James Beard's Menu's For Entertaining

Entertaining is another sub-genre in cookbooks that we just love. Now to be totally fair, we have never, ever cooked a menu, nor set a table based upon anything in one of these books, but we do love to watch other people entertain. One of the best loved books on entertaining is James Beard's Menu's For Entertaining.  There are tons of copies out there, and though we have no firm facts, it seems to be one of Book-Of-The-Month Club's best sellers, making the hunt for a nice First Edition a daunting task.

These days, James Beard is known more for awards than recipes, but in the 50's and 60's, if Beard cooked it, it would likely find its way onto a table near you. Of entertaining he wrote:

"Entertaining is my main pleasure, my forte;and beyond that is essential to my livelihood. I do it frequently with little help and often with none at all. It is not unusual for me to arrive home at 5:30 after a full day's work, with eight guests due for cocktails and dinner two hours later."

In moving things around, I picked up Menu's For Entertaining and found it to be beyond charming. Beard cooked before the proliferation of take out, specialty shops, sous vide, and molecular gastronomy.  What would he think today?

As chef's and their restaurants tout their recent listing on the James Beard awards pages here is our favorite recipe from Menu's For Entertaining.

Whole Hominy

Open and wash two No. 2 1/2 cans whole hominy. Heat with 6 tablespoons butter in a covered pan over medium heat. Salt and pepper to taste and add 1/3 cup of sour cream.

Now you, too, can entertain like James Beard.  And don't you feel better about it.

The Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits

After watching The Lee Bros.' new show Southern Uncovered, set this week in Charleston, we were kind of in a Charleston mood, so we pulled out The Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits.  Though it may not seem exactly self-explanatory, the book is really a jam packed recipe book with etiquette tips interspersed.  Suzanne Pollak and Lee Manigault have put together a great collection of recipes and some tips on just how easy entertaining can be. They do not always agree with each other, which is a refreshing.  Many books that purport to be about entertaining give the impression that there is only one way to go...the authors often choose differing paths such as where one places one's dessert cutlery.

Now we just love "entertaining" books ; in fact, we would probably rather read entertaining books than actually entertain, but if need be, we are good to go for most any occasion.  No matter how much one entertain, however, there is that moment when you think, "What am I going to do?" This is the perfect book to pull off the shelf.  It is familiar enough to ease you into that party planning mode with recipes for spicy nuts, deviled eggs, angels on horseback, and a fine old-fashioned. 

On the other hand, there is the element of surprise, that item one would never think of as entertaining fare that will leave your guests blown away, like my fave, oxtail. There are also sautéed carrots and peaches, crunchy shallots, and ginger cheesecake for an unforgettable dinner party.

Here is a piece of advice we can get behind: "Two or three bacon appetizers are not overkill."
Indeed!

Candied Bacon

1/2 pound of your favorite sliced bacon
Turbinado sugar or light brown sugar
Freshly cracked black pepper
Cayenne

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Halve the bacon slices crosswise and arrange on parchment lined baking sheets so that the pieces don't touch. Sprinkle the sugar liberally on top to cover the bacon; season with black pepper and cayenne to taste. Bake, rotating once, until the sugar is caramelized, about 20 minutes.

There were a couple of reviews that implied this book was a bit old fashioned or that it was geared to wealthy housewives, like only rich people cared about such things as etiquette and entertaining.  Yes, for years we have been told, politely that one should chew with ones mouth closed and still, go to any fine dining establishment and you are likely to find a gentleman who wants you to remember him for his $10,000 Rolex, but all you will remember is seeing the food in his mouth!  Truth be told, one does not need a Victorian townhouse in Charleston, grandmama's collection of Francis 1 silverware, nor a Viking stove to host an elegant dinner party.  Even the girls down at the trailer park can tell you which side of the plate the fork goes on! 

Everyone can benefit from a little guidance on the domestic sciences.  The world is a better place with manners and a good candied bacon. The Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits is a fine place to get your party started.

The Kinfolk Table

Let's get this out of the way. There are two kinds of people: The people that will LOVE this cookbook and the people that will HATE this cookbook. It is easy to be polarized.

 

Nathan Williams is the editor of the widely popular magazine, Kinfolk.

LOVERS: The magazine's goal is to "offer an alternative idea of entertaining -- casual, intentional, and meaningful."

HATERS: Kinfolk entertaining is tortured, pretentious and devoid of people.

LOVERS: Nathan Williams is a world traveler, collecting recipes.

HATERS: If your world is Portland, Brooklyn, Copenhagen, and the English countryside.

 

LOVERS: The recipes are simple and elegant.

HATERS: The recipes are tedious and don't work.

 

We read dozens of reviews of this book. The glowing reviews all said the book was gorgeous and published a slew of pictures. They waxed poetic about the food, but no one had actually made any of the recipes. The only actual review of the book we could find came from Felicia Sullivan in Medium. She was not a fan.

What do we think?

LOVE IT: If you have ever picked up or for that matter, seen a copy of Kinfolk, you cannot miss it. It is visually arresting. There are few publication out there that one can spot at 100 feet. They love white walls and wooden tables and roasted chicken and so do we. They don't care about immersion circulators or stick blenders or matched china. It is beautiful and we want it for that reason, alone!

 

HATE IT: We love our white walls and wooden table, but we would spend an entire day setting up these photos. They are not just thrown together, they are highly curated. For all the talk of "gatherings" and "community" the photos are hauntingly devoid of people. Most people are alone. The "simple" food is reminiscent of hippie cookbooks from the 1970's. So, in bringing "entertaining" to a new generation, they seemed to have brought mama's old commune coobooks with them.

 

Here's a lentil salad.

Citrus Lentil Salad

1 cup dried green lentils, picked over

6 scallions, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine or apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Grated zest of 1 lemon or orange

1 tablespoon sugar

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Rinse the lentils under cold running water in a fine-mesh sieve until the water runs clear. Place the lentils in a medium saucepan and add enough cold water to cover by 3 inches. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

Drain the lentils and return them to the pot. Add enough cold water to cover by 3 inches. Remove and discard any lentil shells that rise to the top, then drain once again.

Place the lentils in a large bowl and add the scallions, olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, zest, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.

Let the salad rest for at least 20 minutes to allow the flavors to combine. Serve. The salad can be stored,refrigerated, in an airtight container, for up to two days.

The Kinfolk Table is an aspirational cookbook. You aspire to lovely blonde and African children. You aspire to copper pots and a house filled with books. You aspire to poached salmon and steamed cod. You aspire to tattoos and bearded boyfriends in Portland or Brooklyn.

Right now I am sitting at my reclaimed wood table, staring at my stark white wall, drinking coffee, alone. I aspire to the pages of Kinfolk, but I am not going to get dressed or clean off the table for the photo shoot!

 

 

Ways With Food

If ever one was in Palm Beach from the 1950's on,  the person with the best "Ways With Food" was none other than Harriet Healy.  Healy taught the rich and famous a thing or two about food.  Her reputation as a cook with a flair for entertaining grew.  She was an American hostess who imparted a casual hand to entertaining that motivated generations of women.

Healy was the "go to" for fashionable feasts in Palm Beach.  Trained at the Cordon Bleu, her reputation grew out a series of cooking classes she offered at Au Bon Gout, her gourmet food and accessory shop.  Though Healy is a name that may not be familiar today, she was regularly mentioned with such culinary giants as Craig Claiborne, Pierre Franey, Julia Child, and James Beard.   According to Craig Claiborne her kitchen was one of the most stylish and well equipped in Palm Beach.  For more info on that kitchen check out this post from The Peak of Chic.

Healy published sever spiral bound cookbooks based on her classes at Au Bon Gout and in the early 1060's she edited the Palm Beach Garden Cookbook, a collection of recipes from the Palm Beach Garden Club.  In 1982 she published Ways With Food.   The cookbook is a product of its time.  There is much Campbell's soup and lots of mayonnaise.  In fact, Healy advises that a cook not bother to use homemade stock when using curry powder.  Here is her recipe for a cold lemon soup.  It is like a Greek soup, she says but with no cooking!

Cold Lemon Soup

1 can Campbell's cream of chicken soup
1 cup cream
1 cup chicken stock
3 tablespoons finely chopped mint leaves
Juice of 2 lemons

Strain soup, add the cream, chicken stock, finely chopped mint leaves and lemon juice.  Soup must be served ice-cold.

If you do not have chicken stock, the soup is still good thinned with cream and milk.  The soup must not be too thick.  Soup cups may be decorated with parsley -- this is more effective on glass cups.

I was very interested in recipe for Souffle Crackers, a recipe that called for soaking Uneeda Crackers in water for 8 minutes, then broiling them till brown.  Alas, Uneeda Crackers no longer exist!

While the recipes might seem a bit dated, one thin that is not is Healy's taste in kitchen ware. Au Bon Gout was the place to buy Dodie Thayer china with its unmistakable leafy patterns.  IT was a popular purchase for everyone from Jackie Kennedy to C.Z. Guest.  The late Brooke Astor had a collection of 218 pieces including  a tureen, cover and stand, a large salad bowl, a circular serving dish, a circular platter, four oval platters in three sizes, a trefoil condiment dish, forty-one dinner plates, thirty dessert plates, fourteen side plates, thirteen salad plates, eight shallow circular bowls, eight small bowls, a coffee pot and cover, a milk jug, a cream jug, nineteen coffee cups and saucers, four tall vases, six small bud vases, eight candlesticks, four salts and six small ladles, six pepper shakers and fifteen butter pads, impressed marks.   Estimated to sell between $ 9,000 and $15,000, the lot sold for a whopping $74,500.

C .Z. Guest's tables set with Dodie Thayer

Derby Entertaining

Tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby, and though not officially recognized on the calendar, a virtual Southern holiday. Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a Southerner, the Derby is a good illustration of the commitment and stamina one must have. Here are the statistics:

The actual running of the Kentucky Derby--

2 minutes

The actual partying for the Kentucky Derby --

10 days

This gives you an average of 5 days of parties for every minute of activity. Using this equation, add up SEC Football, Mardi Gras, Decoration Day, Derby Day, Mother's Day, All-Saints Day, All-Souls Day, Bear Bryant's Birthday, and... oh, yeah, Thanksgiving and Christmas; multiply by 5 and you will find that being a Southerner requires partying every single day of the year! This may explain why I have so many cookbooks and so little time!

This being said, I feel you should have a recipe for derby pie!. Actually, the term "derby-pie" is trade marked and registered, so the recipe I am giving you is for a traditional, Kentucky-bourbon-chocolate-chip-nut-pie-which you may name as you please. If you are wondering, according to the DERBY-PIE® website:

"DERBY-PIE® was born nearly a half century ago as the specialty pastry of the Melrose Inn, at Prospect, Kentucky. Once developed, a proper name had to be given. Because each family member had a favorite, the name DERBY-PIE® was actually pulled from a hat. And what a winner! By 1968 DERBY-PIE® had become so successful that the name was registered with the U.S. Patent Office and the Commonwealth of Kentucky (that's the reason for the ®!). Since then it has been baked and distributed solely by Kern's Kitchen, a small family operation."

Rather than face legal action, the pie that dare not speak it's name is known as: Kentucky Derby Pie, Thoroughbred pie, and of course...

Run for The Roses Pie

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup chopped pecans
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Kentucky bourbon
9-inch unbaked pie crust

Combine the sugar and flour in a large bowl; mix in the butter. Add the eggs, pecans, chocolate chips, vanilla extract and bourbon; mix well. Pour into the pie crust. Place the pie on a baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 55 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

This is from Derby Entertaining. Not to be confused with the famous, Decoration Day Entertaining.

My Mother's Southern Entertaining

It's no big secret that I just love Southern entertaining and I love a boy who loves his mama! So it is no wonder I am drawn to this book. Opening My Mother's Southern Entertaining by James Villas and his mother, Martha Pearl Villas is like going home. She passes the southern purity test by not putting sugar in her cornbread.


There is nothing more quintessentially Southern than a congealed salad. Since today is the day before the Super Bowl, I thought I would give you a recipe from Miss Martha Pearl's Super Bowl Buffet.

Congealed Football Broccoli Mold

One 10-ounce package frozen broccoli, thawed
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup chicken stock or broth
2/3 cup mayonnaise (Miss Martha Pearl prefers Hellmann's)
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced onion
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
One 4-ounce jar whole pimentos cut into thin strips

Grease a medium-size oval mold and set aside.

Cook the broccoli according to package directions, drain, chop finely and set aside.

In a small saucepan, soften the gelatin in the water for about 5 minutes, then add the broth and stir over low heat until the gelatin has dissolved completely.
pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl, add the mayonnaise, sou cream, lemon juice, onion and Worcestershire, and beat with an electric mixer till smooth. Chill the mixture till partially set, about 30 minutes, then fold in the broccoli and eggs. Scrape the mixture into the prepared mold, cover with plastic wrap and chill till firm, at least 2 hours
Unmold the oval onto a serving platter and use the pimento strips to simulate football laces. Keep chilled till ready to serve.

Ok, I haven't made a football oval since high school. Here in West Virginia I can't get NBC, which means NO Super Bowl even though our somewhat local team, the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing. But I wanted you to see just what a masterpiece this could be on your Super Bowl table, so here is a picture of Miss Martha Pearl's. Be a dear and help your mama make one this Sunday!

Menus For Entertaining

I do love my cookbooks. Sometimes I wonder, what will all these enormous tomes filled with tightly cropped, close-ups of trendy food look like in 50 years? They will probably have the same nostalgic effect as leafing through Menus for Entertaining: 72 Parties and 400 Recipes for the Good Cook and Hostess by Juliette Elkon and Elaine Ross.

An entertaining guide for women in 1960, these detailed menus offer a retro look at what women we doing in their homes and kitchens in the "Swinging Sixties." The book features a Committee Breakfast for Eight at 10 A. M. in case you were worried as to what hour to schedule your committee breakfast. There is a Card Party for Eight Women and also a Card Party for Eight Men. Pre- women's movement I guess the men and women were not allowed to play cards together. For the card players, the women got Prune Bread Sandwiches and the men got Beer. It hardly seems fair! No wonder women burned their bras.

There is a Pique-Nique a la Francaise for Four and a Hamper Picnic for Six. Of course there is the Christmas Eve Open House for 100 or more. Christmas Eve seems to be the only time the guest list total has any leeway. Aside from that, every detail is pretty rigid!

The book is illustrated by famed graphic artist John Alcorn. Alcorn's illustrations are well worth pursing this title.




I'm rather fond of cooked cucumbers and this book has nice recipe included in a Viennese Dinner for Eight.

Braised Cucumbers and Peas

Peel 8 cucumbers and cut them in chunks 1 1/2 inches long. In a heavy skillet, over high heat, melt 3 tablespoons butter. Add cucumbers, season with pepper and salt, and saute for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, then add 3 cups shelled peas and 1/2 cup stock, and continue cooking another 5 minutes for frozen peas, or 8 minutes for fresh. When the cucumbers have a glassy look, remove from the heat, sprinkle with 1 tablespoon chopped parsley and 1 teaspoon chopped chives, and transfer to a heated serving dish.

8 cucumbers
3 tablespoons butter
Salt, pepper
3 cups peas
1/2 cup stock
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon chopped chives

If you are not up to cooking Viennese for another 7 people, simply peel and slice a cucumber, season it with a touch of salt and pepper and saute the slices in a teaspoon of butter. It makes a lovely and quick side when you find yourself dining alone!