Good Housekeeping, 1955: Hostessing, Part 1

When You're Cook and Hostess Too:

No one--least of all the hostess--enjoys a dinner when the hostess is constantly jumping up from the table to replenish this dish or bring on that. Yet many of us must be cook, waitress, and hostess, too. Below we suggest numerous ways to handle a dinner AND at the same time cut down on steps, dishes, time.

1. Plan dinners with not more than two or three easy-to serve courses. It's correct, smart.
2. Eliminate last-minute chores. Choose dishes that can be completely cooked in advance or can be made ready for cooking early in day and kept in refrigerator.
3. Choose dishes that can wait if dinner is delayed or that can be cooked at last minute.
4. Instead of serving the first course at the table, serve it in the living room--fruit, tomato, clam, or vegetable juice; or a hot soup served in mugs or punch glasses. While guests sip, you can slip out of the room and put main course on table.
5. Or serve first course with main course: Place glass of fruit, tomato, clam or vegetable juice to right of each water glass.
6. Choose course-in one main dishes...a salad that can be tossed in a bowl...rather than ...arranged on individual plates...or even crisp raw...vegetables.

Most of the above ideas we've heard before. I DID find it interesting that the "First Course" of a soup or food drink was considered important.

That made me start to think:

You know how we're always trying to get extra vegetables into our diets? I think this just may be a good solution! A "first course" of a glass of vegetable or tomato juice with a veggie platter set out while finishing the last preparations for the meal will kick start some nutrition and keep those hungry eyes and voices out of the kitchen.

I will be incorporating this!