Last evening, I had a night off from cooking. The Delicious Mrs. E. commandeered my stovetop and set to work producing a wonderful meal. That gave me time to actually hang around the barroom mixing martinis for our guests. Which is also the reason that there are no pictures of the plated food…. after the second round of martinis, the camera was quickly forgotten. So please excuse the stock photo of stuffed sole.

Mrs. E, who has the memory of an elephant, filled me in on the details of her triumphant “Stuffed Flounder Chesapeake.”

(To feed four guests)

1 1/2 lbs. of flounder fillets
1 tub of pre-prepared frozen spinach and crab dip, thawed.
paprika
salt and pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper.

Spray a baking dish with butter spray. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Sprinkle both sides of fillets with the salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Lay one layer of fillets in the bottom of the baking dish. Top with a tablespoon or so of the spinach/crab dip. Lay another fillet over top of each of the bottom pieces of fish making “sandwiches.” Dust the tops with paprika. Bake for about 20 minutes….

You could do this dish with just about any fish; and if you’ve got the time and inclination, you could roll the fillets and secure them with a tooth pick to give you a beautiful meal like the one pictured above. A butter sauce (same spices as you’ve used with the fish) underneath completes the presentation.

We served roasted asparagus (she couldn’t keep me completely out of the kitchen….) and a simple salad with a vinaigrette. Dessert was fresh baked mini chocolate chip cookies (from the package — break apart the little squares, bake. Couldn’t be much easier or foolproof.) The wine was “Three Buck Chuck” Chardonnay (Charles Shaw from Trader Joe’s in Alexandria, VA.)

P.S. Our friends just called to say how much they enjoyed dinner and that they both woke up this morning thinking about the main course. I think it might be on regular rotation from here on out. Cheers!

Just in time for the weekend, I thought that I’d add a little levity to your party plans. You may remember a popular party game called “Pictionary” that was big in the 80s. It even made it into a scene from “When Harry Met Sally.” (” Oh, but ‘Baby Fish Mouth’ is sweeping the nation?”) Is it just me or does it seem that some of the fun associated with a drinks party has gone out of the window with the all too real dangers of DUI, excessive fines and the like? These days, noone seems much in the mood for poking a little fun at himself after a well-lubricated evening.

Years ago in the 1960s, when my parents and I were stationed in The Canal Zone, they instituted a party tradition. At the end of the night, as guests were making their goodbyes and getting ready to toddle home, my folks would produce “The Pig Book.” Usually a stylishly tooled and leather bound notebook of blank pages, The Pig Book stood on an end table by the front door. Each guest would be lead to the book and blindfolded. A pencil or pen would be put into his hand and the instruction to “draw a pig” was given. The results, even these many years later make me laugh so hard I cry. The inscriptions and signatures under the sketches are unsteady, but always good-humoured and usually thank my parents for a wonderful party, dinner or whatever. Represented in the pages are diplomats, foreign officers, collegues and friends. It was a different era, to be sure. One that conjures up that great party scene in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Today, each slender volume stands as a testament to evenings well-spent. And as a tradition, it beats those party pictures that will soon wind up on Facebook.

This weekend, try making a few great memories the old fashioned way — with pen, ink and tongue planted firmly in cheek.

“Those characters always wore dark-blue suits.”
— Cary Grant on Aristotle Onassis and Lew Wasserstein. Quoted in a GQ profile from 1986.*

I write a lot about being appropriately dressed. But it occurs to me that I’ve never really defined what I consider to be “appropriate.” So I thought that I would begin a series of articles about wardrobe basics for men. (I have my ideas about women’s clothing, but I haven’t really done the research yet.) I’ll begin with the blue suit.

Think elegance and chances are you’ll wind up at Cary Grant. If you’re like me, you always picture him in black tie or in that indestructable grey suit from North By Northwest. But as the above quote shows, Mr. Grant was always sartorially savvy — looking to see what looked good on whom. And later pictures show him classically suited in dark-blue. Ian Fleming’s James Bond, like the author, preferred blue suits. In The Man With the Golden Gun, Bond’s “dark-blue, single-breasted suit, white shirt, thin black knitted silk tie, black casuals [we'd say 'loafers']” are referred to as his “usual rig.” You could do worse than to follow either lead when the situation calls for subtle, yet, commandingly elegant attire.

The rules are relatively simple when it comes to color — dress to bring attention to your face. Me? I’m dark-haired, dark-eyed and distressingly white according to the more golden-toned Mrs. E. who hails from South America. A dark suit and light shirt frame my face, for better or for worse.

A well-cut and impeccably tailored dark-blue suit will be appropriate in almost any situation. Depending on your level of confidence, it can even hold its own at a black tie optional party. Especially a solid midnight-blue, double-breasted (6 buttons 2, please) worn with a white, French cuff, spread collar shirt, silver-y tie, and startched white linen pocket square.

Two-button, three-button, three-piece, single or double-breasted, it’s up to you. The blue suit is about as versatile as it gets. Start with a solid blue that goes from the office to an evening out and diversify into stripes, birdseye or nailhead later. You’ll be ready for a wedding, funeral, diplomatic reception or car chase.

*I have this issue, but it’s been misplaced. I ran across the reference in Richard Torregrossa’s excellent book

Cary Grant: a Celebration of Style

Sorry about the picture, please ignore the silly styling and button your DBs. It’s hard to find a good photo of a great blue suit. I suppose they’re considered too plain for most designers.