Mad Men Party- July 3rd, 2010

"Cocktails at 6pm, Dinner at 7:30", the classic dinner party set-up, has gone by the wayside over the years. Well, we decided to bring it back Saturday night with a Mad Men Midcentury Modern dinner party in the West Village. The dress was retro, the food Americana, the drinks stiff.

Thankfully, the gin and vodka arrived with some of the first guests, Reese and Shannon, our newest members and friends of original EWI crew mate, Erin Madigan. I started everyone off with some dirty vodka martini's. I have been wary of gin for years, but tonight I decided to be brave and make the second round with the New Amsterdam gin they had purchased. Let me tell you, that was a damn fine drink! Throughout the evening, we proceeded to utterly destroy the entire bottle of gin, most of the vodka, two jars of green olives and a nice bit of vermouth. Somehow the spirit of the 50's and 60's was with us and none of us ended up stumblingly drunk!

Cocktail hour would not be complete without hors d'oeuvres, and it was Erin and Rajani who provided them. Erin made us a classic: cucumber finger sandwiches. She whipped together butter and cream cheese for a lighter spread and they were fantastic. Rajani did a twist on mini beef wellingtons, with a puff pastry filled with a spiced tomato and cheese mixture. (Forgive me if my description is not entirely accurate, and correct me in the comments!) They were just spicy enough and quite addictive.

Sultry swing was playing in the background, conversation was as lively as ever, and I made sure no one had an empty cocktail glass. Therefore it isn't too surprising that, in typical EWI fashion, "Cocktail Hour" lasted quite a bit longer than an hour!

Mike and Sabrina arrived a bit later, bearing a lovely bottle of wine and some chocolate truffles for dessert. We had a few more drinks and decided it was time to get the mains going before we got any drunker!

In keeping with the theme, all the dishes were full of butter and trans-fats, that sort of thing was the order of the day, and we were merely going for authenticity!

Jo made an utterly decadent squash casserole. Despite its healthy sounding name, the dish consisted of a bit of squash and onion, white bread, cheese, bacon, sour cream and butter. Yeah, it was amazing. A heart attack waiting to happen, but so worth it!

To accompany this porky side, I made pan-seared steaks in a red wine butter sauce. The sirloins were not the best choice for this cooking method, but the sauce lived-up to it's decadent name!

Sahi proved that there doesn't have to be anything healthy about vegetarianism! She made a truffled macaroni and cheese and the most amazing cayenne pepper spiced, scalloped yams. These potatoes were spicy and sweet and drenched in fat. Completely delicious!

Not the healthiest, nor the most beautiful plate of food we have ever produced, but it was delicious and the perfect antidote for the dirty martini's we were all consuming!

We continued to eat and drink and drink and drink, into the evening. We eventually moved on to the after dinner treats: Erin's ambrosia salad and Mike's truffles, though we did not end up with proper after dinner drinks. We were all too happy sipping on our martini's! Next time perhaps we will go the extra mile and end with scotch and cigars.

All in all, it was another lovely evening, filled with strong drinks, fatty food and stellar conversation. We ate with impunity, drank with reckless abandon and somehow still kept it classy!