them in airtight containers, od course). On Good Morning America today, Sara Moulton made several great cookies that will keep for up to two weeks, and I know that JC (Julia Child, although I'm sure that Jesus Christ is a mighty fine baker) has a good yule log recipe with great instructions.

Good luck!

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

I just want to know if I'm invited.

I'll bring drinks. Good ones. Thirteen different kinds, if you like.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

T, I'm making the lightbulb ornaments from the December Southern Living for my professors.

Seriously, though, just listen to T. She owns the dinner party.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

I'm having one tonight, in fact:

Roasted chicken stuffed with crawfish and rice (exceopt I didn't make it - a nice lady in Lafayette who my mother knows made it for me), sweet potato gratin, sauteed winter vegetables, and salad with red onions, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and this kick-ass roasted pecan viniagrette dressing (that dressing is so good - in fact, it's what I'm giving to my work people for their holiday gift, and one day it will be my cottage industry). And strawberry crisp for dessert (because it's easy and I am no baker).

I'm debating whether or not I should have a soup. I'm making a good smoked trout spread to have out, and of course there will be a plate of cream cheese with Pickapeppa sauce, but should I have a soup, also? There will only be six people, total.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Kristin, I am so excited - I hope you take lots of pictures of everything to share.

In re: centerpiece, I would keep it simple - especially if you plan on arranging les treize desserts on a sideboard for display. Stack them on cake plates and pillars for some elevation, and let those be the visual focus of the dining area. Do plain ecru cards nearby, with gold or silver or black ink with the name of each dessert.

Are you keeping a Provencal theme for the whole evening? if so, maybe a simple collection of rustic florals on the table would be nice.

Are you feeling brave enough to do a paté? That would be a fun way to incorporate duck or goose. A salmon tray with capers and breads would be another nice starter.

You've really got your hands full with the treize or I would suggest a crown roast as the main course - since we are talking traditional. The sight of a crown roast makes me think Christmas, no matter when.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Oh, and T? I don't think you need a soup at all, but that's just MHO.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

T, would you be willing to post the recipe for your roasted pecan dressing? I love good dressings.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Words fail to describe properly how much I adore you all - and can I just say, I want to go to a dinner party at T's house! I am going out to look for Southern Living on Friday. I loooooove Southern Living.

I love the idea of doing up cards to put in front of each dessert, which will be on a sideboard for people to serve themselves after the sitdown meal. I have some pretty monogramed gift enclosure cards that might work for that! This is a little info on treize desserts - the effect is really beautiful, and the candied fruit is incredibly easy - peel fruit, blanche fruit, pour heated sugar syrop over fruit, let dry.

I am seriously thinking of serving a lasagne though for my main course, because i just found out I have to work dec 24th. Yeah!

Tell me about your memorable dinner parties? Was it the great menu, the great decor, the excellent guests that made it memorable? Is a great dinner party just luck, or is it all in the planning? I haven't done a big sit down in 3 years, and I am nervous!

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2001

Oh, Kristin, lasagna is SUCH a good idea! You can make it several days in advance, and you can make an elaborate carnival lasagna that will blow the roof off of the place. A few weeks ago, the New York Times ran an article about lasagna - I bet that if you put "lasagna" into their search engine, it would pull the recipe up.

I love PG's idea about how to arrange the sideboard for the treize. It's all so Martha, but in a good way.

Southern Living will not fail you. Oh, and it this is a Provence theme, maybe you could do arrangements with the herbes de Provence (pre-seasoning jar stage) - dried lavender, etc.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

I love this topic, too! I'm having a dinner party this Saturday night, actually, so I'm thinking about the same kinds of things. There will be either 12 or 13 of us, total.

This time I've decided to simplify things and attempt what I know we can actually *do*. I *know* how I am - I like to plan to do this and that AND the other thing, and then I spend days running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to make everything perfect. This year, two of my friends are coming over on Saturday during the day for Christmas cookie baking, which means I'll be busy all day doing that - so we're letting everyone help with the dinner party. We're making the entree (lasagna), the dessert (chocolate fondue), and a couple of nifty appetizers. Some of the guests are bringing salad, other appetizers, and things to dip in the fondue.

A lasagna can be prepared ahead of time, can easily serve a large number of people, AND we can make both vegetarian and meat versions (two people coming to dinner are vegetarians). And chocolate fondue always seems to be fairly impressive to people, is very easy, and is fun!

Since I don't have to worry as much about the menu this year, I have more time to decorate and Christmas shop and plan for the Christmas cookie baking.

(Y'all, I am becoming a weirdo with the decorating. There are ornaments hanging from the dining room chandelier, inspired by Christie Brinkley's chandelier, as pictured in some magazine I was looking at in Border's the other day. There are ornaments hanging from nails I hammered into the woodwork up near the ceiling, on long strips of silver and gold ribbon, in the dining room and living room. We have a real tree ($10!) in the living room and the wimpy fake tree we bought last year ($15!) in the dining room. I've stenciled fake snow-spray snowflakes on windows and mirrors. I've hung these big wooden ornaments I made (wooden snowflakes, mostly, painted white, with the flat glass bead things glued on top - really, they look cooler than I'm making them sound) on doors all around the apartment. I am a freak! But I'm having fun. I'm also making my own Christmas (post)cards in the darkroom! But this has nothing to do with a dinner party. Heh.)

Anyway, I just wanted to chime in on the dinner party talk, and see if anybody has any other cool suggestions - lasagne recipes (we'll be preparing it Friday night) or fondue recipes or suggestions!

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

Oh. My. GOD. Your dinner parties are going to be AWESOME! Good luck to you, T, Jessamyn, and Kristin! All your plans sound delicious.

My mom likes to make what she calls Company Chicken any time she has a dinner party. It can be made ahead, bakes for a LONG time enabling her to do other things, and the recipe can easily be doubled or quadrupled depending on how many guests she's having. It is served over rice and I think it's delicious. Here's the recipe. She makes a mean Mandarin Almond Salad to go with it and serves warmed Hawaiian bread rolls.

For dessert I like to make individual cheesecakes. I decorate the plate by squirting some Hershey's syrup on it in fancy designs and then park the cheesecake in the middle like I'm a gourmet chef or something.

My first time with the linky, I hope that works.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

Pardon the vagueness of the information, but I'm at work and can't check my back issues. Bon Appetit had a lasagna recipe that was to die for. It's called something like Pancetta, Porcini and Fontina Lasagna. I usually can't find porcini and just substitute regular ole white mushrooms.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

You can't go wrong with pancetta. Or prosciutto, for that matter.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2001

What's the latest on the party?

-- Anonymous, December 21, 2001

Arghh. a 102 inch table cloth doesn't go as far as I thought it would. The napkins, a creamy floral damask, do not match the creamy floral damask of the table cloth. By the same manufacturer. I have to work the day of the party. With the same colour code on the package. My husband cleaned the spots on the living room carpet with liniment that smells like an 1800's Patent Medicine and the fumes are making me sick. I can't find my specially special Santa cheese spreaders. The black suede shirt I was planning on wearing has disappeared from the dry cleaners. People have called to say they are bringing guests with them.

On the plus side, there is champagne chilling in the fridge. People cracked up at the party invite. I bought little boxes at the Container Store and am using them as place cards - they each fit about 5 holly leaf gingerbread cookies dipped in chocolate. And I have a full bottle of rye. And I made a zebra cheesecake that looks pretty good.

So, I guess I am ready. Argggh.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2001

Yay, Kristin! If those are your last-minute glitches (some of which you know are de rigueur), then you are going to be a star!

Hope it's going well... be sure to provide all the gory details here. I'll be drinking vodka and keeping my fingers crossed for you!!

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2001

I know even though you experienced those last minute headaches, I'm sure everything went great. I want to hear all the details!

I was cracking up at your invite too because I thought at 9 o'clock the agenda was "Screwing". A Christmas Eve orgy! I was thinking, Wow, Kristin? A swinger? WOW.

-- Anonymous, December 26, 2001