Summer Entertaining Suggestions

Summer entertaining suggestions and information invite vibrant color, easy entertaining tips, and fun home decor touches to the party.

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Photo by Joseph Sun

Summer nights frame the art of entertaining with a canvas of color and hosting ease.

DIY-ice-bucket

DIY Ice Buckets

Invite the wow factor to your summer soiree with these DIY party ice buckets and ice cubes.

Ice ice baby too cold, too cute!

Fresh mint ice cubes are easy to make, delicious to taste, and talk about pretty in a pitcher or glass or both.

fresh mint ice cubes

Place gently rinsed fresh mint leaves into each individual square of the ice cube tray.

Fill  squares with water.

Pop tray into freezer until cubes are solid.

Enjoy!

lantern luminaries

John Jacob Interiors

Creating an evening under the stars atmosphere begins with bringing down the house lights and illuminating the summer night with soft accent lighting.

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Photo by Laura Adai

Casual elegance is easily achieved by strategically placing kerosene lanterns or glass jar luminaries along a walkway.

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House Beautiful

For extra ambiance wrap, hang, drape or string white twinkle string lights from trees, in shrubs and around columns.

Stunning!

yellow paper lanterns

Tiki torches, table lamps on loan for the evening from your interior home decor, garden chandeliers, and decorative paper lanterns also make great options in the quest to create a comfortable and inviting atmosphere.

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Ball Jars prove a versatile party decor darling.  Light them up, fill them up, or chill them down.

Ball 4pk 32oz Regular Mouth Quart Canning Jars Rose Vintage

Ball 4pk Glass Regular Mouth Rose Vintage Mason Jar with Lid and Band

Your midsummer night’s entertaining dream becomes a reality with these quaint and stunning homemade hurricanes.

outdoor-hanging-jar-lights

Simple and affordable combine decorating forces to add subtle yet palpable charm to a perfect summer evening scene.

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Give me a reason to turn a flower pot into a serving piece and it is summer soiree party on.

flower-pot-brownies

Flower Pot Brownies Recipe

Hard to forget the look I got the first time I announced we were having pot brownies at our pot party to a co-hostess.  I don’t believe I have ever clarified something so quickly before or since then.

Vidalia-onion

Anywho, clay flower pots are an inexpensive and summer appropriate alternative to traditional serving pieces.

smores-fixins

Baked beans, barbecued wings, Creole seasoned French fries, baked Vidalia onions, s’mores fixins- all great “pot” options.

House Beautiful

Elevate an otherwise average patio table to party perfection by topping it with a stylish outdoor tablecloth. Layer the look with chairs, cushions and outdoor pillows decked out in bright summer colors.

Decoristas have long had a trusty trick up their sleeve… home decor accents and furnishings that work gorgeously inside the house will rock an outdoor living space like a Led Zeppelin concert!

Domaine

Love your inside dining chairs and know they will be the key to pulling the entire outdoor tablescape together, but don’t want the chair legs to get dirty?

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Architectural Digest

Wrap the bottom of each chair leg with clear plastic wrap.

Perhaps a tad time-consuming, but it will save time on the clean up end of the party.

Be as pre-party proactive as possible with certain tasks.  It’s a summer entertaining essential skill for the host and/or hostess to hone.

DIY summer citronella candles how to video from Southern Living show us how to make a DIY bug-be-gone candle that is not only visually impressive, but an essential must for comfortable summer soiree nights.

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Photo by Tasso Mitsarakis 

At the point in the party when the food and drink has hit the spot, the music is summer smooth, the outdoor party life is kicking up a notch, and the company and the conversation is hitting all the right notes, now is the perfect time to hand out summer refresh party pails.

Splash-N-Swim-colorful-plastic-beach-pail

Fill plastic beach pails from the dollar store with his or hers flip-flops, individual aluminum spray bottles filled with chilled homemade rose water (the guys love this stuff almost as much as the gals), cold cucumber slices in freezer bags and Burt’s Bees Cucumber & Sage facial cleansing towelettes (love the scent).

Assemble party pails beforehand, adding chilled and cold items to pails right before handing them out.

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Enjoy the colors and celebrations of the season.

What better excuse for throwing a stylish summer entertaining soiree!

Darleen-signature-love

A Most Fetching Friday: Grilled to Perfection Delicious Inspiration

Today’s Fetching Friday features grilled to perfection delicious inspiration for your outdoor living entertaining ideas pleasure.

fetch·ing

/ˈfeCHiNG/

adjective

adjective: fetching

attractive.

synonyms: attractive, appealing, sweet, pretty, good-looking, lovely, delightful, charming, prepossessing, captivating, enchanting, irresistible

salmon with creamed peas

Grilled Salmon with Dijon and Dill Creamed Pea Sauce

201208-HD-grilled-flatbreads-with-mushrooms-ricotta-and-herbs-201208-r-grilled-flatbreads-with-mushrooms-ricotta-and-herbs

Grilled Flatbreads with Mushrooms, Ricotta and Herbs

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Grilled Portofino Vegetable Antipasto

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Grilled Tandoori Chicken

grilled-shrimp-with-cranberry-salsa

 Grilled Shrimp with Fresh Cranberry Salsa

grilled-stone-fruit-almond-mascarpone-dip Grilled Stone Fruit with Almond Mascarpone Dip

enjoy-hydrangea

Thanksgiving Ideas, Tips, and Problem Solvers

The holiday countdown to Thanksgiving is in full swing, and these Thanksgiving ideas, tips, and problem solvers will help to make the gather and feast run as smooth as I hope your gravy turns out.

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From roasting the bird to company’s coming to impressive easy recipes to cooking crisis avoided tips to holiday home decor suggestions to beat the holiday band, the There’s No Place Like Home For the Holidays series is updated, refreshed and ready with helpful Thanksgiving ideas, tips and problem solvers.

Freedom-From-Want-by-Norman-Rockwell-Painting-Print-on-Canvas

This is the most wonderful time of the year for inviting family and friends into your home to gather, celebrate, and be merry.

A well planned and prepped holiday gathering is a successful holiday gathering.

I put the culinary drama on the back burner and let the cooking, baking, holiday decorating, and online Black Friday shopping good times roll.

soup-tureen

Size does matter when it comes to all things Thanksgiving.

How much food is needed per person is the question on the mind of every holiday host and hostess.

The good people at Pop Sugar have got it down to a serving size science with their Thanksgiving cheat sheet.

Food-Thankgiving-Cheat-Sheet

Do you and yours call it dressing or stuffing?

What you call this quintessential Thanksgiving side dish seems to depend on geography, tradition, and location (in the bird or outside of the bird).

Our Southern family is team dressing, and our Chicago and Canada family is team stuffing.

The one thing we all agree on is that the base ingredient must be buttermilk cornbread.

skillet cornbread

A bread based dish can, and will, easily dry out when baked.

Dry dressing or stuffing is a holiday side dish deal breaker.

Chicken stock or broth and the amount added to the crumbled cornbread is the key to moist dressing.

You want the dressing consistency to be soupy, but not soggy.

The rule of you can add to, but not take away from applies here.

Add  ½  cup of stock or broth at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

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A frazzled host or hostess does not make a pretty holiday picture.

Don’t try to be a holiday hero.

Spread the holiday love and the holiday duties around.

Taking guests up on their gracious what can I do-what can I bring offers makes it a shared event and helps to eliminate holiday hosting burnout.

Believe me, you’ll be glad you did! 

HCH2NEY_az

Turkey and gravy are the peanut butter and jelly of holiday cuisine.

 It’s a traditional pairing of flavor deliciousness that takes culinary center stage on the holiday dinner table.  

Cooking the perfect gravy can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be.  

Adding a pinch of salt to the flour before adding any liquid will help to eliminate lumpy gravy.  

Gravy too thin?  

Mix together two (2) teaspoons cornstarch and two (2) teaspoons chicken broth or water.  

Stir or whisk into the warm gravy and simmer until the gravy thickens.  

If the gravy separates, add a pinch or two of baking soda to emulsify the fat. 

Oh, no!  The gravy has a burnt flavor. 

Remember the peanut butter reference? 

Simply add a teaspoon of peanut butter to cover up the burnt flavor.

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A good carving set is essential to proper and easy turkey carving.

If the dreaded happens on the big day and your carving knife is duller than first period math, I’ve got a helpful solution for you.

carving set

To sharpen your knife, use the unglazed porcelain on the bottom of a coffee mug.

Hold the knife at a 30 degree angle and run it across the area a few times on each side.

bar cart Brian Hart HoffmanBrian Hart Hoffman – Chairish

Our Thanksgiving day cocktail hour leans more towards the slow sip rule of thumb.

Tipsy Turkey Times is almost a guaranteed oh, s*!%.

Look at drunkity drunk drunk add family member or friend’s name here.

upside- down- paris- apartmentThe Paris Apartment

My formula for a safe cocktail hour is simple:

One (1) cocktail per person for the pre-dinner cocktail hour.

The sippers sip a little slower, the teetotalers don’t give it a second thought, and the booze hounds will get over it.

I like to consult the Serious Eats Booze-o-Matic Party Time Drink Calculator as a reference for our holiday set ’em up, Joe cocktail parties. 

wine tastingWine Tasting

We consult a dear friend, our trusted expert wine aficionado go-to, for wine pairing guidance when serving turkey.

For white wine drinkers, he suggests a dry Chardonnay, white Zinfandel or Riesling.

A good Pinot Noir will please the palette of the red wine drinker.

cube-ice-bucket

I  always get a big chuckle out of the “Party, party” episode of Frasier. 

Martin: Hey, great party huh?  Just as long as we’ve got enough ice.  You got four bags, right?

Daphne: No, I got two.

Martin: Two?!  I told you to get four bags!

Daphne: Oh, here we go.

Martin: You never under-budget on the ice.  You never know, you might get a lot more rocks drinkers than you expected.  Or ice chewers.

ice cubes

Food Network

Ice cubes measure about ten (10) cubes per pound, and the rule of thumb is one (1) pound of ice cubes per person.

Cheers to good tv, great times, and helpful Thanksgiving ideas, tips, and problem solvers

Darleen-signature-love

For Your Dining Pleasure: Dinner Party Ideas

With May through to August graduations, weddings, and festivities comes the celebratory ritual of culinary and social interaction and entertaining, and with that the need for dinner party ideas.

Bob Ryan is a larger-than-life fictional character from the classic HBO series Entourage.  

Portrayed by the late Martin Landau, Bob Ryan is a lovely idea of a man.

Martin Landau as Bob Ryan

He is well spoken in the language of ramble, but what he has to say is about the art of dining is worth a listen.

Bob will have no part of stressful topics being discussed before, during, or after dining.

Ambiance is key in the art and aid of proper digestion, a priority high on his list of dinner party ideas.

top hat owl

Bob Ryan reasons that proper digestion is an important part of the dining experience.

Fictional or real, the wise old owl has got a point.

What if I was to tell you a rich cup of  Louisiana coffee or tea, fine wine, accent lighting and great music is Bob Ryan 101 at Casa Places In The Home.

In the immortal words of Bob Ryan, “Is that something you might be interested in?”

menu-dinner

From menu to music to the personalities of the diners, you’ve got to put some thought into it.

Much like the perfect wine pairing, getting it right enhances the flavor of the event.

Rose wines

I don’t believe it is terminal if the music or the wine selection doesn’t perfectly fit with a course, but it can feel like there’s been a death when we’re paired with bad dinner guests.

Ther is an art to accomplishing that particular pairing- a social sommelier, if you will.

In case of social emergency, make sure the wine is flowing and hope the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Jump-Paris-1965

Melvin Sokolsky ~ Jump, Paris, 1965

If the quickest way to a person’s heart is through their stomach, music is the shortest route to their soul.

A casual meal goes well with the greatest hits of whatever decade you have the fondest memories from.

A romantic meal naturally slows down the pace of life, speeds up the pace of the heart, and goes well with a smooth groove.

romantic-table-setting

Pinterest

Music makes the mood, and no respectable formal dinner party is complete without the music.

What?

Your crowd doesn’t have an Appetite for Destruction?

There’s a lot to be said for the advice offered up from a fictional character in a cable series.

Palatable peace existing in perfect harmony in the name of digestion is at the top of my dinner party ideas list.

And yes, Bob, that is something I am very interested in.

Darleen-signature-love