An Autumn Dinner Party Menu

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about throwing a dinner party. An intimate, joyful, intoxicated evening with six guests, many bottles of wine, laughter, twinkly lights, well-chosen music, and parlor games. I’ve put together a fall menu culled from our collection of recipes. It should be no surprise that each course is dead simple – the most pared-down versions we’ve done. Classic preparations of beautiful ingredients. Wine, butter, olive oil. Herbs, oranges, sea salt. While guests arrived I’d serve bright green Sicilian castelvetrano and Greek kalamata olives, radishes with Kate’s butter and salt, salami and cheese and Carr’s rosemary crackers. A pitcher of gin martinis. Then we’d sit down at the table for a leisurely meal of:

Classic Steamed Mussels

Simple Roast Chicken

No-Knead Bread

Green Salad with Buttermilk Ranch

…and Olive Oil Orange Cake

After dinner, we’ll retire to the living room to play Cranium, Scattergories, and Apples to Apples while we drink after dinner cocktails, maybe Mexican coffee with Kalhua and cinnamon cream. There should be tons of candles and an impromptu dance session. At some point late, a 6 year old comes downstairs pouting in her footed pajamas, asking that we stop having so much fun. In the kitchen, the dishes are soaking in the sink. We’ll worry about them tomorrow.

Tagged as: cheese, cocktails, dinner party, wine

About the Author: Jillian Bedell

Jillian grew up in Connecticut, went to university in Boston, college in New Haven, did some post-grad soul searching in New York, exiled herself to Mexico, married her longtime sweetheart, and lived in a house on the ocean. She suspected Maine might be the perfect place to raise a family, so she came back home to New England two years ago. Now a mom to Violet Maeve and living in Rockland, where she hopes to settle for a good, long while, Jillian reads, writes, walks, and practices Nia, when not watching Malcolm photograph sandwiches.