Grateful thanks to all who joined last night’s second Dress Dinner Challenge. Looking across social media for the #dressdinnerchallenge hashtag revealed dinners from coast to coast, both diners from last weekend and new Etiquetteer readers taking up the challenge for the first time. Welcome!
This Saturday’s dinner was enriched by a beautiful floral centerpiece, a surprise sent by family members. Still working through the Masque of the Red Death candles in the candelabra, but they had to be relegated to the sideboard. Thanks also to everyone who voted on a choice of bow tie! The centerpiece made the only possible choice the orange check.
This weekend’s menu involved polishing some of the silver plate. Those soup spoons had not had any serious attention in awhile.
The menu (again, in French, as is supposed to be done for all formal dinners):
Celeri coupé Brie Toast Melba en cercle
Soupe au poulet et au concombre
Côtelettes de porc Sauce aux câpres
Riz brun Haricots verts
Poire oubliée
Port Amandes
This being a quarantine, some substitutions had to be made. A bottle of Sancerre made do for both the Lillet Blanc in the cocktail and the sherry in the soup and the wine in Etiquetteer’s wineglass. That necromancer cocktail, recommended by friends who joined the challenge this weekend, is mighty bracing: equal parts absinthe, Lillet Blanc, fresh lemon juice, and elderflower liqueur, with a dash of gin. Whoosh! Obviously had to carry it into the kitchen after the cocktail hour to wrestle with some pots and pans.
That beautiful floral tribute relegated the Vincent Price candles to the sideboard.
Aficionados of Ruth Draper’s monologues will remember her instructing the cook in “The Italian Lesson,” “Have you some clear soup? Well, we might have clear soup. Put something amusing in it, I don’t really mind what.” Etiquetteer simplified a clear soup recipe involving chicken and cucumber, added that substitute Sancerre and a bit of dill, et voilà. Clear soup at a formal dinner is properly served in a shallow soup dish (often called a soup plate), and made a helpful reminder that one pushes one’s soup spoon away from you to keep from accidentally sloshing soup all over yourself.
We’ve all been taught that phone and other personal devices don’t belong at the table. But for those of us dining tout seul during the quarantine, it’s Perfectly Proper to Dine Together by Phone. In fact Etiquetteer was surprised to have a Dear Friend “table hop” via Facetime once the port had been reached. Perhaps Etiquetteer could join your dress dinner briefly next Saturday? Please send a private message if you’re interested.
You’re probably wondering what Forgotten Pear is for dessert. It’s for the pear that had been set aside to broil lightly and then serve drizzled with caramel sauce. After the main course, frankly, Etiquetteer just didn’t want to be bothered. So the pear stayed in the kitchen, and Etiquetteer moved on to the port and nuts. Besides, 9 PM Eastern is the start of Jon Richardson Music’s Saturday Night Online Piano Bar, and what better after-dinner entertainment could there be?
The one other thing worth mentioning is that someone tried to shame Etiquetteer about using a paper dinner napkin instead of a Perfectly Proper cloth one. Now get this, people. When you are your own cook, scullion, butler, housemaid, and laundress, something’s got to give. Etiquetteer’s Dear Mother drew the line at cloth napkins and still raised us right. Certainly cloth napkins would be better, but shaming is worse. so just stop that.
Etiquetteer looks forward to dining with you again next Saturday for the #dressdinnerchallenge!