Dinner parties are back. Cocktail parties are back. Cigars and martinis are back. Before you know it, even pill box hats will be back. But some things have changed, irrevocably. There was a time when celebration meant days of planning, days of cooking--and days of recuperation. But no more! In these last years of the twentieth century the very thought of preparing one of those sumptuous multi-course extravaganzas has become no more than a fleeting nightmare.But for special events, there is still nothing quite so welcome as a home cooked meal. In "Entertaining 101, " mother and daughter Linda Eckhardt and Katherine DeFoyd provide all the information you need to throw a terrific party at home. Each of the recipes has been tested, not only by the authors but by less experienced cooks. Each one has been simplified to eliminate all unnecessary steps. Each menu is accompanied by a carefully worked-out timetable so that every dish will be ready at once. No menu requires more than an hour's preparation time in the kitchen--although some dishes may cook longer unattended.
The 52 seasonal menus--from a Winter Solstice Formal Sage Chicken Dinner for Eight to a Summer Supper from the Farmer's Market--will allow anyone to entertain "with style and grace" every week of the year. Each menu includes the authors' extremely useful tips and suggestions for serving and decorating, but there are no absolute rights or wrongs. As the authors put it: "Want to serve dinner from a black pot in the kitchen? Why not? If the stew is well made and the kitchen warm and toasty, nothing will please your friends and family more." This may not be the age of Aquarius, but it is certainly the age of liberation--inthe kitchen as well as everywhere else.
