Holiday Hostess Gift – Annie Campbell

This holiday season I’ve cooked for a dozen gatherings but attended very few. Luckily, this invitation carried the weight of many parties and filled me with inspiration for the entire month. My very special friend threw a dinner that was put together for Alex’s Lemonade Stand. Suzanne Goin (my culinary idol), Nancy Silverton, April Bloomfield, Giada De Laurentis, Sherry Yard and, drumroll please, Alice Waters all came to her home and prepared our dinner, each serving and presenting a course. The food was, duh, delicious (Alice’s sunchoke and celery root soup with black truffles was the star), the room gorgeous (thanks to Amy’s special touches) and the company of the guests was truly delightful. What I loved the most was the spirit of the evening. We all wandered back and forth from the table to the kitchen to see the chefs’ preparations and to watch them all assisting one another with their dishes. Really a dream come true. What does one bring as a hostess gift for such a once in a lifetime experience? Well I could have driven myself crazy trying to come up with the most perfect of all perfect gifts; instead, I brought my go-to gift: breakfast for the hostess. Granted, this was a slightly tricked up version with Amy packaging the cinnamon maple syrup and granola for me and using her pretty jars for the fig jam and yogurt. Alongside the basket of goodies, I brought a sausage & spinach frittata with oven roasted tomatoes (Christmas colors). Since this party was over the top, so was the basket. But I also like bringing a dozen fresh eggs, great bacon and a loaf of bread for toast. If you want to make one thing, I suggest granola and then put yogurt and honey in jars to accompany it (or do as Amelia did and buy addictive granola from The Granola Project). Depending on your hostess, bloody mary’s or bubbly might be on the menu. Choose your own adventure. Thank you Judith for such a magical evening. One that I will never forget. xx