Holiday Retrospective

I'm writing this on January 7, so it's already too late to make New Year's resolutions or predictions about what the year ahead will bring.  

But, thanks to Peter Jackson's The Hobbit I have a way to express my feelings about the holiday season just past.

The holidays, like Jackson's movie, are warmly enjoyable when they stick to their source material (family, friends, light-filled celebration in the darkest time of the year, for example, or the exchange between Bilbo and Gandalf that starts the story) but tedious and insufferable when they stray into excessive elaboration (fifteen-minute-long CGI-festooned battle scenes with improbable numbers of orcs, say, or seventeen giant meals in a row).

And they're both too long.

And they're returning next year.

On the up side, we have some snow in Toronto now, and my across-the-way neighbour took these pictures of the little hemlock tree in my back yard.

I decorated the tree for the enjoyment of those banished to the out of doors to smoke at the open house I held on December 28.  

I had billed the event as "keeping in shape for the holidays," proposing that it had perhaps been hours or days since those invited had had too much to eat and drink. 

Recalling what I just said about the insufferable elaborations of the season, my event was either part of the worst or part of the best. Because it was my party, I'll say it was the latter. Many friends and neighbours attended and it was a lot of fun.  

I hold these shindigs rarely, and I like to keep track of the lessons learned. It's my New Years tribute to my readers (all 15 of you) that I share these lessons.

For a mid-afternoon (2 p.m. to 6 p.m.) open house with about 35 people attending, 

• ten bottles of wine, five white and five red are just about right, noting that some people will arrive with bottles of their own 
• a large pitcher of ice water constantly refilled is also a good idea
• one or two people will prefer spirits, so put some brandy or scotch or vodka out
• one bag of ice is enough
• one litre of fruit juice is tonnes (unless someone brings their kids; then you need two)
• one bottle of soda water is also enough
• make about six cups of coffee
• buy about half as much soft cheese as you think you need 
• two long loaves of crusty bread and one big box of President's Choice crackers for cheese are enough
• one small head of each of cauliflower and broccoli is more than enough
• ditto one large bunch of grapes and one box of grape tomatoes

Because I read it in a recipe, I blanched the broccoli and cauliflower I set out. This appears to have been a good idea. They disappeared.  

On my buffet table, the homemade guacamole, onion dip (just sour cream and chopped scallions) and salsa were consumed in their entirety (about two cups of each). Only the store-bought dip (hummus) had any left over. 

If you provide your 35 guests with all of the above, you don't need to bother with mixed nuts but chocolate will still be popular. 

I tried a new place to cater some of the food, and will definitely use them again. Subscribers in Toronto looking for truly excellent samosas and other Indian treats should not hesitate to contact Tiffinday.  This is not a restaurant, but a service, as they have in India, that will bring you a hot lunch in a reusable metal tin called a tiffin.  They also catered over the holidays, but that is not their usual business.

Those are all my lessons. Now they belong to you, too.

Happy New Year!

Karen