Entertaining | Mix & Match

People who love to eat are always the best people.

                                                                                Julia Child

There are few things I enjoy more than cooking for others.  Having come from a long Greek line of food pushers, it is simply what I do.  I cook for my family daily and whenever the occasion calls for it, I cook for others.  If you have a new baby, I will bring food.  If you win the Pulitzer Prize, I will bring food.  If you have a death in the family, I will bring food.  If you leave the restroom trailing toilet paper from your shoe, I will bring food.  This is how I celebrate my family and friends, in good times and bad.  Much like my Yia Yia, I show my love through cooking. 

This love of cooking has naturally extended to entertaining. I entertain at home quite often.  Preparing a delicious meal and setting a pretty table thrills me to no end.  I relish any opportunity to raid my china stash.  I have an incurable habit of collecting it so I reason that I should use it as often as possible.  We use my grandmother’s vintage blue willow collection for our everyday dishes, which I have been augmenting since college graduation.  Just last weekend, my mother dropped off my Yia Yia’s blue willow to augment my collection – it was very much like Christmas come early.

The other day I had a few friends by for dinner and set this festive table.  Almost always, I mix patterns and color, just like I do with my interiors.  The pink poinsettias and artichokes are a nod to the holiday season without being overtly Christmasy too early or Turkeyfied too predictable.  No red and green for me, or heaven forbid, brown and boring.  I do appreciate brown, as evidenced in my bathroom, just not in any predictable manner like a Turkey Day table setting.  Instead, you will get a crazy mix of color and pattern at my table, even on major holidays.  I’m frisky like that.

SOURCES:

monogram napkins | Chinoiserie plates | blue Villeroy & Boch goblets | gold chargers | Blue Willow bowls | green Limoges plates | bamboo tray | placemats | silver  | pineapple print | pink candles

Items without links are things that I have inherited.  My holiday tables will be a similar riot of color with a few more seasonal tweaks here and there.  My equation for a frisky, gorgeous table always starts with classic elements. Classic elements, like bamboo, rattan, and silver help to keep the look grounded, while the mix of unexpected color, pattern, and fresh produce keep the look fresh and frisky. 

I encourage you to not only entertain more this season, but to do so colorfully. #colorismyfavoritecolor

In my book, people who love to mix color daringly are always the best people too!

All designs, layouts, styling, and photos by Emily Vanderputten

kisses,  mrs. V

Where the Heck Have I Been?

Oh hey.  Hi.  Where was I?  Smack dab in the middle of Summer is where and then whammo – off the grid without so much as a c’est la vie or by your leave or see ya on the flip, drip... Sorry.  It has not been a complete undocumented mess over in Chez V land as I am never too far from my phoney phone and an Insta trail tends to leave clues about where I have been and what sorts of shenanigans are occupying my time.  Our Chez V code of conduct these days as evidenced by IG:  

Then I sent my little off to kindergarten.  On a bus.  In a uniform.  Feck.

Tomorrow, I return with news of a fab monogram giveaway from one of my favorite ladies and a story about how a company managed to successfully lose my business for life and longer.

kisses,  mrs. V

Simple Pleasures

I sometimes forget how much happiness simple pleasures bring into my life.  The other day, I found myself scrambling at noon when I realized I did not have much of anything to put together for lunch.  My 5 yr old is not particularly picky but I knew an expired yogurt tube, dried out carrot sticks, and a ball of mozzarella wasn’t going to cut it.  Then I realized, with much glee, that lunch was waiting for us in the backyard.  We dashed out to the veggie garden and picked a crispy green pepper, an heirloom tomato, and snipped some basil.  Paired with simple ingredients, including that ball of mozz, we enjoyed a veritable feast, all the more fulfilling because we had a hand in bringing it to our table.  What a great and simple pleasure.

 

And how about pairing deeply discounted grocery orchids with a gorgeous blue and white bowl that my mother gifted to me knowing of my deep and abiding love of Chinoiserie?  How gorgeoso is this bowl?!    She purchased it from her designer in 1974 for a pretty penny.  What a great and simple pleasure to now have this treasure in my home.

For up to date peaks into life chez V and more of our simple pleasures, I blow up InstaG on the regular here. Follow me or be square.

What are your simple pleasures?

kisses,  mrs. V

The Food Chronicles - Roasted Chicken with Croutons and Wilted Greens

Shooey, it’s been too long since I have done a food post (or any post for that matter!) and this one is too good not to share.  An easy weeknight meal.  In fact, I made it twice last week.  Don’t let the ‘roasting a whole chicken’ thing scare you off.  Seriously, roasting a chicken is the ONLY way to go and the EASIEST way to prepare chicken.  People seem to be intimidated by it but seriously, it is the easiest way to make chicken and the most flavorful.  Skin and bones, a must, people.  Slather that yard bird up and walk AWAY.  For about an hour.  What could be easier than that?  When you have a 4 yr old who is constantly pulling on your apron strings, hands off cook time is prime time.  I rarely bother with tasteless fleshy chicken boobs anymore.  But the various ways in which I roast chicken is another post unto itself.

Even though this recipe originally comes from Everyday Food, the inspiration comes from the late great Sheila Lukins.  She had a recipe for Zuni Roast Chicken with Savory Bread Salad in Ten (one of my favorites) that I have been dying to try for a few years.  The amount of steps seemed daunting.  I stumbled across this version a few weeks ago in one of my old issues of Everyday Food and was immediately reminded of the Zuni recipe but with far fewer steps.  Of course, I have monkeyed with it slightly because I monkey with everything.  And because, if I am being completely honest, I find most of the recipes from Everyday Food to be everyday bland.

bread toasted in drippings and fat = heavenly croutons

after croutons are done, pour any accumulated juices from platter into bottom of a VERY large bowl

Add croutons, greens, and olive oil & vinegar, some more salt & pepper to taste; toss

Plate greens with croutons and top with a piece of roasted chicken

 

A few notes.  Sorry for the yellowish pictures - my cooking happens in real time so evening shots without natural light are crap.  If you can prep your chicken earlier in the day, do it.  Not only is this handy if you are entertaining, but ‘dressing’ the chicken with salt & pepper ahead of time improves the flavor and helps yield a moist yard bird.  Which also means, don’t skimp on the salt and pepper.  Season that sucker with more than you think.  Also, I whisk the remaining olive oil, champagne vinegar, and salt & pepper into a vinaigrette before tossing because I think it dresses the greens more uniformly but I have done it both ways and probably makes little difference.

All photos and layouts by mrs. V

kisses,  mrs. V