It's more than a little strange. The day after I bought Amy Sedaris's Hospitality book, ostensibly for my sister, a mysterious package arrived on my doorstep. From Katy! I ripped off the chic black and white paper to find a book about entertaining with elegance.
I know a few things about refined entertaining. For instance, always serve salted peanuts. Keep plenty of lime juice on hand to squirt into your guests' beer. Provide a colorful pyramid of foam coolies on the counter that your guests can use to keep their bottles cold.
But I've also learned some new things from this book. You know about my love/hate relationship with bugs. When I first opened the book, my eye went straight to INSECTS in the table of contents. I quickly flipped to page 197, and learned: Thanks to the invention of DDT and other modern insecticides, it is no longer complicated and unaesthetic to keep one's home free from bugs. You should take particular pains to spray the guest room thoroughly before receiving guests...It is also a good idea always to leave an aerosol can of insecticide in the room.
And you know how I love to smell things. All kinds of things. They aren't my favorite smells, but I even like the smell of tar and the smell of skunk. So after INSECTS, I turned straight to the chapter on ODORS and learned: The atmosphere of your living room should, of course, smell fresh and clean...If necessary, you can spray the room with a deodorant aerosol bomb, particularly among the folds of heavy curtains.
Time to say good night. I leave you with Katy's description of her latest concoction: Vodka martini with a sliver (and I mean sliver) of fresh habanero pepper tonight. Good, really good. The peppery flavor emerges at the bottom of the martini. This is all new to me. I can't even remember why I selected the pepper plant, I've never tasted a habanero until tonight. A little bit, maybe one fourth of an inch square on my tongue for a second, and then I snatched it out---I didn't bite, much less swallow. Very fragrant, and somehow good--almost nutty. Odd. What am I going to do with all those peppers? Any ideas?
Yes, Katy. Have a party and invite me.
