How to Cook for a Dinner Party Without Ignoring Your Guests

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/fashion/mens-style/dinner-party-cooking-small-kitchen.html

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I live in a modest house in the country, just outside Olympia, Wash. I love to entertain, especially for dinner, but I have a small (seriously small) kitchen that creates complications and adds to my stress. What can I do to make the most of my limited space? It’s actually laid out fairly well, but there’s not a lot of counter space. I’ve done the easy stuff — new, efficient stove with double oven, logical organization of cooking ingredients, pans and dishes, and I have a modest but well-stocked pantry.

Life is about perspective. You’re stressed because your kitchen is small and you love to entertain. But you have a “house.” You have a “double oven.” You have a “pantry.” So you’re doing all right, at least from the point of view of the couple out in Brooklyn with the stove set up on the wall opposite their bed, next to the slop sink and the toaster oven resting on a table made of cinder blocks and plywood. They have friends over for supper, and someone’s going to eat with a plate on her lap.

That said, I think you should get one of those long cutting boards that can fit over your sink. It’s a work station where there was no work station before. I think you should do the same with a cutting board set over a couple of the burners on the stove. These are both easily cleared aside when the time comes to cook, or clean. I think you should look at your walls to see if there isn’t room on them to hang pans or utensils. I think you should look to the ceiling for the same reason. And could you get a little kitchen island into the space, maybe one on wheels? It might live in your pantry when you’re not cooking or entertaining.

I live in an old farmhouse about 60 miles outside New York. My husband and I love to invite groups of friends up from the city for large, long meals. I adore planning and preparing such feasts but find that I keep running into the same problem — I make way too much food. My fear of not having enough drives me to overcompensate. What is the best way to plan accurately for large groups?

The math is pretty simple. You want about a handful of everything you’re cooking for each person invited: that’s around four or five ounces of protein per person, less if you’re serving a stew, and around a half cup of cooked grains and another half cup of vegetables. (You can increase that amount if you’re serving a salad, since those leaves don’t have the density of, say, a big bowl of mashed potatoes.) You’ll look at that and freak, maybe, given your condition. But tamp that fear down. Your new mantra: There will be enough. If you want to take out insurance, make sure you have plenty of bread on hand, and butter, and maybe some cheese, to round out the meal at its end. And if you have leftovers? French toast for breakfast the next day!

What is the best dinner dish to make for a dinner party so that you don’t miss out socializing with your guests when they arrive? I’d like to serve something elegant.

I don’t think you can go wrong with the designer Steven Stolman’s recipe for chicken Provençal, which I learned from him a couple of years ago and which has been in steady dinner-party rotation ever since. Serve with a big green salad and some good bread to mop up the sauce. The cooking is largely unattended if you set yourself up ahead of time, leaving plenty of time to socialize while it cooks. Enjoy.