ENTERTAINING: A Black and White Party

I belong to a “Wine and Dinner Club.” which is really a name we gave to a close group of friends that get together “every quarter” to enjoy a good meal, wine and cigars. In fact, we shortened it to WAD, and it seems to have stuck! Everyone pitches in courses for the meal and our kids play together as well. As the years have passed our themes have gotten more elaborate. And as the children have grown, they take part in theme activities and prepping dishes. It’s a very special group and a very special evening. I am truly blessed to have these families in my life. I hope we continue it well into our retirement!

But to the subject at hand, our recent WAD was a “Black and White” dinner. Everything had to be black and white; decor, food, cocktails, dinner, desserts. We also had to dress in black and white. It was really fun and chic. We had to get pretty creative, and we all dressed up for the occasion. I mean, black and white kind of means put on your Sunday best, right? So here is a look book on what we all served and how my dear friend and hostess, Jacki, decorated her beautiful home. Hopefully you too will be inspired to do a black and white party!

Cheers!

So for starters, we sipped on white cosmos and blackberries in champagne. We noshed on lots of yummies, from meat and cheese stuffed mushrooms to stuffed endive leaves.

All over there were naughty black and white treats, from salt water taffy to yogurt and chocolate covered pretzels, to licorice and white lemon candy sticks.

Jacki did a wonderful job decorating, with black table clothes, ornate black and white filigree napkins, white candles in sparkly candle holders, white flowers in her centerpiece and Hershey kisses strewn all over the tables. Black and white balloons created a fun and festive look above the dining table. At the end of the night, the kids put a wish on each balloon and let it go into the night-it was really sweet. 

At WAD we usually do separate dinner for the kids, and the adults have our own meal. The kids had potatoes with steak. The adults dove into some mussels steamed in a garlicky tomato broth with crusty bread. As our main meal, we enjoyed sushi rolls in all kinds of shapes and fillings. The seaweed plays the black color, and the rice, the white!

And for dessert, that was my turn! For the kids, I made my famous homemade cake pops, decorated in black and white candy melts to create little monster heads. I tied them off in white lace and black and white gingham ribbon. Now truth be told, adults snuck a few of these, too. But I made the famous Hi-Hat Cupcakes for the adults, which were pretty amazing. Under that chocolate coating is a fluffy mallow-like white frosting, that tops a luscious cupcake. I will be posting my technique for these, as well as my own cake recipe I used later this week.

So welcome to WAD, and our black and white dinner night. Wish you could have come! But now you have ideas on how to do your own.