A table we set for a small birthday party.
• Cure Clock: 1 week remaining. This is it!
• Cure Takers: 831
• New Flickr Group: 2009 Kitchen Cure
• Submit your photos directly to The Kitchn
This is it. The last week. By now you should feel armed and ready to plan an entire dinner party. In fact, your graduation party is that dinner, so invite people to celebrate. Even if your date is in the future, you can start planning now. There's plenty to do.
This week we'll be talking about the flow of a meal and other entertaining topics like what music we like to play for cooking and eating. We'll also be asking you to show us your planning pictures, meal plans and finally, shots from your party.
Our usual note on participation: Do your best, and pace yourself, but march forward. This is the fun part! Document your progress with photos and discussion on the forum, this way you'll stay in touch with the community and the group will help keep you going. Behind? Losing steam? Ask for help!
This week is your opportunity to get creative and ask questions. We're here (staff and readers) to help you. This is the spot: in the comments.
I won't overwhelm you with a list of assignments for the week. The main idea here is use everything you've gained in the Cure and celebrate with a dinner party. Plan it to be in the next month or two; you want to keep the knife sharp, so to speak.
At the very least, you now have:
- De-cluttered and cleaned refrigerator and cupboards. (Week One)
- A kitchen with only necessary equipment and tools, the rest was given away. (Week Two)
- A well-stocked kitchen, a special project completed and something beautiful added (Week Three)
- At least one new cooking skill mastered (Week Four)
- Some meal planning tools (Week Five)
Wow. Congratulations! I am utterly impressed.
Maxwell hanging lanterns for our dinner celebrating his mother's Valentine's Day birthday. We wanted her to feel enveloped in warm light. Have a vision and ask for help executing it!
Week 6 Assignments
1. Send out invitations to your party: I believe the ideal number of people for a dinner party is six. That way conversations can stay in the group and not split off. There also aren't so many people to crowd the kitchen. I have six of my favorite plates and six of my favorite napkins. Maybe that's the real reason!
2. Plan the meal: Meaning from start to finish. Use those meal-planning skills we talked about last week. Write it out, make your shopping list, shop, get everything in order, cook ahead if called for, then the day of the party, pace yourself. Have fun.
3. Do something fun design-wise with your space: Be it the way you set the table, something with flowers, a new lighting scheme. There's plenty of table-setting resources on the site.
3. Document it: We really want to see your graduation parties. Have the camera out and if you have someone around who wants a job but you don't want them wielding a knife, photographer is the perfect job. Try to shoot your planning stages. Try to shoot in natural light. But also try not to let the camera interfere with your flow. Send photos to us, pretty please.
This isn't good-bye: we'll be with you all week, and of course, The Kitchn is always here for you, seven days a week, inspiring cooks and nourishing homes.
Reminders about photographs:
- If you'd like your progress to be showcased, please take "before" and "after shots" and submit them directly to The Kitchn. Make sure to explain what's going on in each image.
- We also have a 2009 Kitchen Cure Flickr Group. If you post your photos to this group, please include captions so we understand what's going on in each image.
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
I have a 3-year old and an anti-social husband, so rather than plan a dinner party, I'm planning a series of "open house" style picnics now that the weather is starting to cooperate. The idea is to invite my daughter's daycare pals, pick a spot in the park that is convenient to the playground and good food to share, and lounge about (well, with 3 year olds you don't lounge much) for a couple of hours. Every Saturday. All summer. That's the goal. I won't be providing all the food for everyone all the time, but I plan to bring at least one or two sharable items.
@cmcinnyc: That's such a nice idea. I'm childless, but might try to adapt your idea--stake out a good picnic spot, get a regular whoever-shows-up-shows-up thing going. Good way to stay connected with friends who are going out less these days because of the economy. And the friends who have kids will certainly feel welcome, too. Thanks for the idea.
(I, too, live with a kind but anti-social man. He has many friends and is great at parties and out in public, but his home is his bunker ("you want to invite people--to our house?!"). Bummer for me, who used to host regular dinner parties for ten in my tiny East Village studio. Oh, the things we do for love....)
Glad to hear I'm not the only one with an anti-social partner...I hope it's just a phase.
Anyway, I too used to host Sunday dinners at my house weekly over the summer - we limited the RSVP on Evite to 10 people and that was a squeeze in my apartment at that time. After the first summer it just got to be too much all that cooking each week. This year I think we're going to try and rotate from house to house and just get together once a month. I'll keep in touch about my progress.
Been cooking up a storm - thanks for the inspiration. I'll end by saying, I made the best Binh Mi (Veitnamese sandwich) with meatballs, cilantro, refridgerator pickles of dikon, carrot and cucumber on a french roll - it was AMAZING. I've been looking for this recipe for 10 years!!!!
Can you mention the chain of hearts dangling next to the string of lights? I think these look great and would like to make something like that. Are they paper or fabric? Is there any sort of weight on the bottom of the ribbon/string?
I've sent the invites (email) and charged my husband with buying a picnic blanket on his way home. Saturday it is! I've just started planning the menu (first I printed out Bittman's 101 20-Minute Picnic Foods list). Since we plan to do this regularly, I'm keeping it simple and keeping a record so I can record what works and what was a needless hassle.
Wow. I've sort of rode shotgun on a couple of cures before, but always knew I'd never do the party at the end. I feel like I'm finally finishing my degree!