The New Year's Eve party invite was billed as "A Finger Food Through Down." The crowd would be a collection of serious NYC foodies. Feeling confident I could hold my own in the culinary contributions department, I pondered a way to pull focus from the accomplished competitors. Eureka! Knowing there would be an abundance of transcendentally scrumptious canapés, my angle would be that oft overlooked looked yet crucially important component: presentation.
Our hosts were Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Bone. Mrs. Bone (Gena) has just published the most talked about book of the season, Mycophilia, her picaresque journey throwing light onto the sometimes shadowy world of fungi and the people who love them.
While not accurate for every situation, "Height equals might" is pretty hard to argue when it comes to eye-catching tabletop decorations. Creating a dramatic backdrop installation for my finger foods — Kugelhopf Surprise and Tonka Macaroons — seemed a good bet to divert attention from the other offerings.
Initially I was leaning towards a towering tumble of sugared fruit, along the lines of that earlier pomegranate pyramid. (How to video here.) Then Steve had another one of his brilliant ideas: Mushrooms!
So into the woods we went, searching out various fungal growths and eruptions. We were able to gather an okay assortment of tree-ear type mushrooms, but the cold of December had diminished what one might find in warmer months.
As SpecD has said before, it's so sensible to keep a couple of different centerpiece forms on hand for special occasions. One of our medium size nail-studded wood cones offered the best proportions for this project.
Obviously New Year's Eve calls for more a bit glamour than the dingy cullings from rotting stumps of the forest floor. So step one was giving the fungi fins a good shellacking with high-shine silver metallic paint. We also worked in in some store-bought dried morels. I know, I know, the extravagance, but we needed them for the contrast in shape and texture. This occasion warranted reckless excess.
Next the open spaces were filled with button mushroom halves and small sparkling rhinestone sprays purchased at the florist's post-Christmas sale (entire bunch $2). I point this out because not all Spectacularly Delicious ingredients are burdened with significant financial commitment.
And there you have it. The phantasmagoric tower of mushrooms fulfilled its mission: the reviews were a mix of incredulity and admiration and amusement. No one missed it, nor missed the opportunity to comment. And isn't that what anyone really wants when they bring something to a potluck supper?
NOTE #1: If you're thinking how nice it might be if the button mushrooms were crusted with sugar, forget it. I tried. The sugar causes the mushrooms to weep water ceaselessly, even after a slow dry in a warm oven.
NOTE #2: While I used non-edible silver paint, resources like Williams Sonoma do sell edible silver paint. However, if you go that route, make SURE all your mushrooms are indeed edible. So no random tree harvesting; buy fresh and dried oyster mushrooms and the like. I point this out b/c more than a few people asked if they could eat it. This was a serious food crowd.
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