The picture doesn’t do it justice. On a cold winter’s evening when the wind chill is dropping the temperature into the middle teens in Central Virginia, what better welcome can you extend than candlelight, polished silver and something delicious cooking in the kitchen? Although we were being entertained in a modest Cape Cod, the dining room felt like one in an English Country House. Lighting, attention to small details and plenty of cocktails are always a winning combination.

The menu included Chicken Breasts in Morel Sauce (a Barefoot Contessa staple — our hostess swears by her), broccoli cooked with Virginia Ham, fresh baked molten brownies and plenty of pinot noir and champagne. I love the way that our host and hostess dress the table. The key here is creating an old world look with estate silver pheasants purchased at an antique shop, chargers that draw attention to the polished wood of the dining table and wedding silver. It works very well and doesn’t require too much effort. Especially if you use your silver daily, it stays polished longer.

But to truly guarantee a successful dinner party all you really need to remember is to put together a group of really fun people.

There were six of us for dinner, old friends who still dress for the occasion. This is a group who considers it mandatory to be entertaining when being entertained. The evening included an impromptu rendition of “Mammy” a la Al Jolson (after I accidentally managed to smudge burnt candle wick across my face) and four of us trying to learn a yoga move that had us on our backs with our feet over our heads. Dinner and a show, who could ask for anything more?

Broccoli cooked with Virginia Ham.
I head of broccoli cut up into easy serving size
a handful of ham chips or country ham
shallots or onion chopped

Wine Suggestion: Serve with a Chianti Classico or Pinot Noir.

As I’ve pointed out before, one of the greatest luxuries is taking time for yourself. And what more decadent or better way to do that than to take a proper lunch break. And by that I mean one not ruled by the clock. This will be difficult for those of you used to eating at your desks or toiling under the half-hour lunch break rule. Even an hour may not be long enough. so I recommend that you begin on a weekend or holiday.

This whole idea will take some getting used to. Like meditation, you may find yourself actively trying to derail your luncheon with thoughts of what has been left undone or what happened at yesterday’s staff meeting.

Ignore yourself.

Better yet, order a 1/2 carafe of wine and concentrate on the illicit pleasures of a calming drink during lunch for God’s sake! Now would be a good time to contemplate the menu, either the restaurant’s or the ideas that are stirred when you look into your fridge. Is it a salade niçoise kind of day? (Drink a good rosé.) A ham and cheese on crusty bread (very light red like a pinot noir from Camelot, and small green salad…..)? A simple omlette with herbs, salad and crusty bread? Plowman’s Lunch (beer)? Tarragon Chicken Salad (Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc)? Moules Frites (Sancerre)?

The possibilities are endless, but the sheer joy of making a good, light lunch last for a hour or more over a small glass of wine is a finite pleasure that you shouldn’t deny yourself. Especially if you can dine outdoors.

With the right company, luncheon may segue right into cocktails before dinner…. What an elegant end to a perfect day.

My Grandmother could probably make great coffee from tree bark if she had to. She uses a percolator that my Dad was going to throw out sometime in the mid-sixties. (He reverted to his roots and made chicory coffee by pouring the ground coffee into the bottom of a saucepan, filling it with water and dropping in an egg shell “to keep the grounds down.” You could stand a spoon up in it, but you only needed one cup a day.) Either way, you had time to sit and chat while the coffee was brewing. I wonder if the art of conversation is beginning to suffer in our rushed world as we order coffee to go and gulp it in the car?

Well what about my coffee? I once had a roommate hold a pot of coffee I had made up to the light. “You should at least be able to see a little red glow through the pot,” he said. “But you do only need one cup of it.” Like father… . Pete made the coffee for the next two and a half years.

Twenty years later I’m still working on making a cup as good as the local barista at the Starbucks. But following Mr. Mcgregor’s dictum from “Black Hawk Down” I chucked my old blade style coffee grinder and asked for a Krups GVX2 burr grinder for Christmas (like the one in the photo above.) Wow! What a difference. Before the GVX2 came along, I was ready to hurl the combination coffee and espresso maker out the window. Now I select the number of cups I want to make and the size of the grind depending on the brewing method. Slower brewing in the drip coffee maker or the French press requires a larger grind. Espresso is ground to dust. And the coffee is good! Now I have time to sit and chat with Ms. E or my in-laws over a cup or two. And that is a far more elegant start to the daily grind.