Behind the Scenes of a Big Deal Dinner!

A sweet friend/customer, Robert, is celebrating his 62nd birthday (happy birthday, darling Robert!). He wants to have a Friday dinner, so I start to plan. His guest list keeps increasing, so I multiply my shopping list many times! I've already been all over town, collecting what I need to start cooking. It's Friday afternoon and I'm feeling prickly! My heart is pounding and I have a headache! This is always a race, and I'm never sure I'll win...or not, till the very last minute. I've still been peeling potatoes when people were parking their cars! Cripe! What shrieking stress!

I've rented a movie so that Harrison and Carter can hole up upstairs with bowls of soup and enough interesting snacks that they won't be down to pester me. I've made all things ahead that I could, but the last minute things---most of the menu---are having to be prepared between orders and we've been very busy for lunch. I've got three pots on the stove with different things in them and it's hair-raising to remember which needs salt...which has already been salted. Parsley? Dill? Shallots! No, onions! NO! Shallots!

I race over to the school to collect the kids. They both need things to complete their science fair projects...by Monday. They need haircuts. They both have baseball practice...and no idea where their gloves are. No matter! Back to the pots.

I'm cooking a dinner of dishes that I love best. I've got a cream and Reisling wine chicken stew that is so memorable. It deepens and thickens in the oven like magic! Really, I hold my breath when I first lift the lid! I serve it over boiled red potatoes and no one goes away unchanged! We'll start with a Raclette cheese appetizer that requires several kinds of roasted vegetables (mushrooms, potatoes, red peppers and pearl onions). After the appetizer, we'll serve a mixed green salad with dill and fresh pressed garlic. The chicken stew is next, and then dessert. I decided to make Julia Child's Pouding Alsacien from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," so it has been chilling in the refrigerator overnight. It's very dense and sweet; perfect beside a light nut torte my mother often made for my birthday. The torte is two layers with strawberry jam in the middle, and is frosted with whipped cream, barely sweetened and thickened with powdered sugar...I'm just easing the nut torte out of the pans when guests start to arrive...gulp, 45 minutes early!!

We race to light candles and string sparkle lights the length of the table...to seat 20 people now! The champagne starts to pop, the appetizer goes out, I toss the salad...weight lifts off my shoulders, I can see and hear again, my headache is gone...phew! I won!