The one-year mark is as much a milestone for you as for your incipient walker, talker, soon-to-be-toddler. As he or she teeters on the brink of real personhood, you, too, settle comfortably—even confidently—into the role of parent. In addition to a celebration of your child's birth, think of the event as a toast to your rebirth as an adult. (In other words, enjoy while you can the fact that your tiny beloved has no idea what the fuss is all about.) Start by inviting a few good friends and family and finding an outfit that accentuates your assets. The rest is a matter of forgoing the formal dinner party—its numerous courses and separate cooking times—in favor of a bountiful spread that you can order online and lay out all at once, freeing you to mingle with your guests. Here's a plan for creating the scrumptious look of a Dutch still life, without so much as turning on the stove.
The No-Cook Dinner
Take your cues from previous dinner parties, where you stuffed yourself on delicious appetizers and had to undo your top button before sitting down to the main meal. Give your guests what they really want—ripe cheese, charcuterie, and fruit.
Conjure a Tuscan farmhouse feeling with an abundance of savories and seasonal fruits: salami, bresaola, pancetta, prosciutto, dried red plums and nectarines, muscat grapes, pears, quince paste, Dijon mustard, caperberries, cornichons, French bread, and a variety of cheeses.
Best One-Stop Sites
Dean & DeLuca: Head here for a single indulgence or a small feast. Best for: Chocolate cake, $40 to $48; truffled goose foie gras, $80; and "Get Together" party packages, $50 to $85, that include cheese, crackers, and charcuterie, plus a maple cutting board to serve on.
Zingermans.com: Operated by a beloved gourmet mart in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this folksy site boasts a wide selection and has helpful buying guides throughout. Best for: Obscure olive oils and fresh-baked breads.
Setting the Scene
Arrange everything on marble floor tiles placed in the center of the table. These one-foot-square Home Depot tiles, usually found in bathrooms, can be cleverly used to create an expandable surface for your feast. Bonus: They wipe clean easily and stack neatly when the night is over.
Present food casually and artfully (it is okay to leave the wax paper on the prosciutto). Precisely lined up and stacked, food begins to look, well, a little uptight.
Think about flow. Put the plates at the beginning of the table, and flatware and napkins at the end, so guests can concentrate on satisfying their cravings rather than balancing their forks while they serve themselves.
Choosing the Cheese
The ideal cheese board is all about variety. Mix subtle with stinky, goat's milk with cow's, French with American. Make sure all the categories (mild, soft, semisoft, hard, and blue) are represented so there's something to please everyone's palate. Murray's Cheese expert Julie McAskin, who oversees the New York City cheese store's workshops, recommends buying three ounces of each cheese per person. What should you try this time of year? She suggests:
- Burrata fresh Italian cow's milk
- Chatham Mutton Buttons American sheep's milk
- Garrotxa semifirm Spanish goat's milk
- Tomme de L'Ariege washed-rind French goat's milk
- Shropshire Blue blue-veined English cow's milk
- Aged Appenzeller firm Swiss cow's milk
- Pecorino Ginepro hard Italian sheep's milk
The online outpost of this legendary New York City shop sells 250 cheeses and all the gourmet fixin's. It would be overwhelming if it weren't so easy to navigate (for example, you can search cheeses by country or wine pairing). Best for: Artisanal cheeses from France and the United States.
