So i went from daily blog to weekly blog, whatcanisay, Miami is too much of too much, and all the time. we gave our first dinner party last night, no soft launch but straight to a-list, esther, susie, walid, iran, michele, tom, victoria and eric. five power goddesses, four  masters of the miami universe. my last cooking event was the brueghel picnic at morgans so my bar was high.  i planned four small courses for ten, but  found that DJ tiesto is not a dinner party cooker/giver , at least not in his miami candyland bachelor pad, although the candyland bachelor pad cupboards hold a large array of cocktail and champagne glasses, a silver icebucket and drawers full of nacho chips. I was in need of plates, thirtysix plates. i had  six plates,  groovy oversized designer plates the size of UFO’s, i considered “sharing”. the oval glass boontje table holds nine people uncomfortably, but only six of those designer plates. off to target i went. list: plates, salad plates, entree plates, dessert plates, tablecloth, masher, handmixer (can you believe tiesto didn’t have a mixer), candles, napkins, vase. once there i added  a microwave, you’d think right? but no there wasn’t one. my sense of accomplishment somewhat diminished when i got home to find that one guest had requested to add a friend ( aka social miami goddess, so i wasn’t gonna say she should stay home) only i was short again, do the math, i was four short. solution: i would wrap/serve the salad course in muslin. off to linda’s fabrics downtown miami, woohoo, havana cubana candyland! frills and froofs,  lame, lace, tule dipped in gold glitter, i felt so northeast boring looking for plain muslin, so i got two yards of white and silver lace to wrap my greens, tied with a  blackandwhite plaid tafetta ribbon, project runway here i come.

miami beach idiosyncrasy: no fresh fish. no real fishmongers within reasonable range. yes ocean, fishingboats, water everywhere but fish purchase choices are Publix – smell the rank fish section as you pass the soft drink isle, or epicure – twenty dollars for a pound of salmon.

call me crazy extrvagant but i called samaki in port jervis, where simon, the owner, called me crazy and extravagant by implication, and ordered a side of their kippered salmon, my most popular milford dinner party dish. hey i couldn’t afford to experiment 100%, a-list, first miami dinner, which arrived by fedex the next morning. so here’s the menu: 1. polenta (with mascarpone, peppers, spring onions and parmesan) with mixed not as wild as i hoped mushrooms. 2. salad wrapped in cuban party lace (lettuce, arugula, watercress, beets steamed in orange juice and ginger, orange segments, pecans).3. kippered salmon over creamed parsnips, with a side of aged scotch.4. nociella icecream, hot chocolate sauce, crumbled almond cookie with real mint tea. they liked it. they really really liked it. phew. and they had fun. well actually alastair and i had fun. it was the first dinner we’ve ever done where  all our guests know each other better, way better, and way longer than we do. so we sat back, yes alastair sat back, listened, laughed to outrageous anecdotes of miami social craziness and secured an invitation to THE beach halloween pageant where alastair has to dress  in drag and walk down a runway to be judged.

and so his i-wanna-be-americas-next-top-model dream will finally come true..