A few thoughts on hosting at home

How to plan the menu, what to wear, and an excellent recipe for Campari & Pomegranate Jelly

Every time I cook dinner I learn something. Sometimes it’s as simple as: ‘that was a good recipe, I must make it again’ or ‘if only I had set an alarm on my phone I wouldn’t have forgotten the cake in the oven’. Other times, it’s more of a eureka moment: like when I discovered that if you whisk the salad dressing directly in the bottom of the salad bowl before tossing in the leaves rather than doing the dressing in its own separate little dish (which is how I’ve always done it), then you save on washing up. Such an obvious one when you say it out loud and yet, I have decades’ worth of two-bowl-salads to my name. Those small victories, that happy feeling you get when something that used to seem hard or scary or even impossible suddenly feels easy, is a big part of why I enjoy cooking. It’s a lot of small steps with big wins.

I have often thought that were I a more organised sort of person, I would note these lessons down; keep a dinner diary of sorts, that I could leaf back through in years to come and remind myself of all the good meals, what it was about them that worked so well (and what didn’t). I should, I know, write it all down in a pretty little notebook, like this one or this one maybe. Or this one is nice too: typically - and forever the arch procrastinator - I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about the notebook, but haven’t yet got round to the writing bit. Still, I do like the idea.

In this spirit, I wanted to create a space here dedicated to the ins, outs, highs, lows, and behind the scenes thinking of hosting at home. As a starting point, I thought of a recent dinner I hosted for five girlfriends. It was a really fun evening and a happy reminder, for me, to make more time for the people in my life who I love but don’t get to see enough of.

Here’s the menu (and a few thoughts to go with it):

Planning the menu: 

Planning a menu is always a balancing act: on the one hand it’s as simple as choosing recipes you want to eat and think everyone else will want to eat too (any dietary requirements? eccentric food phobias? extravagant culinary whims or wishes?). Planning a good menu, however, is a lot about taking the logistics of it all into consideration too. Here are some of my thoughts on what I chose to cook and why.

We started with drinks in the kitchen, while I pottered around finishing off with the food and everyone chatted to me and with each other. I like doing things this way: it’s cosy and relaxed, and I can recruit friends to help me toss the salad or what have you, if I need help. We drank sparkling Prosecco from glass coupes (a nice coupe always gives a good party vibe); and, for those of us who don’t drink (or don’t drink much on a weeknight) I served this bubbly apple and bilberry juice, also in coupes (because: doesn’t everything taste better in a coupe?).