Part Four: Parties For Pleasure (Allow me to jump ahead for a moment)

The 12-to-12 Holiday Party
or, 12-to-12 A Clocktail Party

On August 18 2010 I decided to throw my own version of the 12-to-12 party. I called it “12 to 12: A Clocktail Party” and I invited some very lovely ladies to join me. There was an appetizer and a cocktail served on the hour from noon until midnight.

Why am I writing about it months later you ask? And no, it is not because my hangover finally went away. Let’s just say life intervened a touch and I am situated in another city now. Also, I was pretty lazy after such a day of extravagance and I have failed to regain my steam, until now. To write about such an event seems completely daunting, so I have been procrastinating. You kittens know what that’s like, I am sure.

Where to begin? How about at Noon?

12:00pm: Shrimp Cocktail served with a Classic Champagne Cocktail

The day started out pretty tame. I had invited about 40 ladies to come by for as much of the day as they liked, knowing full well there would be a few of my hedonistic darlings that would spend the whole time with me while only a few, classier dames, would drop in to wet their whistle and check out the scene. Both scenarios were fine with me.

I had gone all out for this, even renting a classic tux for my husband to wear and fulfill his role as chef and butler. I was the bartender, he was the foodsmith. The place looked great, despite the fact there was a massive forest fire nearby and the air was thicker than pea soup outside. It was summer; we had to keep the windows open, so some of that smoke was leaking in.

Ladies started to arrive; did I mention it was an all female event? They all put on their loveliest attire. Some brought wonderful gifts (those ones would get high points in any etiquette competition), and all brought wonderful company. They seemed excited for the fun day ahead, even though I threatened them with parlour games.

1:00pm: Roquefort and Wine Canapés served with a Classic Champagne Cocktail

More ladies were arriving. The room was filled with laughter and cocktail glasses. I had recently purchased my very first bar, I named her “Barbara,” and the girls were checking her out. At this point, there were still enough chairs to fit us all nicely around the coffee table. Cameras were on standby. I actually gave my camera to a friend to be in charge of making sure the food and drinks were captured, as I would be running around in my Heffneresque red silk robe getting the goods together for when the clock struck “drink.”

2:00pm: Deviled Egg Dip served with a Champagne Manhattan

Deviled egg dip and Manhattan

Yes, another Champagne drink to get us going. I wanted to start with lighter drinks to ease us into the heavier “gin hours” of the evening. Also, I should mention that all of the foods, with one exception, were made from scratch using the recipes in the book. My husband and I did the prep the night before, but the majority was done right before serving. I love my husband, such a sport, and such a great butler.

3:00pm: Gorgonzola Cream and Crackers served with a Manhattan

This was a crowd pleaser. The cheese was in ball formation and who doesn’t love that? We had to call in for more crackers. I found it to be a great pairing with the sweetness of the Manhattan. The gals positioned on the couch in front of it were fortunate.

Cheese Ball!

I was getting a pretty good grin on at this hour. It could have been because of the extra kick from my homemade brandied cherries in those Manhattans. Regardless, I was feeling great. There were more ladies arriving and I was greeting everyone at the door to take coats and offer up libations.

Fortunately, I had more space on the patio and some girls had taken spots out there with the smoke. But as smoky as it was, it was still pretty nice being out there on the 6^th floor looking at the obscured mountains.

4:00pm: Shrimp Beignets served with a Bronx

Beignets

These beignets were my favourite appetizer of the day. Served hot and crispy with a sprinkling of coarse salt and a cold Bronx to wash it down. It was lovely.

Attendance had doubled since the start of the day. Girls that had planned to leave decided to just stay, while another had to take her buzz and go work for a couple hours before coming back to cap off the night. I was happy people where enjoying themselves. And if they didn’t, I couldn’t tell.

5:00pm: Cheddar and Onion Canapés served with a Cherry Sling

Cheddar and Onion Canapes

Finally we busted out some games. We decided to try our hand at group “Taboo.” As you can imagine, it went off the rails a bit. More cameras were out now, lots of posing on the patio, with the bar, with the food, and with each other. It was a gas. Speaking of which, all of a sudden there was a gas mask. So there was posing with that as well!

Seeing the mask on the girls made it all feel a bit like an apocalyptic party. Like we were ignoring the boringness of the zombified world below us and just drinking and laughing upstairs until we had to finally leave, at midnight. Until then, we kept tinking glasses, eating and sharing stories.

6:00pm: Hot Gruyere and Anchovy Canapés served with a Gimlet

The feeble attempts to play “Taboo” continued. I was watching to see how anchovies would go off with this crowd.

I was also resisting my urges to top off drinks. When I see an empty glass, I want to fill it. However, given the length of this event, I didn’t want to get people sloshed to the point of them not enjoying themselves. And, I kept thinking of Mario’s advice, “quality over quantity.” I had to remind myself of those 3 words while I was shopping for this event. I resisted the cheaper versions of things so many times in order to get less of something better. Surely my guests would all rather have a smaller portion of something delicious than lots of something merely “edible”? So I offered water or juice where needed. Most of them were able to nurse a drink for the hour, so it was not an issue.

7:00pm: Clam and Stout Canapés Au Gratin served with a Gibson

This was my favourite hour. The Gibson is my favourite cocktail and I felt it paired splendidly with the clam.

Things were getting louder in the apartment. We had definitely moved away from the social death circle. There were smaller groups all over the apartment now. It looked and felt like a swinging bachelor pad…mission accomplished. Everything from this point was just gravy.

8:00pm: Eggplant Caviar and Blinis served with a Martini

This was the hour with the most guests in attendance. It was such a lovely group of women. Though, some of my favourites were not there due to prior commitments. Nonetheless, I still had that stupid grin on my face.

I had stumbled out to the balcony at this point, I think, to see what was going on. I also went to clean up some broken glass from a knocked over cocktail glass. In my classiness of drinking for 8 hours, I simply swept the glass over the railing. I felt just awful about this when I was told about it. I either blocked it out of my memory or they lied to me about it.  I doubt Mario would approve. Or maybe he was a lampshade kind of guy and he would?

9:00pm: Anchovy Piroshki served with a Bee’s Knees

At this point some of the gals had to retreat into the night while other gals were just getting there. Other gals though, they were just getting started. One cutie pie brought more than one dress to change into for the night! Fantastic!

And still my butler toiled away in the kitchen, pumping out delicious hot snacks for me and my ladies. Did I mention he was keeping up with us in cocktails? I made sure to make him one in every batch.

10:00pm: Camembert Toast Malaga served with Playboy’s Hot Buttered Rum

This hot rum is just awful. The recipe was off in so many ways. It was barely drinkable, which was evident by the amount left over. But most of the gals were adventurous and at least tasted it. The alcohol content was so high they may as well have downed a bottle of rum. Perhaps this is why Heff has so many women around him all the time, they are too drunk to move.

11:00pm: Chocolate Cake served with Chocolate Rum

This was the only food not prepared by us and I was kicking myself for not just making it. It was dry and too sweet. And the drink, the drink looked and tasted like Scope. It was grotesque.

We all knew this was the final hour and it showed. Last minute pictures were being taken, plans for cabs and walking were being arranged, and my butler looked wiped. I didn’t even want to think about the mess we just made.

I think I did the 12 to 12 party justice. It wasn’t a holiday party like Mario suggests, but it was twelve hours with a different offering each hour. And I followed a lot of the tips I had learned in the book so far. I wish I had taken more pictures.

I was sad to see it end. If heaven or hell was something I believed in, and either was like this night I just had, sign me up. Oh, did I mention this was a Wednesday?