Mrs Joye's top tip is given straight off the bat- everything needs to be under control. I admire women who can party plan this way, it is something that I am not good at. I'm often preping things last minute and I freak if people arrive early robbing me of the precious minutes I need to complete tasks, such as getting dressed.
Mrs Joye is an ubber party planner, a clear type A personality. Once guests have been confirmed Mrs Joye checks her notebook, in which she has written every menu from every party she has hosted since she got married. Because she doesn't want to serve guests the same meal twice. If you come to dinner at my place chances are your getting the same meal you had last time - spaghetti or lasagne. I've been whining a bit lately about making the same meals all. of. the. time. But i cant imagine the pressure of thinking up a new meal every time people came over. In fact as an Aussie I thought I was obligated to provide a BBQ each time we had more then two friends over at a time... right?
Mrs Joye deplores the use of paper serviettes at a sit down dinner, and for that I applaud her. I get so frustrated when we go out for a nice dinner, pay al a carte prices and they cant even provide a cloth napkin. It's really not that hard, and if you want me to believe I'm going to get a quality dinning experience it starts with presentation!
Some of Mrs Joyes ideas that I love include:
~A written menu so guests can see whats planned (except she uses a china bakers boy that holds a black board, a little too kitsch for my tastes).
~Wine is served in a small carafe for each couple-I LOVE this idea. I want my own caraff, sharing may be an issue.
Each dinner party starts with the serving of Champagne Cocktails- which I will be making this week. Have to check out their recipe ;)
The Menu at the Joyes starts with a soup course - orange borsch followed by lamb chops en cuirasse, tomatoes portugaises, mushrooms, pommes de terre fondantes and tossed french salad for mains. Dessert is fraises dans la neige (strawberries in the snow) followed by coffee and florentines.
Lamb chops en cuirasse involves wrapping chops in puff pastry.... with ham. I have a bit of a thing about wrapping animals in other animals. You know how every bistro does a mingnon and think they're all five star for it. meh. Orange borsch requires a lot of beetroot, tomatoes portugaises is just fancy talk for stuffed tomatoes and pommes de terre fondantes is even fancier talk for small, buttery, new potatoes. Strawberries in the snow actually sound delicious, I will be putting this on the list of recipes to make!
Oh and just so you know, in the interest of good fact checking I ran the French through Google translate and... it all checks out. Which I was slightly disappointed about.
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