Laurie’s Cobalt World Blog

I’m reading four books right now - a book on ecommerce, a book of etiquette, War and Peace (it’s great!), and 91 Mistakes Smart Salespeople Make by Tim Connor, bestselling author of Soft Sell. The first third of the book is strictly about attitude and it applies to everyone, not just salespeople.

Mistake #20 is “Being out of Balance.” The author divides our lives into eleven areas:

Easter is coming soon and many families will be having a large meal together. But will everything make it to the table at the appointed time? It’s a huge job to coordinate a large meal. Here are some ideas to help you bring it all together.

Visualize

The first step is to visualize the end you have in mind. In your mind’s eye, look at the table, the people, the place settings, candles, and flowers. Do you have everything you need?

If you do not have enough of one type of china, think about mixing and matching. Solid china mixed with your pattern may work well. I keep a large supply of clear glass plates for stretching my china when needed. One place setting may be a clear dinner plate with a china salad plate. The next may be a china dinner plate with a clear glass salad plate.

Make sure you inventory tablecloths, napkins, and chairs. Tablecloths have a way of developing stains while stored. Not having enough chairs is a problem you do not want to have at the last second.

Next, visualize your menu on the table. Are you going to serve restaurant style and make up plates in the kitchen? If you are serving restaurant style, make sure you have enough help lined up so that the serving goes smoothly.

Now that you know that everything is set for your table and your serving method, back up to the last 20 minutes or so of preparation time.

Have you chosen a menu that requires six different things to be in the oven during the last few minutes before dinner? That’s fine if you have room for six items in your ovens, but a disaster if you don’t.

Make sure you have a good mixture of cold dishes and hot dishes. Having a balance between dishes that can be prepared ahead and those that need finishing touches at the last minute will help out a lot.

And don’t forget to use different types of appliances so that everything that is supposed to be hot at the last minute actually is. Put soup in your crock pot. Brown appetizers in your toaster oven. Use the microwave only for items that really microwave well. Think of the other options you might have: electric grills, stand-alone rotisseries, convection ovens, and more.

Keep Non-Cooks Out Of The Kitchen

Plan ahead to keep non-cooks out of the kitchen. So what kinds of things do people end up in the kitchen for? Ice, beverages, and snacks. Set up a drink station or two somewhere besides the kitchen and dining area along with some infallible, low-maintenance snacks or appetizers. Remember to cater to all of the ages of guests that will be at your meal. Stuffed mushrooms might not go over well with the pre-school crowd.

Removing most of your beverages to ice chests on the patio or deck or to family rooms or other living areas will keep the path to the refrigerator clear and give you more room for you congealed salad and other refrigerated items. Plus, the door might actually stay closed long enough to keep things cold.

Making Lists

Now that you have ensured that things will go smoothly in the end, it’s time to back up and make yourself a schedule. For each dish, plan when you need to start it. Hopefully several dishes can be made, or mostly made, the day before or even earlier.

You will also need to make two shopping lists. One list is for items that may be purchased well ahead of the dinner. Purchase those the week before so that you don’t have nearly so much to take care of the week of your dinner.

The second list will be of items that must be purchased at the last minute – produce, baked goods, flowers, and special orders.

Make another list of the help you will need and make sure it is lined up ahead of time. Perhaps you want Aunt Sue to bring her special salad. Or you need someone to serve wine. Maybe you need to engage the services of the young people in the family to set the table or bring in chairs. Set all of that up ahead of time, if you can.

Putting It All Together

Laurie

My brother married his childhood sweetheart. It’s a sweet story, but doesn’t sound all that unusual. What’s unusual about the story is that there was a 25-year interruption between the time they were sweethearts and the time they got married.

When my brother falls, he falls hard. But their parents thought they were too young to be serious and broke off their relationship.

My brother didn’t date another girl all throughout highschool. And he never forgot his first love.

Nearly twenty-five years later, she decided to look him up. And three weeks after that, they were married.

My brother had never married. He spoke of her often throughout the years. He had compared every woman he ever met to her. It was like a dream come true for him when she called him out of the blue.

My brother and I are very close. So when I got a phone call from him, before he said anything about having met a woman, I knew he was getting married. He just had that, “I have a huge announcement to make” sound in his voice.

So our family got together and planned a small wedding reception for them. I made the wedding cake. I rarely make cakes anymore because I suffer from tendonitis in my arms. But this cake was really worth it.

I hate a cake that looks gorgeous and tastes awful. It’s worse than a cake that looks awful and taste awful. At least your expectations aren’t elevated before your disappointment!

So the inside of this cake is home-baked and the outside is cream cheese frosting. Here’s the recipe (for a regular-sized cake - the wedding cake took several recipes):

• 2 sticks of butter, at room temperature (please do not use margarine)
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 eggs at room temperature
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour 3 8-inch round cake pans. Set aside.

Divide eggs. Beat yolks and set whites and yolks aside. If you get any yolk in the whites, discard them and start again.

Combine flour and baking soda. Set aside.

Combine buttermilk, vanilla, and pecans. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar well. Add beaten egg yolks to the mixture and blend well.

Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, stirring well after each addition. End with the buttermilk mixture.

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form but the whites are not dry.

Add a small amount of the egg whites to the batter and stir. Then gently fold the rest of the egg whites into the batter. It is okay if tiny specks of egg white remain unincorporated.

Pour batter into prepared cake pans. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for a few minutes before turning cakes out onto cake racks to completely cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

This recipe makes ample frosting to fill the cake, ice it, and decorate it, if desired.

• 2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 2-lb. bag powdered sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups chopped pecans, optional (delete if you are going to pipe decorations)

Beat ingredients together until smooth. If you are using the frosting as icing, you may need to add a little more powdered sugar to make it stiff enough to smooth and hold the piped decorations.

* * * * *

Here’s a little caution about nuts. If you are making the cake for a group that you do not know well, either delete the nuts or add a notice saying that the cake includes nuts. Nut allergies can be deadly.

For the wedding cake, I used nuts since we knew everyone invited to the reception. But I only used nuts in the frosting that I used between the layers as filling since I wanted a smooth surface for decorating.

Along with the cake, we gave my brother and his wife the blown glass wedding topper. Another idea is to give the cake and a cake stand as a wedding present.

So, all’s well that ends well. My brother gets the girl, you get my favorite cake recipe, and I - hopefully - get you to look at my gorgeous new pedestal cake plates.

Sounds like we’re all winners here.

Laurie

A good number of years ago, my husband and I had the opportunity to host my family for Christmas dinner. Before that time and ever since, our tradition is to go to my parents’ home for Christmas. Somehow I managed to get the family to travel to Atlanta, where we lived at the time. I can’t really remember how we did that.

We were very excited about this meal. I researched recipes for weeks in advance. We ordered a standing rib roast. I tried out recipes to be sure they weren’t flops before the “big day.”

When the time came, my family was a bit dismayed that we weren’t having turkey and dressing as always. It was a bit difficult to win them over, but course by course, they changed their minds and began to enjoy the qualities of each dish.

I have to say that of the approximately 17,000 meals I’ve had in my lifetime, that one is a definite standout (don’t get out your calculator - I’m 46).

One of my favorites from that meal was Potato Gruyere Gratin. It was not difficult to make, but it made a big hit with my family members, who were expecting mashed potatoes instead.

We made a recipe that served 12, but I’m going to post a version that serves two so that you don’t have to wait for a large crowd to enjoy it.

• 1 medium baking potato, about 8 oz., peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 red potato, about 4 oz. , unpeeled and thinly sliced
• 1/4 tsp. of minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp. of fresh thyme leaves, chopped, or a scant 1/4 tsp. of dried
• 1/8 tsp. of salt, slightly rounded
• pinch of coarse ground black pepper (slightly more if you are a fan)
• 1 1/2 oz. Gruyere cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 tsp. of butter, softened

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Grease or spray a 12 oz. au gratin baker or au gratin dish or other shallow baking dish.

Spread half of the potato slices in the dish. Mix the garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and cheese and spread half over the potato slices. Top with remaining potato slices, overlapping, for an attractive top. Pour broth over the potatoes. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese mixture. Dot with butter.

Bake 30 minutes. Tilt pan to spoon up broth to baste potatoes. Bake 30 minutes longer or until top is browned and potatoes are tender. Let stand about 10 minutes before serving.

Whether or not you purchase your au gratin dish (rarebit) from me - although I hope you will - I would love for you to try this recipe and hope enjoy it as much as we do.

Laurie