Etiquetteer would like to thank everyone who participated in the first Saturday night Dress Dinner Challenge last night! If you go to Instagram and Facebook and search for #dressdinnerchallenge, you’ll find some wonderful, fun photographs of quarantined diners dressed in their finest from Massachusetts to Colorado to California.
For Etiquetteer the evening began with a champagne videoconference with Relatives at a Geographic Distance. But when you serve as your own household staff, that means any dinner party will eventually end up in the kitchen.
Because formal dinner menus are most Perfectly Proper in French, here’s Etiquetteer’s translated menu:
Mort l'après-midi cocktail (champagne and absinthe)
Céleri coupé Fromage cheddar et craquelins
Salade verte d’un paquet, vinaigrette au parmesan à l'ail
Saumon poché champagne, sauce à l'oignon
Épinards cuits Riz brun
Jello à l'orange avec garniture fouettée non laitière
Now, doesn’t that sound fancier than it really was? Poached salmon with onions, boiled spinach, and brown rice! You can dress up any old piece of fish if you say it in French.
The main course. The red candles in the candelabra evoke Vincent Price in Masque of the Red Death.
When one is one’s own staff, finding ways to simplify Perfect Propriety make a difference. So of course a jellied dessert can be made to look impressive depending on what you set it in. Dear Grandmother’s Victorian-style hobnail coupes served the purpose admirably.
The dessert course. Candlelight makes Etiquetteer grainier.
Because Etiquetteer had recently been given an excellent bottle of port, the meal concluded with port and almonds. It used to be the thing at formal dinners to intersperse dishes of nuts and candies down the table, and fans of Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel Enchanted April will remember Mrs. Fisher cracking her walnuts with her port at the end of dinner.
Etiquetteer hopes to welcome all of you, and more, to next week’s Dress Dinner Challenge. Many thanks to all the diners, and especially Ondine Brent Eysseric, Craig Hughes, Tim Fitzgerald, David Santori, David Bragdon, Catherine Tidd, and Kymm Zuckert for their enthusiasm and encouragement.
In the meantime, stay home!