The 5 Things I Would Have Done Differently This Party Season
A few minor oversights kept these holiday gatherings from getting a five-star rating.
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Thank you reading. Quaintrelle is written by me, journalist- turned-sommelier and party host, Erin Henderson. If you have food and drink lovers in your life, please share this post with them. And if this was sent on to you, you can subscribe just by clicking the button below.
In This Issue…
Festive Food – The make-ahead egg brunch my family demands every single holiday.
Entertaining – I helped manage loads of holiday parties this season; these were the top mistakes party hosts made this year.
The Family That Tortellini’s Together…
I spent the bulk of last Sunday making 400 tortellini for Christmas Eve’s brodo.
It was a family affair – all hands on deck – my nephew rolling hundreds of pea-sized meatballs for the pasta stuffing, my sister rolling and cutting the pasta, my brother-in-law and I stuffing, folding, and pinching the tiny tortellini. My niece, feigning a work engagement at the city skating rink, was relieved from duty.
Thursday morning, I will complete my Christmas grocery shopping, save for the roast beef for the crostini, which, yes, will make yet another appearance this holiday. I think most people will take off starting Friday and I have a physical reaction to crowds, so I want to get it all done before the hoards descend.
I begin my holiday cooking on the 20th, knocking off one or two things each day. They call this season a time for comfort and joy, not sweat and panic.
I’m not going to bore you with my very adamant thoughts of make-ahead. I worry I’ve beaten that drum too hard and I’m starting to sound like an unhinged zealot. Perhaps I am. If you enjoy a through beating, who am I to judge? Here’s how I handled the final week of Thanksgiving prep.
Instead of a beautifully colour-coded to do list, this week, I’m looking at the ways to avoid the teeny mishaps that can derail your gatherings. Or, if not derail them, maybe dull the shine on an otherwise superb event. As they say, the devil’s in the details, and it’s easy to misspell Santa when overwhelmed and distracted.
As I noted up above, those blasted roast beef crostini with horseradish crema will make another appearance on Christmas Day. It’s a good thing everyone loves them. On busy and bustling days, reinventing the wheel is a recipe for disaster – and if any day should serve repeats of family favourites, surely it’s a holiday?
So I’m also sending out my family’s most requested dish. A brunch recipe I have made every Christmas for 20 years. Longer and more consistently than anything else in my recipe repertoire.
Repeat recipes are a should in my hosting book. But first, let’s discuss the shouldn’ts.