Valentine's Dinner-2-14-2016
Table Decoration
Tonight we are celebration Valentine's day with our friends! Hoa's sister is also in town so I took the occasion to prepare a nice sit down dinner for 14 people.
Since this is quite a big job for a seat down dinner I have to really plan ahead. The menu is carefully planned at least a week ahead, the table is set up 3 days ahead, menu and name tags are printed out 2 days ahead, and flowers are arranged a day before the "Big Day" leaving me time to concentrate on cooking on the day of party.
This year I wanted to use pink and red as the main color for my tablescape.
Last year I also hosted a Dinner on Valentine so this year I had to re-think how to decorate the table.
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Lots of hearts to create the Valentine atmosphere.
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Pink camellia |
Hearts galore... |
Let's not forget candles to create a cozy atmosphere...
Partial view of the table
Red napkins with embroidered hearts, individual name tag labels are printed...
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Pink heart centerpiece on the table. |
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It took me a while to come up with the design for the menu. I gave 3 choices for Hoa to pick and he likes this one the best.
Here is the menu for tonight!
The menu was kept secret as I wanted to surprise our guests. The only person who knew what I was only to serve was Phuc as I asked him to pair the wine for us.
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Hanh and Tuan were in Napa and they stopped by Bouchon to buy Epi baguette for us- Really delicious!
Precious epi baguette...
Wine pairing from Phuc
Hoa and Phuc discussed about what to serve and they agreed it should be Calfornia wine. We wanted Thierry and Mai to have a chance to taste good California wine since they are both from France.
The group... cheers!
Left: Hoa, Thierry, Minh, loan, Tuan and Maily
In the center, Huyen and Phuc, our sommelier extraordinaire
Right: Tuan (partially covered), Hanh, Trung, Ha, Mai and I
Ha and Mai
Tuan, Hanh, Trung and Ha
Thierry (looks really happy) and Minh
Loan and Minh
Next... Dinner
