The Return of the Cocktail Hour?

Credit is frozen, the stock market is seesawing, and Americans are staying home in droves. The New York Times reports a “precipitous decline in consumer spending.” And an old notion is resurfacing.

“Consumers are cocooning, hunkering down,”according to the Consumer Electronics Association. They report a 40% surge in sales of flat-panel TVs over the last year.

The same is true of all things martini-related, says Jerry “Martini Guy” Gonto, co-owner of www.MartiniArt.com.

“People may be staying home, but they sure aren’t giving up their martinis,” says Gonto. “We’re seeing strong, healthy sales – a sign that Americans are hanging onto a few pleasures, like the martini, as we head into a holiday season that promises to be tight.”

A martini made at home is luxury at a lean price. “You can easily serve up elegant martinis at home for less than $2 each,” he notes. “And the feel of that cold martini glass in your hand just says that things are going to be all right.”

These home cocktail parties recall the days when FDR mixed martinis for guests during when he termed the “children’s hour” before dinner, Gonto adds.

Gonto offers these tips for cocktail parties:

• Set the scene: Set up a station equipped with a cocktail shaker, rows of martini glasses, assorted olives, fun napkins and plates. Let guests bring an appetizer. “People always ask. Let them. They feel part of the action that way,” Gonto says.

• Tune in the mood: Make it ring-a-ding-ding Rat Pack music, Andrews Sisters, or martini lounge sounds. “Have tunes going when guests arrive,” Gonto said. “People leave their worries at the doorstep.”

• Chill. “A frosty glass takes a martini from sleek to sublime,” Gonto says.

To help people swing into the holidays, Gonto offers this “Martini-toddy for the body”:

The Bing-tini Martini

2 dashes sweet vermouth
½ ounce apple brandy
1 ounce white rum
1 teaspoon freshly grated apple
1 curl of apple peel

Add the brandy and rum to cocktail shaker ½ full of cracked ice. Shake vigorously.
Add the grated apple to the bottom of a freezing martini glass. Strain martini cocktail into the glass and drizzle in the sweet vermouth. Top with the apple peel.

Sit back with your friends and enjoy what you have.

Turkey Day Without the Drama

Does the thought of making Thanksgiving dinner leave your stomach turning? (Mind you, this is BEFORE Aunt Edna’s deviled eggs.)

Here are some tips to take the sting out of your Thanksgiving dinner:

1. Make your menu: Think about every single item — from celery sticks to tea — that you want to serve and write them down on one page.

2. Turn your menu into a shopping list: Try to buy all the nonperishable items as soon as you can.

3. Turn your menu into three to-do lists: Some of the cooking you can do a week or more in advance, some a couple of days before Thanksgiving and some on the day itself.

In advance: Make pie crust dough, make and freeze stock.

A day or two before: Peel and cut potatoes and hold them in a bowl of water in the fridge, put out your bread or corn bread to get stale for stuffing, make bread dough, trim beans, make cranberry sauce, make pie filling, dice celery and onions for stuffing.

Thanksgiving Day: Boil and mash the potatoes, bake the pies, bake the bread, assemble the stuffing and cook that bird.

4. Do your turkey math: It goes like this … 20 minutes per pound for a stuffed bird, 15 minutes per pound for an unstuffed one. So if you have dual ovens and guests coming at 6 p.m., no problem. You’ll put your 16-pound bird in to roast just past noon. If you only have a single oven for baking pies and casseroles, then you’ll need to adjust your timing. But figure this piece out early, and you won’t panic.

5. Elect a logistics czar: The, ahem, less culinarily minded household member should figure out table arrangements, chairs and place settings.

6. Declutter: The decorative ceramic chicken on your countertop and the shelf of lost condiments in your fridge have to go.

7. Enjoy Chinese food night: On the Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving, finish your shopping for perishable items, plan to make it a food-prep night and order in some Chinese or a pizza.

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Entertaining on a Dollar Store Budget

Is the recession leaving you light in the wallet this holiday season?

Culinary instructor Anne Legg offers some tips on how to entertain economically:

• Use spicy Mexican seasoning on jicama slices to create your own dip with sour cream. ”It’s always better to make them yourself,” Legg says.

• The dollar store is also a good source for items such as chips, Funyuns (original and ersatz), fresh corn and flour tortillas, disposable salt and pepper grinders, staples such as canned tomatoes and stock, soft drinks, bottled water, nuts and trail mixes, Duncan Hines baking mixes (cupcakes, small-batch brownies and cookies), and assorted spices and seasonings (Be sure to watch the expiration dates.)

• Most dollar stores also stock disposable foil bakeware, pretty good wine glasses (at $1 apiece, you won’t cry if you break one, Legg says), disposable paper goods (including tablecloths), plastic cutlery and, best of all, plastic serving dishes designed to look like cut glass.

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