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Planning is one of my favorite things. I love to know in advance what’s happening two days from now and I am beyond thrilled when I know what’s happening in two months.
But I also love to be spontaneous. Last-minute drinks? Yes! A surprise weekend getaway? Sign me up!
My holy grail of planning is looking at my calendar to the empty spaces where I can plan spontaneity.
No really. I do not consider that an oxymoron. (I hear this duality is a thing with Geminis.)
I suspect that Nia Terezakis shares this proclivity. The New Orleans resident and dermatologist has made a book of entertaining ideas and recipes, and a key point in her introduction and the book in general is featuring recipes that come together quickly and that can be made ahead and frozen in the expectation of unexpected guests.
I was introduced to Terezakis by her goddaughter, Allison Stoker, a San Antonio dermatologist who reached out to me after reading about the challenges of my Gwyneth Paltrow-inspired dinner party and told me about her godmother’s book, “Artful Feast: An Elegant Lifestyle for Dining.”
“I love to entertain and share recipes,” she said during a recent visit to San Antonio to see Stoker’s parents, Bob and Tina Jones, with whom she has been friends since her medical school days in the 1960s. (Bob is now retired from orthopedics.)
“The goal of ‘Artful Feast’ is to help you embrace this attitude of celebrating food as an art form to be shared with those we love,” Terezakis wrote in the dedication at the beginning of the book. “To show you that elegant dining doesn’t have to mean elaborate recipes, and that spur-of-the-moment entertaining can be just as gracious as more formal occasions. How often do you run into friends and want to say, ‘Stop by tonight for dinner’?”
Well, sign me up.
The biggest help in being able to throw together a dinner party quickly is to have a pantry and fridge already stocked with staples.
If you have vinegar and oil, you can make dressing, and with added help from mustard or yogurt and some spices, you can make really good dressing.
Pasta and boxes of rice can be the basis for any number of things, from side dishes to one-pot meals when mixed with fresh vegetable and protein.
Eggs — poach them and serve over veggies and you have a meal. Bake or scramble them with some veggies and maybe more protein, and you have a brunch dish.
Just because a meal is simple doesn’t mean serving it can’t be gracious and generous. Light some candles, play some good music, pour some wine (you always have that on hand, right?) and even a simple meal becomes an experience.
One of Terezakis’ go-to last-minute saves is Feta Corn Grits. She is lucky enough in New Orleans to buy pans of the grits already made, which she then doctors up with additional ingredients to take the grits from side to entree. She freezes the pans and just thaws and bakes them when she entertains last-minute brunch guests. (Click here for the recipe.)
Keeping things simple is a philosophy that Terezakis has passed on to her goddaughter. Both Stoker and her godmother rely on simple tools in their dermatology practices.
“A razor blade and liquid nitrogen. It doesn’t have to be high-tech. I keep things simple and patients don’t need a long procedure or two many stitches,” Terezakis said. (Can I just say how intimidating it is to interview two dermatologists at once?)
Both also like having neat, calm offices. “People notice the details,” Stoker said.
But Terezakis has taken the idea of entertaining to the level of art, and she says that’s how her Greek parents raised her and her four siblings in Montgomery, Ala.
“We were raised like little Europeans in Alabama,” she said. “My mother would drive us to concert, and that made me really appreciate classical music.”
Art appreciation and collection was just part of her soul, she said, and in college, she majored first in art — her father told her, “I’m not paying for you to go to playschool.” — and then art education so she could teach.
“I just had a love of the arts,” she said.
And as her book makes clear, food is part of the arts.
For more information and to buy Terezakis’ book, $80 plus shipping, go to artfulfeastcookbook.com.
Readers: What pantry staples do you make sure to keep stocked for last-minute meals. Email me the details, a photo and your name and daytime number and you could be in my column.
espicer@express-news.net
Twitter: @Spiced1
Instagram: @spiceoflife_en
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