Valentine’s Day for a Crowd

Lonely hearts just got less lonely with an at-home Valentine’s Night gathering for you and your friends.

Feasting in the comfort of your own home with a group of your nearest and dearest sounds so much less stressful than traipsing through the cold and slush to a dimly-lit, overcrowded, Prix-Fixe Valentine’s Day “Special” Restaurant.

So, this Valentine’s day, do it up a little differently!  Invite your best friends in the world over to your home and save romance for another day.  While toasting to trials and terrors of love past and embracing friends new and old, our dream Valentine’s Day is centered around making this day a happy memory that lasts far longer than last year’s warm champagne and fizzled romance.

Here’s how we see it:

Mixing it Up with Friends

Start the party with a Do It Yourself “Muddling Bar”! At Entertaining Company, we always provide the recipes for your guests to follow, the freshly cut seasonal fruit, the fresh herbs (what says love more than the smell of fresh mint and lavender, I ask!?) juicy-fresh fruit juices, the decorative presentation and the equipment.  You, the host, merely provide the booze. (Champagne, vodka, tequila, the most complicated, yet wonderful of love triangles, no!?)

Have a Cocktail, I Mixed and Muddled Just for You, Lovie…

Love and Red Sauce

When we think of loving life to the max, it’s impossible not to envision an ITALIAN way of life. Who do you know that doesn’t love the robust, life-affirming cuisine of artisanal cheese, rosy red tomatoes, spicy basil, handmade pasta and red vino??  Check Out MISIA Indifferentemente from the Film Passione, to get you in the mood…

With this amore for Italian in mind, how about starting your Valentine’s celebration by sharing and tasting with our “communal by definition” antipasto?  Think Pecorino cheese drizzled with honey and smokey, artisanal salumi on a homemade olive cracker and with a dollop of spicy-sweet mustardo?

And then, nothing reflects the romance of spending the evening with the loves of your life: your very best friends, like truffles. At Entertaining Company, we love to put our Chef on “stage,” with this next course: Pasta laced with libidinous truffles.  Mezzelune stuffed with parmigiano ponduta light cream sauce, shaved black truffles and shaved asparagus. Bring on the oxytocin.

After the richness of all of those truffles and cream, guest “come to,” with a refreshing salad of blood orange citrus, watercress and frizzled leeks.  Food coma averted!

And it wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without a decadent dessert of rich, rich, rich chocolate.  We love the idea that all of your friends build this amazing dessert — Cioccolato e Mascarpone Mille Foglie — together.  Our Entertaining Company chefs have found that if they present the ingredients: layers of decadent puff pastry, chocolate cream and mascarpone cheese…that it’s the most fun in the world for your guests to do the layering. The dessert then takes a quick 20 minutes through the oven — just enough time to fill the air with chocolatey warmth — and then it’s time to tuck into a big bowl of love….together.

The comfort of your own home and amazing, luxurious food…your most fabulous friends and a cocktail or three.  You’re on your way to celebrating the most extraordinary Valentine’s Day ever.  Move over romance….there is a new Valentine’s Day/Night in store…