Two Hosting Menus: A Small Dinner Party + Feeding a Crowd | Our Best Home Cooking Bites of the Week
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What is the secret to stress‑free hosting a small dinner party?
Welcome to Food Friends, a podcast inspiring home cooks to try new dishes in the kitchen by sharing trusted recipes, tips, and friendship. Hi, I'm
Sonia. And I'm Keri. We met in Los Angeles over 15 years ago as personal chefs and haven't stopped talking about food since. We're so glad you're here. Hi, Sonia. Mary. Sonia, what was your best bite this week?
Mary, my best bites all came from hosting a dinner with some friends over. And truthfully, they're all dishes we've talked about before. But I have to say, this is the thing. When you're hosting, and you and I talked about this in our live Substack gathering. We do a live gathering every month for paid Substack subscribers. It's so much fun. We get so many ideas. And we were talking about hosting in June. that gathering and one of the things you said that I truly believe and is my also my sort of guiding north star about hosting which is you know cook what you know when you're hosting it's not about trying every new flashy recipe for the first time and I really leaned into that for this dinner I was cooking for people I had never hosted before and I was like no I should really cook something I know well that's true to me so the absolute best bite
is something i only make once a year and when i make it oh my gosh it's heaven and it's strawberry rhubarb pie i just think there's no better pie it may be my favorite pie of all time
i mean those lucky people i mean i think also one of the things we were talking about is where are you hosting or what are you cooking for and you were hosting at your house that's part of what i was expressing in that moment too is like you're having people over into your house it should feel like you not
they're not
expecting a tasting menu they want homemade food and they want home-cooked food and you are someone who not only loves the farmers market you also give farmers market tours and so you know what's fresh at the market for this to be the moment i mean i'm so jealous this is the moment when you decided to make your strawberry rhubarb pie i wish i was at your table that night
Rhubarb is still at the market and it's starting to sort of fade out, but I'm also seeing it everywhere at the grocery stores, which I find kind of interesting. And then strawberries are finally good here. And so I actually freeze both too, because they both freeze super well. I really think strawberry rhubarb pie is just incredible. And I always aspire to make it more than once, but I only ever make it once.
How do you make the perfect strawberry‑rhubarb pie for a dinner party?
I've been using the Nicole Rucker recipe. There is a recipe I can link that's available online. I think her crust method makes the most incredible pie crust ever. and the filling is very simple it's just sugar and rhubarb and a lot of vanilla i think a lot of vanilla in a strawberry rhubarb pie makes all the difference and then the other very important key thing about this kind of pie is you bake it for longer than you think and this pie baked for over an hour and the way that i know that it's really baking long enough is The crust gets very, very burnished and brown. And also the juices start to bubble up. And I feel like until that happens, it's not quite baked through. And you really need that. And it is a little bit of a looser pie.
And I'm okay with that. And then served with vanilla ice cream. Few things in life are better. I
mean, Sonia, I really could just eat that for dinner. But I'm really curious about what else you served leading up to this really incredible finale at your house.
So the guests themselves love to cook and they wanted to bring an appetizer. So we started the meal with these really nice, they were also from the market, endive boats filled with a raw asparagus salad that was really well seasoned. It was like asparagus diced really small. I can't even remember the other ingredients. There was probably shallot and something else. was delicious and just like a really good thing to get your appetite going and then i was also thinking it's warm out you know the sun sets late i don't want a big heavy meal i know i'm serving pie at the end and that's going to be rich and delicious i've done this so many times because i love it which is make schnitzel and one of the people is a pescatarian and the other eats meat so i made both chicken and tofu schnitzel
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the secret to stress‑free hosting a small dinner party?
0:00–2:26
2
How do you make the perfect strawberry‑rhubarb pie for a dinner party?
2:26–4:16
3
Why should you cook what you know when you’re hosting?
4:16–6:21
4
How can you prepare chicken and tofu schnitzel ahead of time and freeze it?
6:21–7:50
5
What make‑ahead salads, dips, and vinaigrettes keep a dinner party easy?
7:50–9:26
6
How does a picnic‑style menu differ from a home‑cooking menu?
9:26–11:30
7
What’s the recipe for a crowd‑pleasing spinach‑corn dip and sunflower spread?
11:30–12:51
8
How do you wrap up a hosting night with strawberry‑rhubarb bars and s’mores treats?
12:51–14:37
Speakers
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