I'm A Sprinkler, I'm A Drizzler, I'm A Midnight Nibbler...

I have always loved throwing dinner parties...the real deal...sit down, plated, three course meals for adults. I love selecting the guest list...choosing the menu...concocting a signature cocktail and wine pairings...planning the table settings and linens and centerpiece... Mostly I love how it all comes together and becomes about creating an experience that ultimately, will make the guests feel happy and cared for. You know...life gets busy though, and the year passes by in a flurry of seasons...every weekend is taken up...and you have to focus your energies and pocketbook beyond your obsessive need to entertain...so it had been a while that I hosted a full-on dinner party myself....

Last year when planning the Spring Dinner -- the biggest PTO fundraiser of the year --

somehow it came to me to donate a dinner party for 10, to be served in the home of the highest bidder. Some of my friends offered to take part as clean-up/service/kitchen crew...so I went for it...donate away! Three courses, a signature cocktail, hors d'oeurves, floral arranging, full service and clean-up...really, it's a bargain for the bidder, regardless... And as it turns out, five of my girlfriends from the long-running monthly Gourmet Group teamed up and snagged the highest bid...I suspect being in my Gourmet posse, they had no reservations about my skills, so they knew the win was sweet. We agreed to wait to schedule until after summer...and then after the Holidays...and so....

I spent the last two weeks menu planning and testing concepts and asking for thoughts and advice from my foodie friends of like-minded palates and greater abilities (Jim, Nick, Heidi and SuzT...thanks guys!!). I shopped and prepped and coordinated...and then, this Saturday night I descended upon Marisa's kitchen with boxes and bags of my tools and ingredients...my team (whom I am thinking we need to call "The Midnight Nibblers," thanks to our mid-course re-working of the Steve Miller classic, "The Joker") consisted of Gwen (Head of kitchen hygiene); Lisa (Sous chef/Director of plating); Nancy (Barmaid/Server/Drizzler); Susan (Line cook/Server/Sprinkler)...and me, Exec Chef/Chef de cuisine/Expediter...dressed in our professional "all-black".... There were herbed chevre crostinis and beet-carrot fritters and the seared scallop on butternut squash puree with bacon and maple cream drizzle and Syrah-braised short ribs and truffled mac & cheese and roasted brussels and Bananas Foster bread pudding...there was an Elderflower cocktail, courtesy of ADP, mixed up by Nancy... And the meal went really well...and the guests loved everything...and though there were unexpected moments, we managed them...and when all was said and done, if I do say so myself...we were an awesome team and we put out a top notch dining experience for our "guests." And they were happy. And I was blissful.

So I have been thinking....

You know when people ask: "what would you do if you won a huge lottery jackpot?" Usually people say: "quit my job," "travel the world," "pay off all my bills," "buy my parents a house," "go back to school and become a History professor," "invest for my kids' future and live off the interest..." All good answers...respectable and practical and smart uses for an extra $180 million... My go-to answer had always been: "buy a rambling home in Nantucket with extensive, private grounds, a view and a ropewalk down the cliff to the sea...wake up every morning in the salty air and stay there forever...." (of course, I'd also need a pied a terre in New York City, let's be honest....)... Still, I would love to do that...I love the idea of being in a beautiful place year-round, even in the whipping, grey winters of New England...I love the thought of waking up every morning and seeing the water -- am a Pisces to the core, you know?...and I love the thought of being in a place that takes so much effort to get to, that your beloveds would make this special trip by boat or puddle jumper just to see you... All great reasons to spend your $180 million as such...

But I wonder now if the rambling house on the teeny, tiny, removed island would truly be my go-to plan...once the bills were paid and the kids' future was secure and my interest check was arriving... You see, a few years ago my friend, TL, told me his answer to the lottery question, and since then I have wondered if maybe he had the right idea.

He said: "I'd become a barkeep at a low key but welcoming watering hole, mix up great cocktails, chat with the customers, welcome friends..." Well, ok...I jazzed it up a little, I think he really said: "I'd become a bartender..." but he meant what I wrote...

I remember being so struck by that...and kind of jealous that TL came up with that fantastic answer before I did. I mean, if you are 100% comfortable in life...if your children are cared for and your bills are paid, you totally could keep a low key but welcoming watering hole, mix up great cocktails, chat with the customers, welcome friends...

So anyway, I was reminded of all this during the dinner party...and how much I have always loved cooking, and being around friends and giving my love to people I care about in this way...and I thought of how often I enter a restaurant or a pub and wish it were mine...or I pass a location and think how great my own little upscale greasy spoon would look on that corner... and how many times I have discussed the need for an awesome breakfast place or a better local beer and burger joint or a homemade doughnut shop with everyone from Nancy, to Rob, to Sandy, to Sam, to Kerry, to Tim H., to Scott S., to Terry from Total Concept, to my children, for goodness sakes... And I am not sure I can wait for TL or myself to win the lottery, though I think his watering hole would be much improved with me in the kitchen cranking out delicious bar bites...I am not talking greezy mozzarella sticks or soggy nachos...I am talking gastro-delciousness....fantastic little bites and super creative versions of food we all love... Served up with a delicious, frosty beer poured by TL (notice he has to tend the bar regardless of whether or not he wins a dime...thanks, Tim!...I should probably have run all this by him...but don't lie, you would ALL be regulars if he and I teamed up on our fake fantasy watering hole with the good food...)... But it would be such fun for me...even in the hell that is the restaurant business...if no one bothered me and I could get lost in thought while I made food all day long, I'd be so happy.

So ask me again -- "what would you do if you ever won a huge lottery jackpot?"

I'd keep a small, creative kitchen cranking out delicious food and seasonal treats for neighbors, friends, guests, visitors, passers-by...

I still love Nantucket...maybe my watering hole can be there...but when I snag that $180 mil, I will hold off on the extensive grounds and the ropewalk and the seaside view...because before I had ever even been to Nantucket, I had fallen in love with cooking... And more I think about it, the more I see that in general our goals and dreams in life should be to open our eyes to what it is we love...and how it is we want to live our lives...and what truly brings us joy...because I think having that love in your life everyday would be worth giving away the $180 million...

So...have I successfully convinced you to engage in a bidding war for my donation at the Spring Dinner this May???

Photos:

1. A dinner party with Pina, Colleen, Gwen, Helen and the guys... Ok, clearly this is The Brick House, but all my REAL dinner party pics are trapped on my dead laptop... Still, you get the idea, yes?

2. The Gourmet Girls enjoying a "We've Got B*lls!" dinner last season...ADP, Marisa and Robyn, all dinner party winners...and Suse, of the crackerjack catering team... Marisa is totally eyeing up the balls!

3. The Midnight Nibblers: (left to right) Lisa, Me, Suse, Gwen and Nancy...

4. The actual first course just after plating: seared scallops, butternut squash puree, a drizzle of maple cream reduction and a sprinkle of lardons and chives... Yum.

5. Ok this rambling Nantucket manse will just have to do...

6. Me, TL and Kathie...surely she'd be one of our first customers...

7. This looks like a mighty fine watering hole for me to cook out of... That might actually be TL taking up one of those stools...

8. A little summertime crostini I whipped up last June...that'll look good on my bar menu...tastes great with a Bud!