How to Host a Dinner Party

How to Host a Dinner Party
Author: Corey Mintz
Publisher: House of Anansi
Total Pages: 95
Release: 2013-05-25
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1770892311

A fun, informative guide to hosting the perfect party every time. "Every dinner party experience I’ve had in the last ten years at Corey’s has been incredible. But practice really does make perfect and I can now honestly say there is nowhere I’d rather be in the world than at his table ... I can’t begin to express the relief I felt in reading this book and realizing there was a method to his success." - Sarah Polley, from the introduction We’ve all been there: twenty minutes before guests arrive, and you’re unsure if you’ve got enough wine, or enough chairs, or whether your friend is a vegetarian or a vegan. Hosting a dinner party is hard, but Corey Mintz can help. For his popular Toronto Star column, "Fed," he has presided over 115 dinner parties, every week opening his home to strangers and friends alike in an effort to perfect the craft of hosting. And in How to Host a Dinner Party, he shares everything he’s learned in a hilarious handbook that will appeal to everyone — from those throwing their first dinner party to seasoned entertainers looking to enhance their skills. This book guides readers through everything they need to know about hosting, starting with the golden rule — that the goal of a dinner party is to have fun with our friends, not to show off our cooking skills. It will explain why we like to gather for dinner, when we should host, who we should invite, what we should cook, and how we should cook it. Featuring recipes, anecdotes, expert analysis, and an endless bounty of how-to tips, it is the essential guide to perfecting the art of welcoming people into your home.

How to Be Interesting

How to Be Interesting
Author: Jessica Hagy
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2013-03-19
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0761176861

An inspiring visual guide to a richer life. “If there’s a thinker to steal from, it’s Jessica Hagy.”—Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist and Newspaper Blackout How to Be Interesting is passionate, positive, down-to-earth, and irrepressibly upbeat, combining fresh and pithy life lessons, often just a sentence or two, with deceptively simple diagrams and graphs. Each of the book's more than 100 spreads will nudge readers a little bit further out of their comfort zones and into a place where suddenly everything is possible. It’s about taking chance—but also about taking daily vacations. About being childlike, not childish. It’s about ideas, creativity, risk. It’s about trusting your talents and doing only what you want—but having the courage to get lost and see where the path leads. Because it’s what you don’t know that’s interesting.

The Simple Bites Kitchen

The Simple Bites Kitchen
Author: Aimee Wimbush-Bourque
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2017-10-03
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0735232970

National Winner for Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2017 - Family Books Winner of the 2018 Taste Canada Awards - General Cookbooks, Silver Delicious, wholesome family-friendly recipes from the creator of the award-winning Simple Bites blog Toasty warm in the winter and cool in the summer, Aimée’s comfortable kitchen is a place where the family gathers, cooks together, and celebrates everyday life. In The Simple Bites Kitchen, she brings her love of whole foods to the table and shares heart-warming kitchen stories and recipes that are nutritious, fairly simple to make, and utterly delicious. Aimée knows the challenges that come with feeding a family and tackles them head on by providing lunchbox inspiration, supper solutions and healthy snack options. Aimée’s collection of 100 wholesome recipes draws on her experience as a mom and a seasoned cook and is brimming with fresh ingredients and simple instructions so that you can cook with confidence knowing you’re providing your family with healthy and great-tasting meals. You and your family will enjoy recipes from Overnight Spiced Stollen Swirl Buns and Maple-Roasted Pears with Granola for breakfast, Tequila-Lime Barbecue Chicken and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie for a fresh air feast, garden-inspired recipes like Harvest Corn Chowder and Lentil Cottage Pie with Rutabaga Mash, and family dinner favourites like Roast Chicken with Bay Leaf and Barley and Cranberry-Glazed Turkey Meatloaf with Baked Sweet Potatoes. Filled with beautiful photography, The Simple Bites Kitchen also includes recipes to keep your preserves pantry well-stocked all year, tips, simple tutorials and inspiration and ideas for homespun hospitality.

Everyday Chic

Everyday Chic
Author: Molly Sims
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2017-10-10
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0062439642

The supermodel, television and internet personality, busy mom, and author of the New York Times bestseller Everyday Supermodel shares a new set of tips and tricks for creating comfortable, inviting, organized spaces throughout your home—while making them beautiful and stylish too. Once upon a time, Molly Sims was a single girl who used her oven as a sweater drawer. Today, the model turned home chef, design diva, organizational guru, entertaining expert, and blessed mama uses her stove to whip up fabulous fare for family and friends. While she loves to cook, Molly also loves to entertain, and to make the home she shares with her husband and young children both beautiful and inviting. Juggling a successful career and growing household, Molly had to find solutions that worked for her busy life. In this inspirational guide written in her fun, sophisticated, relaxed girlfriend-to-girlfriend style—and flavored with just a touch of Southern—Molly brings together expert advice and her own insights to help you add that little "extra" to make your everyday life a little better, a little easier, and a little more special. Inside you'll find secrets and real life advice for simplifying, streamlining, and beautifying, including: Kicking clutter to the curb. Applying the accessory rule to your home—removing one piece. Feeding your family without stress. Using the right tools to plan parties like a professional, and tackle easy DIY projects. Prioritizing the positive without getting hung up on the perfect. Filled with lovely and instructive color photos from Molly’s own house, personal anecdotes, insight from Molly’s go-to experts, and easy-to-follow how-tos and lists, Molly’s charming guide will help you create the stylish home and life you want.

Brunch Is Hell

Brunch Is Hell
Author: Rico Gagliano
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2017-12-05
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 0316338966

A call to arms against BRUNCH . . . and a how-to guide for fighting back, from the hosts of the hit podcast and public radio show The Dinner Party Download Society is under threat. The culprit? BRUNCH. Not merely a forum for overpriced eggs, brunch is a leisure-time-squandering hellscape, embodying all that is soul-killing and alienating about modern life. How to fight back? By throwing dinner parties -- the cornerstone of civilized society! Dinner parties -- where friends new and old share food, debate ideas, and boldly build hangovers together. If we revive the fading art of throwing dinner parties the world will be better off, and our country might heal its wounds of endless division, all without having to wait in a 9-hour line to eat toast. To that end, Brunch is Hell takes hesitant hosts through every phase of throwing a great dinner party, from guest list to subpoena. Loaded with wit, celebrity advice, and tongue-in-cheek humor -- plus sincere insights about how humans can be more generous to each other -- Brunch is Hell is a spirited guide to restoring civility, in the bestselling tradition of Adulting, Amy Sedaris' I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, and the Bible.

The Yellow Table

The Yellow Table
Author: Anna Watson Carl
Publisher: Sterling Publishing (NY)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Breakfasts
ISBN: 9781454917656

Something magical happens when people come together to share a meal--and this cookbook, named for the beloved wooden table in Anna Watson Carl 's childhood kitchen, celebrates that joy and conviviality. Featuring delicious seasonal recipes just right for feeding the people you love, it includes everything from Crustless Quiche Lorraine and Pumpkin Spice Pancakes to a Kale Detox Salad, Roasted Vegetable Ratatouille, and Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri. Enjoy snacks like Watermelon, Feta, & Mint Skewers; soups and stews, including Three-Bean Turkey Chili; sandwiches, simple suppers, sweets, and stress-free dinner-party menus. You'll even find plenty of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options--and wine pairings from award-winning sommelier Jean-Luc Le D add the perfect finishing touch.

The Art of Gathering

The Art of Gathering
Author: Priya Parker
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2020-04-14
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1594634939

"Hosts of all kinds, this is a must-read!" --Chris Anderson, owner and curator of TED From the host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart, an exciting new approach to how we gather that will transform the ways we spend our time together—at home, at work, in our communities, and beyond. In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive--which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings--conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp--and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience. The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue--and how you host and attend them.

The Forest Feast

The Forest Feast
Author: Erin Gleeson
Publisher: ABRAMS
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2014-04-15
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 1613126034

This beautifully illustrated vegetarian cookbook features 100 simple yet delicious recipes inspired by the author’s rustic California home. Erin Gleeson made her dream a reality when she left New York City and moved into a tiny cabin in a California forest. Inspired by the natural beauty of her surroundings and the abundance of local produce, she began writing her popular blog, The Forest Feast. This volume collects 100 of Erin’s best vegetarian recipes, most of which call for only three or four ingredients and require very few steps, resulting in dishes that are fresh, wholesome, delicious, and stunning. Among the delightful recipes are eggplant tacos with brie and cilantro, rosemary shortbread, and blackberry negroni. Vibrant photographs, complemented by Erin’s own fanciful watercolor illustrations and hand lettering, showcase the rustic simplicity of the dishes. Part cookbook, part art book, The Forest Feast will be as comfortable in the kitchen as on the coffee table.

Let's Talk about Death (over Dinner)

Let's Talk about Death (over Dinner)
Author: Michael Hebb
Publisher: Da Capo Lifelong Books
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2018-10-02
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 0738235318

For readers of Being Mortal and When Breath Becomes Air, the acclaimed founder of Death over Dinner offers a practical, inspiring guide to life's most difficult yet important conversation. Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime, few are as important as the ones discussing death—and not just the practical considerations, such as DNRs and wills, but what we fear, what we hope, and how we want to be remembered. Yet few of these conversations are actually happening. Inspired by his experience with his own father and countless stories from others who regret not having these conversations, Michael Hebb cofounded Death Over Dinner—an organization that encourages people to pull up a chair, break bread, and really talk about the one thing we all have in common. Death Over Dinner has been one of the most effective end-of-life awareness campaigns to date; in just three years, it has provided the framework and inspiration for more than a hundred thousand dinners focused on having these end-of-life conversations. As Arianna Huffington said, "We are such a fast-food culture, I love the idea of making the dinner last for hours. These are the conversations that will help us to evolve." Let's Talk About Death (over Dinner) offers keen practical advice on how to have these same conversations—not just at the dinner table, but anywhere. There's no one right way to talk about death, but Hebb shares time—and dinner—tested prompts to use as conversation starters, ranging from the spiritual to the practical, from analytical to downright funny and surprising. By transforming the most difficult conversations into an opportunity, they become celebratory and meaningful—ways that not only can change the way we die, but the way we live.

The Merit Birds

The Merit Birds
Author: Kelley Powell
Publisher: Dundurn
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2015-05-02
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1459729331

2015 Dewey Divas Pick 2016 Booklist Top Ten Multicultural Fiction List, Youth Spotlight Cam is finally settling into his new life in Laos when tragedy strikes and he’s wrongfully accused of murder. Eighteen-year-old Cam Scott is angry. He’s angry about his absent dad, he’s angry about being angry, and he’s angry that he has had to give up his Ottawa basketball team to follow his mom to her new job in Vientiane, Laos. However, Cam’s anger begins to melt under the Southeast Asian sun as he finds friendship with his neighbour, Somchai, and gradually falls in love with Nok, who teaches him about building merit, or karma, by doing good deeds, such as purchasing caged “merit birds.” Tragedy strikes and Cam finds himself falsely accused of a crime. His freedom depends on a person he’s never met. A person who knows that the only way to restore his merit is to confess. The Merit Birds blends action, suspense, and humour in a far-off land where things seem so different, yet deep down are so much the same.