A Dinner Party (with Lots of Dietary Restrictions) Deconstructed + an Insane Tomato Salad with Tonnato Sauce!

Happy Monday!

As promised, here is the dinner party with ALL the details.  If you remember, last week I shared some tips for hosting guests with dietary restrictions.  Here’s the actual dinner party deconstructed where I had to avoid gluten, pork, beef, lamb, shellfish, salmon, beets, olives, mustard, onions, and garlic + one vegetarian guest.  No problem!

Menu

Bar: Orange peels, fresh grapefruit and limes juices, jalapeno, mint, cucumber slices

Hors d’oeuvres:

Goat cheese dip with dates, smoked almonds, fried rosemary (+ crispy onions on one side) recipe from December 2023 online class

Fried artichoke hearts with Calabrian chili aioli (recipe for paid subscribers in last week’s newsletter)

Loaded white bean “hummus” (hummus recipe with white beans swapped for chickpeas - makes it smooth and creamy!) with crudites (baby cucumbers, purple radishes), pesto minus the garlic, toasted pine nuts, roasted Divina tomatoes (I used roasted garlic olive oil in the dip in place of fresh garlic)

Crackers and GF (These crackers from Eataly are so good.  Plus I love Ines Rosales olive oil crackers. I served these Trader Joe’s GF crackers.)

Dinner

Eggplant Milanese with basil-jalapeno sauce (recipe from June 2024 online cooking class ;I used Aleia’s GF breadcrumbs)

Spicy Caesar salad with GF breadcrumbs (used Jeff Nathan Creation panko) (garlic-infused olive oil in dressing instead of fresh garlic and omitted the mustard)

Sautéed Corn with chives (cut corn off cobs and saute with butter and salt.  Garnish with minced fresh chives.)

Grilled chicken paillard with cucumber-tomato salad (served pickled onions on the side) and dill-tahini sauce (omitted garlic and used garlic oil; recipe for paid subscribers from this newsletter)

Reserved cucumber-tomato salad with added chickpeas for vegetarian guest

Grilled vegetables (zucchini and yellow squash) brushed with olive oil mixed with Spiceology Greek Freak seasoning

Fresh berries (one friend brought)

GF Chocolate Chip Cookies (one friend brought)

Assorted McConnell’s ice creams

Platters and Decor Pieces

Blue and white hydrangeas from Trader Joe’s in acrylic container similar to this

Shagreen Placemats by Tisch New York (I have a light blue color that I don’t see on their site)

Apilco white plates 

Cane glassware

Salt cellars from Serax that I bought at Merci in Paris

My board with the goat cheese dip was a custom gift from Thomas Hayes.  Any skinny board works. Bowl from Materia Lumina (I don’t see this bowl anywhere.)

Hummus in Heath Ceramics bowl

Fried artichokes in wood bowl from ages ago and aioli in Staub ceramic mini cocotte

Chicken in ceramic tray from Hudson Grace 

Zucchini on platter from Nickey Kehoe (no longer available)

Salad in platter from Hudson Grace 

Eggplant on huge wood cutting board, sauce in Farmhouse Pottery mini pitcher

Here was my schedule.  Skip this if you don’t need help with prepping ahead and timing your meals when entertaining. If I prep something ahead and I can store it in the same thing I am using to serve it, I do that!

2 days and 1 day before

Buy and arrange flowers (I do NOT spend a lot of money or time on florals.)

Make goat cheese dip

Make garlic-free pesto (can be frozen)

Prep veggies for hummus

Cut corn off the cob

Prep chives

Basil-jalapeno sauce

Wash little gems

Make Caesar dressing

Shave parm

Pound chicken

Dice cucumbers for salad

Make pickled onions

Make dill sauce

Make GF breadcrumbs for salad

Chopped smoked almonds

Set buffet

Chill waters - sparkling and flat

Set bar (Hubs does this)

Defrost juices (I freeze my citrus juices for entertaining)

Spice mix for chicken

Saturday

Calabrian chili aioli

Season chicken

Make white bean hummus

Roast eggplants and Bread them

Bake them

Fry artichokes in advance.  Keep on wire rack.

Preheat grill

5:45 roast zucchini

Pull dressings, dip and sauces from fridge

Light candle in powder room

Slice tomatoes for salad

6:30 Guests arrive set out goat cheese dip, white bean hummus

Reheat artichokes in toaster oven/air fryer program 10 min

7:15 Reheat eggplant 

Reheat grilled zucchini

Grill chicken

Season cucumber salad - sumac, salt, pepper, lemon juice

Saute corn

Dress salad

7:30 serve dinner

Even More Musings is an extension of my weekly newsletter, Monday Musings. My newsletter is a sponsor-free zone and is fully supported by readers like you. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to get Even More Musings! Each week, I share my tips and tricks along with a new recipe. For only $5/month or $50/year (less than $1 a newsletter), you'll also gain access to the entire archive, featuring favorites like My New Hyper-fixation High-Protein Fluffy Breakfast Bowl  and the Hillstone Copycat Emerald Kale Salad. This week I am sharing a salad I can’t wait to make for the next dinner party I have when it’s sweltering out!  Although my son is begging me to make it for lunch every day - Tomato Salad Tonnato (tuna sauce)!!  EPIC!!