This is where I will be enjoying a before and after dinner Martini, would you like to join me….

We have been spending as much time as possible outside, morning noon and night.  I had an idea in my head of designing a table setting outside in our garden.  It was gong to be so elegant, placed out in our French Allee garden.  There are still gorgeous soft gigantic – lilac -white clematis climbing over the arbors and at dusk when the spotlights came on, they would softly illuminate the English Iron trellis in the background.  I wanted it to be very very elegant.  I was doing this for a special dinner for my sweet Mr. Bunny.  We were busy on and off Friday and Saturday with friends, family and parties and I wanted a little special time with my sweetheart.  ( of course our 3 sons would be swimming nearby, very loudly, well into the night as Oliver has informed us, he loves his moonlight swim,  but after nearly 17 years of parenthood one can really tune out the noise LOL) Well it rained on my parade and my romantic garden dinner wasn’t going to happen.  We have covered areas outside but not in this particular garden, no worries I kept it inside.  Actually I loved how it turned out.  It was gorgeous and romantic even if a certain little 5 year old boy was zipping by indoors all around us on his bicycle!  Hey my old antique floors have survived many years of wear and tear and I am not about to forbid this fun indoor activity. My toes are still recovering as are my brand new Missoni shoes that he kept rolling over.

While I was cooking I enjoyed watching a PBS documentary on Rudolph Nureyev.  It made the time fly by.  It was funny Oliver and my oldest son Sam didn’t seem to find it boring but Mr. Bunny quickly went into another room and watched the Yankees and my 13 year old son Teddy aka Oscar Madison said he never saw anything so painfully boring in his life!  I drag him to the ballet every Summer in Saratoga and to Manhattan when I have time but sadly he still does not care for it.

When I went into our Billiard Room and saw the gold, black lacquer, Tiffany boxes piled high, French antique pieces, flowers, fur Swarovski pillow and animal prints, I thought Rudolph would have enjoyed dining with us.  Read more on the late Rudolph Nureyev here. It wasn’t planned this way but it was interesting how it all fit together so well! With the exception of Caviar!  Darn I forgot the Caviar!!

We have a variety of fruit trees in our backyard many came with the house and many we have added over the years.  The entire room was perfumed in the most glorious peach scent.  I used all unscented candles to let their delicious scent float through the room.

I served a chicken dish with a mascarpone sauce and grilled peaches.  We had a lot of fresh dishes from the garden such as oven roasted tomatoes, a corn salad with ricatta salata.  If only I had seen the documentary on Nureyev the day before I would have served caviar.  I did have a wondeful pate that a friend gave me from France so I guess that was close enough?? Different but still elegant.

I really love my black lacquer Parsons Table

And the divine color of Tiffany boxes.

The original part of our home with 200 year old beams and stone walls. This is where we have a movie projector and screen and my husbands billiard table, we spend a lot of time in here, although more so in the Fall and Winter months. ( The screen is hidden and does not interfere with the ‘design’ of the room)  We often watch movies out near our pool on a giant screen, it is so much fun, but today it is raining on and off and I don’t want everything to get wet and ruined.

I love the elegance of the gold and black paired with the crystal.  I enjoyed using a fresh centerpiece of peaches I felt it brought it down to an earthy elegant feel, brought in the bounty of our garden, perfumed the air with sweetness and of course was perfect for adding to our chicken and peach entree.  I just love this color combination.  The orchids give it the chicness that we love. ( The large glass bowl can be found at the Conran shop, The crystal and gold stemware at ABC in Manhattan and then small glasses at cb2. We always mix high and low, old and knew, elegant and rustic.

The chargers we used are by Kim Seybert, the flatware is Colin Cowie, The gold coral napkins are by Kim Seybert, The petite French benches were purchased by my company on a buying trip 10 years ago at Marche aux Puces and we decided to keep them!  So glad we did.

We chilled vodka and made vodka martinis, by this time a few friends stopped by on their way home and they enjoyed a few Sunday evening martinis with us. The more the merrier a quiet house to me is a sad house, I love people around me!

Salt and pepper shakers are by Michael Arams ( I am pretty sure, there is a possiblilty they are from Siecle but I don’t thinks so, I just can’t remember??)

Antique chandeliers hanging from 200 year old beamed ceilings makes me very very happy.  The Swarovski fur pillow on the gold chair is from Vivre.  The book on the table ‘So Chic’ is one of my favorite design books. Our dining room table is always filled with piles and piles of design books.  When we have large sit down dinners the table gets opened up for entertaining.  It was purchased in France. This room is spacious and is perfect for all kinds of entertaining from casual to elegant.  It is where I host our ‘Fight Night’ boxing parties.  Mr. Bunny and I are huge boxing fans, we love it!  When there is a fight on we have friends over, watch the fight on the big screen and eat fantastically fattening fun food and drink beer all night, it is a blast!!

Swarovski fur Pillow vivre

We will post pictures of our weekend menu and recipes later this week (hopefully) We will be off on the wine trail soon, more of that to come….

I will be linking to Tablescape Thursdays and Foodie Fridays later this week.  I would like to thank both Susan and Gollum for hosting these extraordinary events filled with creative ideas!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010.
Tags: chicken and peaches, Cooking with peaches, Elegant Table Settings, gardens, jo Malone, Kim Seybert, Michael Aram, Parsons Table, peaches, Rudolph Nureyev, Swarovski, Tiffany, Vivre
Posted in La Cuisine, La Cuisine - Appetizers, La Cuisine - Desserts, La Cuisine - Entrees, Party Girl