Behind the Line: Rob Levitt
Topic: Help for Home Cooks/Bartenders
Entertaining
Q: The snow is falling. The fireplace is lit. And company's just arrived. List three home entertaining tips for winter parties.
Swing in to my butcher shop! Pick up a couple of pates to start with, and have us cut up some beef stew meat. Make the stew so that when your guests show up you have little more to do than set out some pates on a decorative platter with a little bread and mustard and ladle out the stew into the wedding china you never use. For dessert...the fire place is lit- make s'mores!
Q: The sun is shining, the weather's warm and you've got a gaggle of guests to entertain. List three home entertaining tips for summer parties.
Anything you can start the day before is perfect, so in the summertime I love to do things like slow cook a brisket all night, so that when the guests show up the next day you just char it up on the grill and have at it! The second tip is to turn that brisket into a buffet. Chop the brisket and put it on a platter next to some buns, some BBQ sauce, some slaw (made that morning or the night before) some pasta salad- all stuff you can make ahead without compromising quality. Let the group get involved so that you can be part of the shin-dig. Third- I always like to trade food and cooking for booze. Provide a bottle opener, a corkscrew, ice and cups and let the guests bring the libations!