lessons from Mary

Now that Matt is feeling better for the most part and now that Easter is over, I am no longer a single mother nor a raging lunatic (which is how I get before a party). Did I mention I had Easter brunch at our house with Matt's family? It was my first holiday to host. I actually love making brunch. It's low-key, I love all brunch dishes, and I don't have to feel weird about not serving meat.

Now, I come from a mother who LOVES to entertain. I don't mean simple entertainment either, I mean anywhere from 22 (the number in my "immediate" family now) to 65 (when she throws a big bash). She gets out every piece of silver (the really old fashioned fancy type where the tarnish gets caught in the scrollie little groves and is really hard to rub off when you're an 8-year old performing slave labor before a major holiday). She taught me how to fold a napkin on the table so all you have to do is pick up the corner of it and let it fall on your lap. From her I learned the rule "serve from the left, remove from the right". She taught me that a proper meal should be colorful and include a balance of rich foods and more simple foods. She taught me to fill the coffeepot when you're preparing for a party so all you have to do is turn it on halfway through dinner. Cocktail hour should be just that--one hour to allow for the time it takes for your meal to finish cooking. In short, my mother is the hostess with the mostess. In my family, we tease her because she finds it appaling to put a bottle of anything on the table. As a result, when I was growing up, katsup and jelly always went in little serving cups. Cookingware never went directly on the table; food was always transferred to serving dishes before being placed on the buffet or the table. And we 5 kids were kept busy at night doing dishes. Hmmm...maybe that was the point. I kid you not--to this very day it takes 5 kids plus 4 spouses about two hours to complete all the dishes from Christmas.

Unlike my mother, I become a complete basketcase when faced with the chaos of a fancy dinner party. Chaos and complication are not my cup of tea. But the opposing force at work is my upbringing: all I've ever known of "proper" parties is FANCY FANCY FANCY! And it was my first Easter to host my in-laws. I came up with a brilliant plan. Buy half of the stuff for brunch from Williams-Sonoma (I had a gift certificate that I needed to use), assign duties to everyone to bring one thing, and then I was only responsible for making two dishes from scratch. I consulted my mother the pro on the food. With my mom's coaching, I made everything ahead of time, set the table the night before, and even borrowed pastel bunny servingware from a friend for an adorable table. It was a total hit!! Here was the menu:

Veggie fritata with red pepper sauce
Blueberry coffeecake with lemon curd
Lemon coffeecake with rasperry sauce
bagels with cream cheese
fruit salad
tomato, cucumber and onion salad
Coffee
Orange Juice

I think I'm going to do Easter every year now!