STORM2K

Moving ahead past Christmas, Dave and I are hosting a New Year's Eve dinner party with 6 of our closest friends - all of whom love to cook and eat. Over the years I've added to my G-G-Grandmother's collection of Haviland, so we're going to give the set a full workout. After all, Haviland was meant to be used - not sit on a shelf and look pretty.

We decided to do up a 14 course dinner, with everyone playing head chef with their particular dish, taking turns serving and clearing. I can't wait! My dining room sits there 364 days a year and never gets used. We did a smaller variation of this party last Christmas and ever since, all attendees have bugged me to do it again - only MORE formal. Who knew bikers could be so discrimminating!

Has anyone else ever attempted a similar party? Any tips? I bet at the very least Miss Mary and Alice will chime in here!

14 courses? That's way out of my league.

what an endeavor!! i'm SO envious about the Haviland china too.

With 8 people, it should be nice and intimate. what sort of ideas are you looking for, themes? food ideas? i immediately thought of serving each course from a different country. wouldnt that be fun? of course, with 14 courses and only eight people, someone will have to double up (but i'm sure you already figured that out...) but imagine the variety you could have!!!

Sounds like an enjoyable evening!

What Haviland pattern do you have, Jen? I've got my greatgrandmothers. I'm going to have to look up the pattern when i get home.

Alice!!! I KNEW you'd jump on this topic - thanks for not disappointing me!

Nobody involved in this little party has ever attempted this sort of dinner. We've got the menu pretty well set, and honestly, it almost ended up being a "Foods of the World" menu - that is, if you count S. Louisiana as abeing it's own nation, which we do! I dunno - I guess I'm just wondering if there is something I haven't thought of that might wreck the whole thing.

FYI for anyone interested, I have a book called "Haviland China, The Age of Elegance" by Nora Travis that outlines what you might expect from a late 19th century formal dinner party. We used the book as a guideline for what to serve during which course. Each person involved has their own specialty that they will be responsible for cooking and serving. I am providing the kitchen and the china, and my friend Clarissa and I will actually be doing most of the cooking because we love to do these sorts of things. We've just never divided it up into courses before. It really makes sense though - you have time to devote to enjoying each dish in small quantities instead of trying to pig out on it all in 20 or 30 minutes.

Trust me, this dinner may look formal, but everyone involved is so enthusiastic, it will have a very casual feel to it. I'm so very happy to be able to put the old Haviland to good use again. It is old enough that it doesn't have a pattern name - Haviland didn't do that until the 30's - and "pattent applied for" is on the back of all the pieces by Theodore Haviland. I did look it up in the Schleiger books and while I can identify the blank (No. 122) still can't quite determine the floral pattern of pink, white and yellow roses with greenery. It's fairly similar to the popular Rosalinde pattern that came out in the 30's.

Bobbie Lee wrote:14 courses? That's way out of my league.

That was my initial thought as well, but really it's turning out to be about the same amount of food as you might put on the table for any large holiday meal - just spread out slowly instead of trying to consume everything in 15 minutes with everyone over-stuffed and ready to go straight to bed after.

Of course, the dishwashing chores are going to be tremendous, but I think I can handle that. Nobody but me will wash the old china, so it's my own fault if a piece gets broken. Like I said before, it was meant to be used - not just looked at, and used carefully it has many many years of service left.

I am coming to your house Jen. Sounds like fun! Enjoy! Hope you have a huge dishwasher.

Don't I WISH Linda! I've been begging for a new DW for years, but since this is antique china with gold trim, I don't dare put it in even that sorry excuse for a dishwasher. Dave still will not believe me that I really DO want a new one for Christmas, Birthday, Anniversary...

Question for those ettiquettely-inclined folks: where does the bone dish go on a formal place setting? I know it's on the left side, but is that right next to the dinner plate or over to the far left side past all the forks? So little time, so many decisions! I've even got all the salt dishes, butter pats, salt spoons, blah blah blah. Can you imagine this was how the well-to-do regularly dined in the Victorian era? No wonder they had so many servants!

Wow - I'm thoroughly impressed! Completely blown over with the 14 course meal though. I could never pull something like that off!

The only thing that can even come close to this and it doesn't really, is my brother's wife's family eats two meals on Thanksgiving. First one is the traditional turkey meal with all the trimmings, very early noon or 12:30. Then everyone plays games all afternoon - touch football if the weather is nice, indoor games even if not - checkers, Monopoly, etc. She's from a very large family, with I believe 4 generations that all come together that day. By 5 they're hungry again, so they have ham sandwiches, baked beans, etc. - a smaller meal than the first one.

But see - that doesn't even touch a 14 course meal. I think this feat will garner you a very special S2K Award Jen!!!!

Let us know how this turns out!

Mary