This birthday thing relates to my wedding planning in the following way: because I was so wrapped up in planning my wedding and blogging and ideating and such, I had completely forgotten to plan anything for my birthday. Yes, in the back of my mind I knew it was coming, but I just didn't think about how to celebrate it. So I put (mostly) everything wedding on hold this week and plunged head first into birthday planning... and it caused me to freak out.
I decided that I didn't want to do anything at a restaurant and also did not want to go through the hassle of cooking a full meal. I chose to host an apéritif dînatoire. According to Wini Moranville, author of "The Bonne Femme Cookbook", "the term translates, roughly, as a “dinner-esque cocktail party,” in essence, this is what the French might call a tapas party…if they weren’t French. The idea is to bring together lots of varied and somewhat sophisticated nibbles and bites, making sure there’s enough to stand in for a meal."
I was super pleased with my decisiveness and sophistication. (insert self back patting here)
But there was a problem. I didn't know what to serve at the apero dinatoire. So on Tuesday I made a panicked call to Mr. Fox, who was at work. It went something like this:
Mr. Fox: (cheerily, he has caller ID and knows it's me) Hello, baby. How are you doing?
Me: (super serious voice) We need to talk. Do you have time?
Mr. Fox: (also super serious) Uh oh. Let me close my door.
(a few seconds pass as Mr. Fox gets up to close his office door)
Mr. Fox: (trying to be calming) So, what's up?
Me: (trying to deny panic) I don't know what we're going to serve on Thursday. (continually gaining speed) I mean, I've never done this sort of party and I'm not sure what you're supposed to serve and I don't know if I have enough time to prepare something good and there's nothing in the Julia Child recipe books about this and I don't know where to start and I'm thinking that we can have an antipasti but I don't know what else goes with it and I know we have to have enough food since it has to be a dinner replacement and...
Mr. Fox: (interrupting me, but still calm, and sounding a bit amused) Don't worry. I will come home early and we will work this out together. See you at 5?
Me: (relieved) Ok. See you at 5.
I really was relieved. And you know why I can say that? Because immediately after getting off the phone, I did a nervous jog/walk around the apartment before settling back down at the computer to search for recipes. I visited an old friend, AllRecipes.com and found this:
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| Fig and Olive Tapenade. Yummy yum yum! |
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| The little Larousse Cake and Muffin Workshop with silicone muffin cups. Thank you random Christmas gift! |
By the time Mr. Fox came home I had marked the recipes I wanted to try, made a shopping list of the ingredients we needed, and was completely calm.
Fast forward, and Mr. Fox and I spent a few hours together chopping, mixing, and baking on Wednesday night. The apartment smelled wonderful and the kitchen was a mess. We had a great time.
Thursday evening brought myself, Mr. Fox and 6 of our friends together for a wonderful little party. 8 total people, and not one camera to be found! A good time was had by all, evinced by the 4 empty red wine bottles, stack of dirty plates, numerous dirty glasses, and 3 empty bottles of champagne.
Here are a few pictures showing the aftermath:
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| 3-1-1: empty champagne, beer, and coke bottles. |
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| More destruction, plus my lovely gifted orchids on the right and flower buckets in the center front. Thanks guys! |
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