Cellar and Silver: Entertaining at Home

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Good food and good company are natural partners. Here are 20 complete
menus, with supporting recipes and wine choices, for the types of
entertaining Canadian families are most likely to do: pizza parties, a
mid-summer barbecue, a Christmas feast, Sunday dinner for the family, an
upscale New Year’s eve supper, and brunch for a crowd.

Each menu is presented with a chatty introduction, a planning and
preparation schedule, recipes, notes to the cook (encouragements,
justifications, reassurances), and wine choices. The wine notes include
choices to accompany each course and always note international and
Canadian options. The recipes are upscale—after all, they’re for
entertaining, not daily fare—but do not go to extremes. Some of the
desserts are fairly elaborate, but nothing a reasonably keen cook
can’t handle.

Readers who enjoy entertaining will welcome this new source of ideas
and inspirations.