It's time to plant your paperwhites.  Forcing paperwhites to bloom indoors for Christmas is easy and inexpensive.    I like to figure about 4-5 weeks from planting to blooming, and planting them now will insure blooming, fragrant flowers to enjoy mid December.   I'm hosting a Christmas Tea on the 11th, so I'm hoping I've timed it right.

How to plant paperwhites in soil, pebbles or water.

This is a story about an anniversary party, one that celebrated 50 years of love and marriage, health and happiness, children and grandchildren, and  a whole community of friends. It's also a story of how one party turned into three.

When our long-time friends Geoff and Norma wanted to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary they knew they wanted to do it in their home, as they are old hands at hosting parties both large and small.  But first some background: a few weeks earlier we were all having dinner with our mutual friend Karen and discovered that Geoff and Norma's New Zealand wedding festivities had not included a rehearsal dinner.  Karen immediately said, "No rehearsal dinner?!  I'm giving you one."

Like a true American rehearsal dinner, this five-decades-delayed one would include a few close friends, along with family -- except now the family was comprised of their four grown children and one of their daughters-in-law who would come from San Diego, Oregon, Florida and Sydney, Augstralia.

To showcase the beauty of her old California ranch home with its beamed ceiling, wood-burning fireplace and wall of windows overlooking the garden, Karen hired help to clear the furniture from her living room and replace it with long tables and seating for 20.  She decorated the house with autumn leaves and flowers and a cascade of candles on tables and mantle.  Sweet burlap pouches (handmade by Karen for her daughter's recent wedding) to hold the silverware and gilded mini-pumpkins were further interesting accents to the table setting.  She kept the food simple and familiar, making the Octoberfest food she does so well.  Good food; good conversations; sentimental toasts and a rousing version of "Get me to the church on time", sung by our friend Margit--who changed the lyrics to "Get them to the church on time."

The next day was the anniversary party--one that Geoff and Norma had decided to make a big, colorful, catered affair.  This posed no problem, as three of their four children had been married at home.  To accommodate so many people they had tented a portion of their garden to serve as the dining area and emptied the family room to create a dance area presided over by a DJ.  We ate, drank and danced the night away and by evening's end my husband was reluctant to leave.  It's not unusual for us to be the last man standing, but he was particularly sad to say goodby to some dear friends who'd moved away years ago but had come back for the party, so he decided to keep the fun going by inviting everyone still there to brunch at our house at 10:00 the next morning.  REALLY, honey?

I'm usually game for last-minute entertaining but I am a tad more practical and knew that putting on brunch for 20 in less than 12 hours when some of those hours would require sleeping would not be the easiest thing imaginable.  But we flew downtown and hit the grocery store doors at 11:55--five minutes before the midnight closing. "Let's separate!  You go that way and get the eggs, cheese and milk.  I'll go this way and get the orange juice, sausage and bell pepper!"  I took off my heels and ran through the store, a bit tipsy I have to admit.  There were a few other shoppers and the checker, I'm certain they thought we were crackpots.  At home, we shoved everything in the refrigerator and went to bed.  The alarm went off at 7 and I turned to my husband and sweetly said, "You are my slave for the next 3 hours.  No ifs, ands, or buts, period.  And definitely no back talk!"  My husband ran to set the bar and wipe off the outdoor furniture and reported back after each task to see if there was something else he could do; my guy came though.  I made two egg casseroles and fluffed up the house with flowers and shoved all the knitting debris away, there's always masses of that lying around.  The brunch was complete when one friend offered to bring fruit and another offered bagels and cream cheese.  I rarely refuse offered help!  We set out coffee, orange juice, tomato juice, plus vodka and champagne if anyone felt like a bit of the hair of the dog.  And yes, we all felt like we could use it. 

PWW is lovely to knit and wear, comes in about 50 colors and if I didn't have so many other things that I'd like to knit, I would love to have this poncho in the dark plummy Damson.  It is 100% wool, machine washable and dryable, inexpensive with excellent yardage, so a good choice for an everyday family worsted. The color is Moonstone, I used 5 skeins and size 7 needles.

PWW is the same yarn used for the Martin Storey Afghan KAL from a few months ago and now the Kaffe Fassett KAL that is going on now.  Both patterns are free downloads from the Rowan site.  If you haven't knit them yet but think you might, I would download them all and save them on your computer in a folder just to have them on hand for future use.  I always do that with free patterns.  I don't feel I need to print them out, but do like to save them in my super large knitting folder on my desktop.  Just in case.  For whenever.  My folder is the biggest knitting buffet ever.  My knitting queue, like my buffet plate, is overloaded with things I will never finish.  Sigh.

My friend Casey, an author and former food writer and restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, hosted a luncheon last week in honor of a friend's birthday.  I was able to capture a few pictures and coerce her into sharing her day with you.

A surprise birthday luncheon for my friend Rana provided a rather startling surprise for me in the kitchen--a small green bowl of raw egg yolks. But that's the end of the story. Let me start at the beginning.

Like Kristen, I love planning the table setting for a party. Because Rana recently has taken up horseback riding, I decided on an outdoorsy, equestrienne theme. Grass green chargers, my white Gien plates, French fruit jar water glasses, Ralph Lauren flatware and Riedel Chardonnay glasses were the starting points. I found beautifully crafted nickel napkin rings in the shape of riding bits  on-line at Horse Country and had over-sized green and white pillow ticking napkins made by Un Original Americain at Etsy. (I dislike standard US  napkins which usually measure 16 or 17-inches  square; a 22 to 23-inch square feels much more luxurious.) For the centerpiece I found an antique wooden brick-form which I filled with succulents, a small flowering plant and air plants. A small bronze sculpture of a horse completed the setting.

Rana's best friend, Sue, brought two pies for dessert, as Rana is not a cake-lover. Having one course completely taken care of was a huge help, so I had time to fuss a bit with an appetizer: bacon-wrapped dates from the wonderful AOC Restaurant in Los Angeles. I did not stuff them with cheese since I was serving a cheese soufflé as the main course, but doing so would make them even more delicious. They were surprisingly quick to assemble, even though they sound fussy. Just be sure to use the type of dates called for. The more common Medjool dates are too sweet for this recipe.  I also set out a bowl of my favorite Castelvetrano green olives.

Before everyone sat down, I filled half of each plate with a green salad accented with spiced grapes, walnuts and wedges of persimmon from my backyard tree.  After everyone was seated I passed a big copper pan of a soufflé pudding I've made at least 50 times over the past years. It's very easy, very light and very tasty.  When I finally tasted my portion it seemed a bit different, but I couldn't pinpoint why.  It was even lighter than usual, but plates were cleaned and I considered it a success.

Pies were served, songs were sung, Puligny Montrachet was quaffed and I felt good about the party. And then I went into the kitchen and noticed the bowl of egg yolks--the egg yolks that were supposed to have gone into the soufflé.  I laughed and fed them to my border collie.

The soufflé recipe really is a treasure -- good enough that it was published in the San Francisco Chronicle. Just be sure to include all the ingredients.

Menu

Castelvetrano Green Olives

Bacon Wrapped Dates with Parmesan

Salad with Spiced Grapes, Walnuts and Persimmon

Speedy Cheese Souffle 
Key Lime Pie
Boysenberry Pie

I thought you'd enjoy poking around her pretty home, built 100 years ago as a summer home for a a wealthy San Francisco divorcee and her son.  Many of the older homes in our town were built as summer country homes.  Los Altos enjoys mild sunny days from spring through fall and was a welcome change from the often foggy chilly San Francisco weather, less than an hour to the north.  These days Los Altos can hardly be considered a country town as we are in the heart of Silicon Valley but our weather is still gorgeous.