In the Land of Cocktails

Entertaining According To Lally

Posted by Lally Brennan on December 8th, 2008

Cheers, fel­low cocktailians!

I love the hol­i­days.  I prob­a­bly attend and throw as many par­ties between Thanks­giv­ing and Mardi Gras as the rest of the year com­bined.  Enter­tain­ing is one of my favorite hob­bies.  What a great way to show those close to you that you care.  Over the years, I learned from some seri­ous vet­eran host­esses: my mother and my aunts Ade­laide, Dot­tie, and Ella Bren­nan who could [lit­er­ally] make a liv­ing out of enter­tain­ing. I’ve hosted dozens of Christ­mas par­ties so I thought I’d share some of the best tips from my lit­tle black book of entertaining.

Don’t wait for the party to get started, trans­form your guests into party mode the minute they cross your thresh­old.  Greet them with a jin­gle bell on rib­bon like we do at Commander’s Palace and Café Ade­laide dur­ing the hol­i­days.  It seems sim­ple, but the smiles on your friends’ faces will tell you it worked.  Or, if you’re wor­ried that a house full of jin­gle bells will be too noisy, try Santa hats for the men and rein­deer antler head­bands for the ladies.  Believe me, this works!

The guest list is very impor­tant.  Know the peo­ple you’re invit­ing and know that they will get along with your other guests.  Keep them in mind when decid­ing the cock­tails, wine, din­ner and playlist… which brings me to the next key to a great party, Music!

Music is a must.  I love to start a party with great upbeat music (I love to start a party with New Orleans Jazz).  As you move into din­ner, play clas­si­cal or back­ground music that won’t over­power the con­ver­sa­tion.  Lastly – and most impor­tantly – crank it up.  Play music that will help you dance off that din­ner.  One easy way to mea­sure suc­cess of a party: whether you had to move a cof­fee table to make a dance floor (if the answer is yes, your guests will be rav­ing of the party’s suc­cess for weeks).

Your guests are there to see you, so don’t spend the night in the kitchen.  Pre­pare as much of the food in advance as you can.  Bake spiced pecans a day or two in advance, place them by the bar, on the cof­fee table, etc…  I also love to serve home­made gumbo in demi­tasse cups as hors d’oeuvres – no spoons nec­es­sary!  I once hosted a party that was so well pre­pared in advance, upon arrival, my guests thought we were going out to eat!  [The trick: I pre­pared a salad (minus the dress­ing, of course) and dessert in advance and placed a roast and the side dishes in the oven before my friends arrived.  There wasn’t a dish on the counter].

Finally, what else would you expect from a cock­tail chick?  Great cock­tails are key to a suc­cess­ful party.  Batch a cock­tail the day of or night before you host a party.  Some of my favorite cock­tails to batch are Brandy Milk Punches (great for hol­i­day brunches), Tequila Mock­ing­bird 2’s, Side­cars and Holly Berries.  We invented the Holly Berry Mar­tini last year dur­ing the hol­i­days.  We think it’s so fes­tive and appro­pri­ate for the sea­son because it calls for cran­berry juice.  

Place the cock­tails and wine at sep­a­rate bars so that every­one won’t con­gre­gate in one place – spread the party out!

Ulti­mately, it all sums up to one prin­ci­ple: have fun!  Whether your friends enjoy a for­mal din­ner party or a casual cock­tail gath­er­ing, cater to their tastes and it will pay off.

Cheers!
Lally

The Holly Berry Martini

1.5 oz Stoli Cit­ron vodka
¾ oz Pome­gran­ate liqueur (we use Pama)
¼ oz Sour mix
¼ oz Cran­berry juice
¼ oz Creme de Cas­sis
Fresh cran­ber­ries, for gar­nish
Fill a mar­tini glass with ice to chill and set aside.  Com­bine all ingre­di­ents in a cock­tail shaker filled with ice and shake vig­or­ously.  Dis­card ice from mar­tini glass and strain cock­tail into the chilled glass.  Gar­nish with cran­ber­ries or a lemon twist when cran­ber­ries are not in season.

To batch, com­bine all ingre­di­ents in a pitcher and refrig­er­ate until your guests arrive.  Pre­pare chilled mar­tini glasses, shake, strain and gar­nish as above.