Golden Globe Gathering

Before my godfather comes to visit next weekend, I squeezed in one extra night of entertaining. It was the Golden Globes, so naturally that meant it would be a "girls night" that consisted of cosmos, goat cheese, and red carpet commentary. My husband and I were so poor after the holiday entertaining and gift giving, that I quickly assessed the fridge to figure out if I could create something magical from whatever supplies I already had. Sorry girls, no rack of lamb this time. Since we were swimming in Trader Joe's frozen shrimp (to say my husband is a fan is an understatement) and an assortment of long thin pastas to chose from, I went with the classic Ina Garten roasted shrimp and added it to a pot of perfectly cooked linguini, butter, lemon, S&P, parmesan, and a touch of heavy cream. Doesn't need to be expensive to be good, ladies. Here is the Barefoot Contessa recipe for the shrimp, and I just improvised on the pasta combination:

2 pounds (12 to 15-count) shrimp
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Peel and devein the shrimp, leaving the tails on. Place them on a sheet pan with the olive oil, salt, and pepper and spread them in 1 layer. Roast for 8 to10 minutes, just until pink and firm and cooked through. Set aside to cool.

I chose a new recipe for the appetizer (I can feel my mom cringing over the fact that I'm testing recipes with guests), which was stuffed dates with goat cheese wrapped in basil & prosciutto. Surprisingly I managed okay with this one - but then again, how can you really go wrong with anything stuffed with goat cheese? Tip for the new entertainer like me...make sure you read the whole recipe before you try it. I was ready to pop those dates under the broiler when I read "soak the toothpicks for ten minutes in water prior to use". Okay, don't panic...the dates only needed a few minutes under the broiler anyway, and I had 15 minutes until the girls arrived. Crisis averted, but lesson learned.

After appetizers I did a wedge salad with blue cheese dressing, bacon, and red onion. This must be the simplest salad in the history of salads, but the presentation is so dramatic that the girls were "oohing" and "ahhing" over it. You can bet I'll be sticking this in my recipe arsenal since it's a guaranteed hit with guests. After the salad it was on to the main dish of shrimp & linguini, which was so simple and yet so satisfying. I also think it’s a great option if you're having guests for dinner, and you are not familiar with their eating habits (if they are vegetarians, don't like spicy foods, allergic to nuts, etc). It's a pretty safe bet.

But I think the touch of the evening was the subtle entertaining efforts like creating a game out of the Golden Globe award show. At each of the placements was a printed out list of all the nominees and the girls were asked to mark their predictions. Of course if I had enough time I would have done more with the presentation - really blown it out like Mom would have done. I'm guessing she would have hand-stenciled the Golden Globe trophy on each of the pages and then displayed them in a fake voting ballet, or something nuts like that. But in fact, the simple quiz was perfectly fine for our casual girls’ night. We laughed, sipped our cosmos, and carefully chose our predictions. The evening was a great success - everything from the drinks, to the food, to the entertainment and the conversation. It proved to me that entertaining doesn't have to break the bank. You just need some basic ingredients, creativity, and a well thought-out plan. Oh, and cosmos help too.