New Year's Eve is For the JV Squad

New Year’s is for the JV team. We Varsity players stay at home. We either indulge in Oyster Pan Roast or Creamy Scrambled Eggs with shaved fresh truffles, or at least we imagine ourselves doing this. Neither one of us has actually shelled out for a truffle yet, but living in the low country the pan roast is well within our grasp, because even the Deans can harvest oysters.

To inflate the oyster meal to New Year’s status the Deans pair the pan roast with a Gougeres hors d'oeuvres, a tart side salad and finish with a chocolate tart. And even if you are a bench warmer and not on any team, everyone drinks champagne on New Year’s Eve.  

Merry Christmas

Christmas Day is the one day that the Deans are convinced houses are being actually lived in and used. People take the time to make a tasty breakfast, talk to each other, lounge around in their pajamas while opening gifts, many of which are for the home, and enjoy a meal seated around the dining room table.

What the Deans want to see, minus the gifts, is you people doing this once a week all year long. Our gift to you is leading the way on how to live a beautiful life and to stay on top of you until you have learned.

HOW TO LIVE A BEAUTIFUL LIFE

The Manliest Men

For the manliest men, the ones most sure of themselves who are elegant, accomplished, debonair, when these men are feeling at their peak only their favorite quaff puts them in the right frame of mind, perfectly chilled champagne.

As most people know, but not everyone, champagne refers only to sparkling wines with grapes grown in the champagne valley. There are some delicious sparkling wines from other parts of the world, but they will never go under the moniker of champagne. And let's face it; there are just no songs with lyrics about sparkling wine.

Ask your local wine shop to pair a different champagne with every course, instead of wine. Dean Pollak’s brother, a former sommelier, sent cases of different champagnes for a multi course dinner in Savannah, Georgia.  For a one-time treat it was effervescent, not overkill.  The hands down favorite that evening was Salon, a singular champagne made by one man with one grape in one region.

Champagne Salon, the original creation by Aime Salon

Charleston’s premier cardiac specialist, Dr. Martin Morad, is a Persian doctor of international fame. Dr. Morad splits his time between his elegant homes in Maine, Washington, D.C. and Charleston, SC. His taste is beyond superb, and so is it any wonder that the first drink he serves whenever he entertains at home, which is often, is champagne? His go to favorite is Phillippe Prie Brut. 

Brilliant men can be found in any profession, and the most brilliant man that Dean Pollak ever knew was The Rev. William Ralston. He had three go to drinks - Old Weller bourbon, Chartreuse, (which he called the Green Eyed Monster), and Veuve Clicquot, the Grande Dame.

But perhaps the most famous champagne loving man of all time is Winston Churchill. Churchill only drank Pol Roget. When he died in 1965 Pol Roger placed a black border around the labels of its white-foil Champagne bound for England.

 As he wrote in 1898:

"A single glass of Champagne imparts a feeling of exhilaration. The nerves are braced: the imagination is agreeably stirred; the wits become more nimble. A bottle produces the opposite effect."

Feast

The Thanksgiving meal is way too delicious to be served only once a year.  Our cry is that a once a year tradition for this meal is insane.  All you people are only serving this turkey dinner in November because of the myth perpetrated down through the ages: this meal takes 18 days to put together at the very least.  Dean Manigault loves turkey and it’s trimmings so much she made Feast again for her tree trimming party just last night and plans to make it again for Christmas and then again in January once the family has cleared out and she can have some friends over.  She proved once and for all that this meal need not be a behemoth.

Having made the stuffing the day before (stuffing is the most labor intensive of all the dishes weighing in at 45 minutes) and concurrently roasting the sweet potatoes for tomorrows Thanksgiving, the majority of the labor was already out of way.

Day of Feast

Heating the oven takes longer than getting the turkey ready.  Jean Anderson told us in her cookbook Food of Portugal to not touch the turkey while it’s in the oven to obtain the crispiest skin, and she is 100% right.

1. Dean Manigault puts the turkey in the pan and the pan in the oven (5 minutes).
2. Assemble Medway Sweet Potatoes (20 minutes).
3. Make the cranberry sauce and serve warm (from start to finish 10 minutes, only 1.5 minutes of actual labor).  Dean Manigault’s trick is to boil the cranberry sauce on super high until the cranberries all pop.
4. Trim two bags of Brussels sprouts (7-10 minutes) cooking time (10-15 minutes).
5. Dean Manigault’s CSA arrived just in time to join Feast, and in it was a baby turnip and carrot recipe.  The CSA suggested roasting them, but Dean Manigault served the turnips and carrots julienned raw with a light vinaigrette as a fresh, crispy contrast to the heavy food.

Total time: 36.5 minutes of labor

Of course everything takes time to cook, and she did have to borrow her neighbor’s oven, but for a such a delicious outcome she would go to far greater lengths.  Just like Tom Sawyer she can sit back and watch people wrangle the lights on the tree without a flicker of guilt because they are all so well fed.

*For summer Feast the Deans plan to fry our turkey and serve with a bread tomato salad, a panzanella. Our mouths are watering already and we haven’t even digested last night’s feast. 

A Triumphant Triumvirate

Just as soon as the Deans got our freezers filled we looked around the house to see what else we could get done before the masses descend on us. The freezer was groaning but what about the pantry? Its gaping maw was crying out to be filled with succulent and savory treats for the holidays. Unto the shelves and into the fridge we piled exotic hard cheeses to be cubed, tasty olives, pistachios, dried apricots, whole dried salamis, plus some prosciutto and Bresaola for good measure, candied orange peel, and Jordan almonds for by the door.

We both like a round platter and on to it we pile wooden, crystal and bronze bowls filled with the items from our now stocked pantry. Anyone can drop by anytime and we will be 100% ready.

Into the tiny bit of space we have left in the freezer we are going to fill small round balloons with water so that we have bespoke ice cubes to take our holiday cocktails over the top. Between the cocktails and our samovar of savories our houses will once again be everyone’s go to favorites. 

Bespoke Ice Cubes 

1. Fill a water balloon slightly less than the circumference of your cocktail glass. Twist a long thin piece of aluminum foil into a ring. Rest the balloon within the nest the ring has created. The ring prevents the balloons getting a flat side and keeps them orbicular while freezing. Put the filled balloons, and his many brothers, into the freezer the day before the party. Plan on one per glass.
2. At party time, cut the top of the balloon and peel the rubber off the ice. If the sphere is too big to fit into the glass, simply run under hot water until the ice shrinks a bit.

The Bedrock of Entertaining

Dinner parties are the bedrock of entertaining.  There is no better way to get to know someone than by having them over and cooking for them. A thousand nights in restaurants will never create the same amount of intimacy.  By allowing someone into your house, you are showing them your sense of style, letting them see the books you like to read, the food you like to cook: in short, who you really are.  A little bit of luxury goes a long way at home. An Old Fashioned, a few oysters in a pan roast and a spoonful of chocolate mousse set the mood for an evening to remember.  And you created it all yourself!

 The Dean’s Cheat Sheet

7 is the perfect dinner party number. One conversation shared by the whole group and enjoyed with maximum conviviality.  

Candlelight only, please. The less you can see the better everyone looks.  It is by far the most flattering of all the lights.  

Use your whole house i.e. drinks in one room, dinner at the table and coffee and cordials while lounging sofa side in your living room or den or even outside if the weather permits.

You only need one go-to menu.  It’s the Dean’s job to pair you with the right one.

Keep to a schedule.  If the cocktail hour is actually 2 hours, then someone may have a breakdown - and a drunken one, too - on the living  room floor.

Outsourcing some of the meal is brilliant.  It relieves stress and may make the party happen as opposed to being just a fantasy. No one turns down a bowl of Haagen Dazs or a dessert from from the local bakery and very few guests mind bringing a single cheese with a column of crackers.

---

Here are a few of our favorite local spots for outsourcing fabulous courses.

Christophe's - great for those last minute sweets needed for any party.

Goat. Sheep. Cow. - the perfect place to shop for specialty cheeses, wines and meats to bring as a hostess gift or to supply as an appetizer.

The Wine Shop of Charleston - the place to buy super size bottles of wine to woo even the most jaded palate

The Beer Exchange - for the speciality beers which is a must have in every hipster's frig.  

How to Behave

The Deans are big advocates for one-on-one conversations, face to face, not only online. That's one of the reasons we founded the Academy, to show people how to wring the most out of their house -- for cooking and feeding and connecting in the kitchen and around dining room tables of course -- but also to develop better relationships using your private space. It turns out that your house is one of the best places to listen and to develop better listening skills. These skills have fallen by the wayside with all our technology. The Deans meet more and more people who tune everyone out; these people speak, and then they wait and think what they want to say next....instead of listening. Are you one who tune others out?

Naturally the Deans have a solution for a problem we find gets worse year by year. For the next month, incorporate 'mindful listening' into your dinner hour. Focus on what your family or friends are saying, not only on their words, but on their expressions, tone and body language. Don't interrupt. Do not react or disagree. Just listen. Make eye contact with the person talking.

We think everyone should be talking less and listening more. (Especially on planes)

God, Disease and Below the Waist

God, disease and below the waist are topics that do not belong at the dinner table; they belong in Church, the doctor’s office and the bedroom, or again the doctor’s office. Since the Deans offices do not reside in any of the above three institutions we expect that we can pass our socializing unmolested by updates on your status on the aforementioned three discussion points. If we are in New York or Atlanta can we please add money to the list, unless you are endowing the academy with whopping great sums?

Reflecting upon this declaration the Deans do begin to wonder if we have left anything worth talking about at the table? 

News Flash: The Deans Have Learned Something New

Guess what the latest tenet learned by Dean Pollak in New York City was just this last week? It has upended everything we thought we knew at the Academy. If we were not rock solid on this science, then every skillet in our cupboard should be shaking about what other enormous unknown lacunae lurk in our supposed breathe of knowledge. It's almost too much for us to take in.

While procuring a bottle of bourbon for a dinner gift (the hosts already own two copies of our book, one from each of us) the omniscient sales clerk decreed that rye is the liquor of choice for Old Fashioneds. Rye has spice top notes, whereas bourbon's are sweet, so rye actually contrasts with the sugar and the orange bitters better. Dean Pollak has ferried this late breaking newsflash back to Charleston and the Deans plan on dedicating December to extensive tastings to verify the veracity of this pronouncement. 

Rye Cocktail

Serves 1

2 ounces of rye whiskey

1/2 teaspoon Demerara sugar

2 dashes of Angostura

2 dashes of Orange Bitters

Pour over large ice cubes. Makes one cocktail.

Ice Is All the Rage

Everybody is talking about ice right now. The Deans are dubious that you wish to invest in a $10,000 ice machine to make the latest cubes. You can make ice spheres for less than 5 cents with this simple, eye catching trick.

Fill a water balloon slightly less than the circumference of your cocktail glass. Twist a long thin piece of aluminum foil into a ring. Rest the balloon within the nest the ring has created. The ring prevents the balloons getting a flat side and keeps them orbicular while freezing. Put the filled balloons, and his many brothers, into the freezer the day before the party. Plan on one per glass.

At party time, cut the top of the balloon and peel the rubber off the ice. If the sphere is too big to fit into the glass, simply run under hot water until the ice shrinks a bit.

This single ice sphere melts more slowly than conventional ice and maintains the integrity of your signature cocktail. Party guests adore this trick!! You will be amazed at their amazement!!

Use our sphere with this season's Rye Cocktail and enjoy!

A Manners Morass

Naturally the minute the Deans arrive in any city the invitations start flying in. This very excitement brings the Deans to our trickiest dilemma. What to do when you’ve accepted one invite and something better comes along shortly afterwards? Temptation looms. You can already picture yourself at the second event having the time of your life. Why did you even accept the first? You never wanted to go, and never will. Well, bad news. The reason you are so upset is that you know the answer. You must press on with your first acceptance. You have been invited to so many jump ups in the first place because of your charm and tact. By ‘best offer-ing’ at the last minute you fool no one and even if you could, your Facebook’s GPS tells all your friends where you are anyway. 

Learn more etiquette advice from our book The Charleston Academy. 

The Most MAH-VELOUS Party

Our mortar boards are off to last night’s hostess. Everything was pitch perfect, including the weather. It was a birthday party for her spouse and she introduced Charleston society to her newest member of team bijou. Champagne and wine were ceaselessly passed around. The Deans, for one, were thrilled to see the champagne coupe being used instead of the ubiquitous champagne flukes.

The Deans always advocate at least three passed hor’s d'oeuvres, but last night’s hostess regaled the crowd with at least eight to ten. Hot parmesan water chestnut puffs, fried pimento cheese balls, bite sized beef tenderloin with horseradish sauce, veal meatballs, sautéed shrimp on a toothpick, prosciutto wrapped arugula…..and those are just off the top of our head.

Outside in the garden played a two-piece band, and what impressed us was one of the two pieces was a trumpet, yet the music added ambiance and didn’t take over. This wasn’t a dance after all.

Next to the bar was the chicest display of wine bottles the Deans remember seeing.

A great cocktail party is the best place to see and be seen. Wear your prettiest dress, get out your jewelry and cast all your troubles aside. No lugubrious conversations here. Keep things fun and flirty, light and bright. This is the time to meet someone new - you can deepen your relationship later, over lunch or dinner. Be sure not to only talk to the people you know. Push yourself to meet at least one new person, and if no sparks fly, move on to the next. Don’t get monopolized and don’t monopolize. Keep moving.

The Deans give this hostess an A+ because she always leads the way and has the best time at her own parties, ensuring everyone else catches her infectious spirit. Brava!

Giving the Gift of Thanks

The most flattering way to say thank you is to show a person that they have been listened to. The Deans are going to give you four examples that we feel go above and beyond, and that we have witnessed ourselves in the last four weeks.

• When a thank you gift arrived from Amazon, generous in its own right, the label read “The Fabulous Dean Pollak” Dean Pollak grinned from ear to ear. Just embellishing the label was enough to make an ordinary brown Amazon box as exciting as a bright orange Hermes box.
• Dean Pollak had some people over for business and later when one came back to socialize (proving once again that we use our houses for business and pleasure, usually as the same time) she overheard Dean Pollak say she loves beer, so she procured from Dean Pollak’s favorite Beer Exchange the six different beers that were Pollak's favorites.
• Dean Pollak lost her favorite hat, only obtainable in London on Bond Street, so when she bemoaned to her neighbor that London did not seem in her immediate future, her neighbor took it upon herself to track down the hat, and even sent it Charleston bound with someone who was returning sooner than she was, so that Dean Pollak could start wearing it immediately. Totally unexpected, but a totally welcome treat.
• Sometimes a gift does not have to come in a tangible form. At the Deans’ latest speech (where we sold 400 books, even blowing ourselves away) our favorite priest, Father Gavin Dunbar, Rector of St. John’s Church in Savannah, Georgia, sat rapt in the audience taking copious notes. We thought he was boning up for his next dinner party, but in fact he wrote us a thoughtful and generous email pointing out his ideas to facilitate making our message stronger and mightier. Coming from a man who gives a sermon at least once a week, Father Dunbar’s opinion is of the upmost importance to us.

If you are going out in the near future, and personalized gifts such as the ones above do not immediately jump to the forefront of your mind, we declare that our book is a never miss. Whether your friend likes pork, pies, parties or is just in need of a good laugh, our book is an ever present reminder of your thoughtfulness. A bottle of wine or a box of chocolates will be consumed within the hour, while our book is on its way to becoming a family heirloom. 

Who Do You Take To Dinner?

Have you ever noticed that some people act completely different when their spouse is around?  The Deans notice this more often than we would have thought because we often meet with people individually through our work at the Academy. We are always looking for new dinner guests so we frequently invite them for dinner. Upon entering our house with his or her spouse the person has been totally transformed. When they are without the spouse generally people put out more. When accompanied by their spouse they have someone to lean on, and this brings out either more energy or sometimes they let their spouse be the star.

The Deans think everyone should be on the lookout for this behavior for info about themselves. Hosts deserve your A game whether you come with your partner or not. So we encourage you to start paying attention to how you behave when you are with your spouse or not. We always want to see you at your finest. 

Never Say This

At some point you will end up saying something dumb or regrettable. The following list is by no means exhaustive, but the Deans have heard the following comments in the last year, so we want to help you avoid these monstrous pitfalls. We promise you, with our own ears, we have heard them all. 

2014 Top 7 Off Putters

Never let the Deans hear you say the following:                                                                                                                                                                               

No. 7 “Sorry, I have to cancel. I've got a different event."                                                               This is just rude and no host wants to hear that their event is not on the top of your list.  This excuse trumpets both indifference and a lack of social awareness, and marks you as a person who waits for better offers. 

No. 6 "You look so tired".                                                                                                                   We may think we look great, and hope we always do, so to hear we look tired is a total buzz kill. 

No. 5 “Can I bring my child to your party?”                                                                                          If you have children the host knows this so if your host wanted your child, they would have invited him or her in the first place.

No. 4 “The sliced tomatoes were fantastic”.                                                                                     This is a perfectly generous statement when the meal is simple and the tomatoes are outstanding. However, if the sliced tomatoes are placed next to an obviously labor intensive dish, then the comment will stick in the ear of the host. Dean Pollak made a timbale from Giuliano Bugialli's cookbook and the new girlfriend of an old friend raved about the tomatoes which took 30 seconds to slice and stayed silent about the piece de resistance. Dean Pollak is rankled. 

No. 3 “I just found someone online. Can I bring him or her to your dinner party, even though I haven't me them in person myself yet?"                                                                                           Hell no!

No. 2 “Your living room is too hot. Can we move to another room?”.                                   Arranging the flow of an evening from room to room is not arbitrary, If we have you in a certain room, it's because we want you in this room.  If you are uncomfortable at our house that is your problem, not ours.

No. 1  A guest is asked what he or she wants to drink. The host replies that quaff is not available. The guests retorts "Well that's what I want" or "I can't believe you ran out".  Both these statements put us on the spot and make us feel ungenerous. 

Monticello's Heritage Harvest Festival

The Deans are giddy after our talk at Monticello. We simply had the best time ever. We cannot encourage you more heartily to attend the Heritage Harvest Festival in 2015. We already have next year's event on our calendar.

Monticello invited the Deans to kick off their Art of Living portion of the weekend. We were put up in the most sumptuous guesthouse we have ever seen on a farm in Keswick. On Friday morning we took a walk to get our blood flowing and then on to Monticello for a Behind the Scenes Tour (all four floors) with the most competent tour guide who has ever led us around. The house spoke to us and we listened. Thomas Jefferson is THE founding father of gracious living.

Monticello's Dining Room 

Image credit: Thomas Jefferson Foundation/Sequoia Designs
Copyright © Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc.

Friday night's Heritage Harvest dinner was sublime; atop Monalto was a glorious food tent filled with the best wines, ciders and foods that Virginia has to offer. Thomas Jefferson was passionate about vegetable cuisine, plant experimentation and sustainable agriculture...a full two centuries ahead of his time!  Aaron Keefer, the head gardener for the famed French Laundry, was the keynote speaker Friday night and the Deans were enthralled.  He led the audience around his garden and even brought samples including a spinach that tasted EXACTLY like an oyster.  Both Deans wanted to put him in a doggy bag and take him home. 

Saturday saw us on a panel with Charlotte Moss moderating, and Annie Vanderwarker (Fearless Flowers), Holly Shimizu (former director of the US Botanic Gardens) and Gabriele Rausse (Monticello's Director of Gardens and Grounds) and the Deans, all answering questions about The Art of Living. After posing for copious photographs, we were whisked away to deliver our own standing room only talk. We left the Visitor’s Center to sign books on the lawn of Monticello, then were in a short video interview and on to an unbelievable dinner at Red Pump. We are tired just reading about it. How we did it we’ll never know, but boy, it was fabulous. Thank you, thank you Monticello.

Fun facts we learned this weekend:

• Jefferson kept 33 chairs in Monticello's front hall so anyone who wished could wait to see the great man himself.
• Jefferson was so egalitarian that even in his own house, as well as the White House, seating was first come first serve.
• There is no central staircase at Monticello because Jefferson thought it was a waste of precious space and heat. The Deans would follow President Jefferson anywhere, but we are not sure he was 100% on this point:-)
• He made sure his granddaughters were educated because he told them they had a one in fourteen chance of marrying a blockhead.
• The fact that resonated most with the Deans: Thomas Jefferson used his dining room twice a day! How many times have you used yours in the last year?

---

The Monticello dining room has seen many fabulous meals in its day.  In the book Dining at Monticello: In Good Taste & Abundance, we have found an authentic recipe from Monticello using Mutton Chops which today can be substituted for lamb. 

MUTTON CHOPS

Serves 4 to 6

INGREDIENTS

8 mutton or lamb rib chops (at least 3/4 to 1 inch thick)

Salt

Whole black pepper in a pepper mill

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup Mushroom Catsup (can be found by some specialty condiment companies)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits

1/2 cup freshly grated horseradish

1.  Prepare a grill with hardwood coals.  When the coals have burned to a medium-hot fire, rub the grill rack with a cloth dipped in lard or bacon drippings and position it about 4 to 6 inches above the coals.

2.  Season the chops with salt and several grindings of pepper and grill them, turning once, until cooked to the doneness of choice, about 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium rare.  Remove them to a warm platter and set aside to keep warm.

3.  Bring the water to a simmer in a small saucepan.  Add the Mushroom Catsup, additional salt if needed, and simmer for about 1 minute more.  Remove from the heat, whisk in the butter, and pour it over the chops.  Sprinkle a little horseradish over them, and spoon the remaining horseradish around the edges of the platter.

NOTE: Readers who are not concerned with authenticity or who are unable to grill-broil may use the oven broiler.  Position a rack about 6 inches below the broiler and preheat for 20 minutes.  Rub the broiling pan rack with lard or drippings and lay the chops on it.  Lightly brush them with melted butter and season with salt and pepper.  Broil, turning once, until done to taste, about 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium rare.

WWJD

What would Jefferson do?  The Deans are packing up to go to Monticello for the Fall Festival Harvest this weekend to ask him ourselves. We couldn’t be more excited.

Thomas Jefferson's ethos is the plinth atop on which the Academy perches. What the Deans espouse, Thomas Jefferson taught us: a house is the ultimate tool for living. Remarkably, both Deans live in 18th century houses, so we have loved poring over Thomas Jefferson’s style of household management and find much that we can incorporate today and much to ponder. One question that we simply can’t get out of our heads is where did Sally Hemings sleep? Did he bring a French chef back to the United States? What questions do you want answered? Let us know and we will ferret out the answers anon.

Left: Exterior home of Lee Manigault                                                                           Right: Interior home of Suzanne Pollak

Being ever hungry Deans, we plan to stop at least half a dozen places to eat on our drive up 95. Please let us know if there is a gem we might miss. The first night we are there, we are sampling some of Richmond's delights.  Rappahannock we hear is fab, as well as a jewel called Mamma Zu.  Perhaps a night in the historic Jefferson hotel to get us in the mood? We are booked for a behind the scenes tour of Monticello on Friday and we are tickled pink.  We plan to sit in the lotus position being carried room to room so we can absorb as many vibes from TJ himself as we can.  We just know he has been dying to share his secrets with us personally, so we can spread his message, just like the seeds he so loved to scatter.  Saturday finds us speaking from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. and on a panel with Charlotte Moss, Annie Vanderwarker, Holly Shimizu, and Gabriele Rausse. Heady company indeed. 

Get tickets here to join us at the festival where we will talk about Living Like Thomas Jefferson: 18th Century Living in a 21st Century World.

Monticello's West Front and pond

Cocktail Shakers Gone Wild

Our new favorite piece of kitchen equipment is one we don’t own at this moment. We’ve owned them in the past, of that we are sure, but where the hell are they now? Like socks in the dryer, cocktail shakers seem to be out and about without consulting us. We know cocktail shakers are the life of the party, and we mistakenly thought we could own one, but evidently you just give temporary shelter to a cocktail shaker because neither one of us can find ours. Hopefully ours have come to rest in some of your bars and are shaking your parties up.

Since we can’t find our cocktail shakers the Deans will waste no time in shopping for new ones. One of us wants stainless, the other wants sterling, and which wants which changes from moment to moment. 

The Williams Sonoma cocktail shaker gets our seal of approval.

Summer Entertaining Essentials

Summer only has a few weeks left, so maximize relaxed extended evenings by throwing last minute dinner parties. There can be too much of a good thing during long nights. Guests cannot relax until they get a sense of the shape of the evening, so if you don’t plan on serving dinner until 10:00 p.m. apprise your people before hand. Remember, if you are in the kitchen the entire time your guests will miss you, and more importantly, they lack a leader. You might not think of yourself as a leader, but anytime you have guests, you are! Guests take all their cues from you.

The Deans reserve the rights to change these essential tips at any time.

Planning.  The great skill of all leaders.  Getting most of the cooking done ahead of time means the meal will be room temperature (perfect for summer.)  You will be relaxed with nothing to do at the last minute, so guests will be too. 

Delegating.  Put someone else in charge of grilling at the last minute.  Men feel so manly stoking a blazing fire. Someone else can also be making the drinks. You can't be doing everything.  If no one is at hand, buy cool six packs of various micro brews. Beer and summer are a match made in heaven.

The Charleston Beer Exchange - every beer known to man in the coolest little shop in Charleston. 

Staging.  Use all your space, inside and out.  Don’t forget industrial fans.  We envy our Alaskan and Adirondack friends this time of year. Those party pros are enjoying perfect weather right now. And Bonus time: Alaskans can stay up all night with no artificial light, while the Adirondackers can blaze a fire every night.  Lucky South Carolinians have to contend with a wind that blows like a hot fire all day and night.

Learn creative party planning tips and so much more from our book, The Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits: A Handbook of Etiquette with Recipes.

Beginnings and Endings

We simply cannot be on call for you people 24 hours a day.

This summer we begin our mornings with sliced peaches and strawberries and iced coffees. Sometimes we need a kick and grind black pepper into our fruit. Have the Deans lost their minds? Certainly not! Originality is in our DNA. While everyone else ups the sugar content, we prefer spicing things up. Black pepper and creme fresh bring fruit to a level you cannot imagine on your own. If you don’t agree, the Deans will hang up their aprons. 

We start our evening around 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. by signing off and creating dean-lious cocktails for ourselves. We always garnish our drinks from our pickle pantry. While in our pantry deciding on our perfect peppery pickle, sometimes we grab a jar of our homemade jam to create a tasty tart with which to end the evening. Since we usually keep homemade pie pastry in the freezer (we always make two pie doughs at a time, one for now, one for freezing) it takes no time to defrost (Charleston is HOT this summer), roll out, and fill with jam. Keeping the summer vibe going!